The
menu.

Whole green-gram crepe, crisped on a cast-iron tawa, with a ginger-cumin chutney and a drizzle of sesame oil.

Fermented rice-and-urad dumplings, deep-fried until lace-edged, served with gunpowder podi and a spoon of slow-set ghee.

Long green chilies stuffed with tamarind-onion masala, batter-fried and slit open at the table.

Toasted lentil and chili powder, served with steamed idlis and a small jug of ghee — pour generously.

Hand-shaped urad doughnuts, fried to order, drowned in a brothy drumstick sambar.

Our breakfast classic — the green-gram crepe stuffed with a tempered semolina upma. House gunpowder on the side.

Today's catch in a tamarind-and-gongura gravy, finished with curry leaf and fenugreek. Ask for the fish of the day.

Prawns tossed dry with curry leaves, mustard seeds and a coastal red-chili masala — almost a snack, eaten with rice and ghee.

Hilsa from the Godavari delta, slow-cooked in clay with tamarind, allspice and palm jaggery. Available June through August only.

Sun-dried prawn fry with caramelised onions and curry leaf — pungent, salt-edged, ancestral.

Pomfret fillets, marinated in chili-garlic-coriander masala, shallow-fried until edges crisp.

Prawns folded into a slow-cooked chickpea-flour pithala, finished with chopped coriander and lemon.

Andhra coastal chicken fry — tempered with curry leaf, mustard and Guntur chili. Eat with rice; do not waste the masala.

Country chicken in a Telangana gravy of roasted poppy, copra and red chilies — the long-cook curry, served on the bone.

Slow-braised goat in sorrel leaves, fenugreek and dried red chili — the Telangana classic. The kitchen's signature.

Charcoal-roasted chicken folded into spiced rice, with brown onion, mint and fried cashews.

Mutton in a thick coriander-and-coconut masala — semi-dry, almost a chutney; eat with bagara annam.

Prawns chargrilled over a sigri, basted with a chili-garlic masala. Served with a wedge of lemon and onion rings.

Toor dal cooked with sorrel leaves until silken, tempered with garlic, mustard and crushed dried chili.

Smoked aubergines, pounded with green coriander, raw garlic and roasted peanut; tempered with curry leaf.

Okra in a tamarind-and-jaggery broth, finished with fried curry leaves. Sweet-sour-spicy in the proper Telugu order.

A bowl of horsegram broth, slow-reduced to a glossy mahogany — Krishna delta restorative, taken hot with ragi balls.

Potato curry with mustard temper and a finish of fresh coriander — the Sunday breakfast standard, perfected.

Ridge gourd cooked down with vine-ripened tomato, jaggery and a Guntur-chili finish.

Aged basmati layered with marinated mutton, kewra, mint, brown onion — sealed under dough, slow-fired on charcoal. The standard.

The same method, made with marinated chicken on the bone. Served with mirchi-ka-salan and burani raita.

Short-grain seeraga samba rice, slow-cooked with mutton, a small mountain of brown onion, and a tamarind-shallot raita.

Fragrant rice tempered with whole spices and ghee — the quiet partner to almost any curry on this menu.

Hand-rolled finger-millet balls, served warm with a country-chicken curry. The Rayalaseema farmer's lunch.

Cold-tempered rice in a raw-mango broth with green chili and onion. A summer-table tradition.

Nineteen vessels: rice, pappu, sambar, three curries, pulihora, vepudu, gongura pachadi, avakaya, karam podi with ghee, bobbatlu, payasam, vada, buttermilk. The whole feast.

The festival table — adds ariselu, sakinalu, pulagam, pappannam, and a small clay pot of fresh chakkera-pongali.

Six curries, podi, rice, sambar, pulihora, vada, payasam. A complete vegetarian table — no shortcuts.

All of the above, with the addition of kodi vepudu, fish pulusu and mutton iguru.

Raw mango, mustard, fenugreek and red chili — sealed in oil, aged through the Abu Dhabi summer.

Sorrel leaves pounded with garlic, sesame, red chili — bright, tart, and a little fierce.

Boneless fish pickle, country-style — slow-aged in mustard oil and garlic.

A chili-garlic podi made for hot rice and a generous spoon of ghee. Hotter than it looks.

Toasted toor lentils, dried chili and sesame — the breakfast podi, made for idli and dosa.

Coconut, gunpowder and curry leaf — the elegant podi, for when the chili-garlic feels too direct.

A flatbread stuffed with coconut and palm jaggery, brushed with warm ghee and served folded.

The paper sweet — rice-starch films layered with powdered jaggery and ghee. Atreyapuram, brought to Abu Dhabi.

Rice-and-jaggery rounds, deep-fried in ghee until lace-edged, finished with toasted sesame.

Roasted gram-flour laddoo, set slowly with palm jaggery and ghee. Keeps well, travels better.

Steamed colostrum custard with palm jaggery and cardamom — a country dessert, rare to find.

Slow-cooked rice pudding with cashews, saffron and ghee — the temple-offering version.