/FOOD&DRINK
OUT of humble beginnings, some of the best things are born - and so it is with Amma’s Canteen. The Chorlton cafe’s Keralanborn owner Saju Ravindran brought just $100 and a love of cooking with him when he arrived in England in 2003.
A classically-trained chef, he had worked in India’s top hotels before moving here at a week’s notice when a last minute job offer came his way, following a stint cooking in the US and on cruise ships.
Eventually settling in Manchester, Saju grafted for years in high street restaurants including Loch Fyne, Est Est Est and Las Iguanas before finally opening his own place last year.
Amma’s Canteen is a suitably modest spot, serving up the south Indian home cookery passed down through Saju’s family; ‘amma’ meaning mother.
“The recipes are from my mum, my wife’s mum, all my friends’ mums. We believe our mum is the most important person in our lives. Our philosophy is mum first, then dad, then teacher, then God,” he tells me, quoting the Sanskrit adage ‘matha, pitha, guru, deivam.’
Fittingly, the cafe is a family affair, run by Saju, his wife and their teenage daughter, who helps out at weekends.
Its folksy wooden frontage beckons from an otherwise stark strip of Barlow Moor Road, opposite Southern Cemetery. Inside, it’s functional but welcoming with basic furnishings, colourful artwork and cutlery stashed in tin cans on the tables.
The menu revolves around street snacks like karuveppilai eral (£6.75), giant, juicy prawns crusted in a thick, spiced lentil batter that gives a satisfying, salty crunch, and chicken 65 (£6.55), a fiery, fried chicken bar snack from Chennai that laughs in the face of any curry house pakora (although it’s got strong competition from Chaat Cart’s version for a place in my heart).
Stuffed kozhukattai (£5.75) are a standout: silky, supple little dim sum pockets crimped full of coconutty carrots and peas and topped with ‘poor man’s dip,’ a potently smoky chilli and shallot relish.
Vegetarians will eat very well here. The cauliflower bezule (£5.95) is another simple stunner: a plate of crispy florets doused in a tangy, spiced yoghurt sauce though not as hot as the menu and waiting staff warn - with a quenching yoghurt and okra dip on the side.
A dish of baby squid (£6.75), flash-fried with peppers, chilli, garlic and spring onions is the only bum note. The squid has probably seen better days and sits sweating in a strangely flavourless, oily broth. After a few exploratory prods we leave it largely untouched, and it’s taken off the bill without having to ask.
The drinks list is a bit of a missed opportunity too; the obligatory Kingfisher or Peroni and a perfunctory wine list can’t quite match the imagination of the food menu.
Back to that, and the milagu kozhi with kal dosa (£12.95) - one of a handful of ‘from the pot’ main courses- more than makes up for any missteps; a Chettinad dish of impossibly tender chicken, simmered in a gently warming black pepper-spiced broth.
There’s an enormous, golden rice pancake to scoop it all up, spongy and bubbled like a pikelet at the edges and irresistibly, fingerglisteningly crisp in the middle.
It’s a homely, heartening dish; exactly what Saju wants to give people at Amma’s Canteen.
“When I was looking at opening somewhere I wanted to eat, I found in the UK there’s not much Indian home food,” he says.
“This is just like the menu inside our house. If somebody comes to my house it’s what I like to cook for them.”
His friends must be knocking his door down for dishes like this; short of an invitation round, the rest of us will have to content ourselves with Amma’s.