This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

During the pandemic, I spent a lot of time eating through the Golden Mile. The strip of Eglinton Avenue East from Victoria Park to Birchmount seems to be in a constant state of dining flux. It feels like there are new restaurants opening every week, in freshly minted plazas reshaping the once industrial Scarborough neighbourhood ahead of the LRT line launch.

There is a booming population of newcomer Bangladeshis and Indians near the Golden Mile, as you make your way south to the eastern end of the Danforth. I live nearby, so the allure of restaurants that specialize in various styles of cooking from the subcontinent was a huge appeal, especially during times when we weren’t able to have a meal at my parents’ home.

In the winter of 2020, I stumbled upon Minerva Tiffins, offering a rare presentation of homestyle South Indian cooking, a menu that is entirely vegetarian and vegan friendly.

“What we make here is typically how we eat at home,” said Natasha Reddy, who with husband Ajay opened Minerva Tiffins in January 2020 because they couldn’t find the Telugu cooking of their home city of Hyderabad.

At Minerva Tiffins I found comfort in dishes that were prepared the way a mom or aunt would make them at home. A plate of ven pongal, for instance, a breakfast common in households in parts of South India where rice and mung daal is cooked with cashews and other nuts, cumin and an array of other spices. A warm porridge that will brighten even the most sullen mornings.

At the time, it was probably the hardest restaurant to locate in the commercial district, tucked away in an empty food court in one of the newer plazas on Lebovic Avenue. Two years later, the plaza outside is dotted with hookah bars, Indian cafés, and sweets shops.

There is a vibe in this general area unlike in any other part of town, where people enjoy Indian street food and sip on elaborately decorated chai drinks while congregating in the parking lots, playing music well into the night.

This is why Ajay and Natasha Reddy wanted to keep their business in the area. “The food court was a great opportunity for us to launch our business, but we really want to be able to entertain guests,” said Ajay.

After months of construction and delays, Minerva Tiffins opened in a new location across the street on July 17. Its new home is in the Eglinton Town Centre, in a space that previously housed a pub. It is a considerable upgrade, “we’re at 96 seats indoors now, with a decent size patio” said Ajay.

Telugu cuisine is broad and impossible to define succinctly. It is found throughout South Indian states, is generally known for bold, sour and spicy flavours, and highlights some of the best examples of vegetarian Indian preparation methods.

A unique item on the menu, pesarattu, is something I have never seen before at restaurants. It is similar to a dosa, common in the southeastern coastal region of Andhra Pradesh, where whole green gram is used to make a viridescent crepe that is stuffed with a very fine layer of cooked semolina wheat. It is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

The menu is extensive, it is a mix of familiar dishes like dosas (lentil crepes fried on a tawa, often stuffed with spices) paired with rare dishes that you’d only find in a South Indian home.

During the weekend, the dosas are a big draw. Families will drive in from all corners of the GTA for plates of the fermented rice crepe. There are a few variations on the menu, the most popular being the karam masala dosa.

Natasha’s batter goes through a day of fermentation before it’s thinly ladled onto a hot griddle, smeared with a wet spice paste (karam) and soft mashed potatoes. It’s folded and tucked when the crepe is golden brown.

There are also some new items on the menu, notably the podi dosa — where a large lentil crepe is smeared with a generous coating of podi, a.k.a. gunpowder, a secret blend of eight spices. “Like all our other spices, we make the podi in-house.”

The ubiquitous podi, crucial in every Indian household pantry, changes from family to family. Natasha’s has a pronounced cumin note that wafts up when you first tear into the dosa. The crepe is served with four dips; peanut chutney, ginger and peanut chutney, a tangy and herby tomato chutney, and chunky sambar so deeply flavoured and sublime that some guests order it as a soup on the side.

“It should feel like an explosion of flavours in your mouth. Everything spicy and salty at once,” said Natasha.

During a recent lunch meal, after a few plates of idly (steamed lentil and rice cakes that are garnished with peanut chutney and karam podi), and sambar rice (steamed rice that is cooked like risotto with a vegetable, then loaded with ghee and spices), my dining companion commented that he “completely forgot that it was all vegetarian.”

“We didn’t plan it that way, but that is the highlight of eating South Indian food,” said Ajay.

To cool off from the spices and savoury preparations, get the gulabjamun. The iconic Indian dessert is in prime form here, made in-house so the fried dough balls are soft and pillowy with a caramelized skin. Ask for it with a dollop of ice cream, a perfect union of hot and cold.

Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com