THE coconut milk gassis, spicy pepper masalas and tangy raw mango curries of Bangalore notwithstanding, there is a whole new demand for chilli hot Andhra food here that is being taken care of by a few successful and popular restaurants.

Right at the top are Nagarjuna, Bheema�s and Gongura. You must visit them next time you are in Bangalore. I would not recommend any of them for their ambience, because they are simple, plantain-leaf family restaurants. But their food is worth licking your fingers for. It is ethnic Nellore food, as exciting in its appeal to the palate as it is in its sophisticated blending of tastes.

Andhra food gets its special flavour from two ingredients: tamarind and hot chillies. Tamarind is grown all over the South, but there is a variety in Bangalore itself that is preferred by the Nellore food specialists. It is a red tamarind, the juices of which help digest the rich, hot and spicy Andhra food. The chilli is the koraivikaram, a flaming variety grown in Guntur, which is the hottest in Andhra cuisine. It puts the bite into the food and brings the tears into your eyes.

This is a cuisine of flavoured vegetable pulaos and spicy biryanis, pepper chickens and fried meats, with the menus in all the three Andhra restaurants and the ingredients used in the food being almost identical. What might be a shade different is the level of pungency between them, but there�s no telling which restaurant�s cuisine is hotter than the others. There is not much for the vegetarian in any of these Andhra restaurants, though the cusine itself is known for its use of yam, carrot, okra, brinjal, jackfruit, bottle gourd and banana flower.

And that�s because the vegetarians are served �meals�, a thali system, with there being no a la carte menu for veggies. Not that there is great choice for the non-vegetarian. Chicken, mutton and fish. But in chilli fries, roasts and masalas, that are as different from each other as Nellore food is from Hyderabadi. And there is the yellow-orange wet Andhra mutton biryani that is recommended at all the restaurants. Passengers travelling by executive class on the night flights out of Bangalore, pick up a parcel from Gongura which is outside the airport and reject the airline food.

I will mention only one speciality of Nagarjuna, Bheema�s and Gongura that is common to them and all Andhra restaurants of the world. The Chicken 65. It is perhaps the most famous, if not popular, Andhra dish of all. The 65 is meant to denote the age of the chicken, as in 65 days. At this age, the chicken weighs approximately 700 grams and is exceptionally tender. It is a dry dish, marinated in Andhra spices, with a lot of chilli and pepper, naturally, served as a starter with drinks.