It's a little amusing to hear restaurant food described as “home-made” but, of course, one understands what Chef Ethem Aydemir means. His efforts to grow some exotic herbs to flavour the food served at Azulia (GRT Grand, Chennai) saw them drooping and dying in the city's infamous heat, but a lot of the ingredients are imported from the Mediterranean region for an authentic taste and much of the food, including the breads and sausages, is made from scratch.

Chef Aydemir hails from a family of chefs in Turkey, but has spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe working for some of the world's biggest hotel brands. It's easy to feel sated with the array of starters he offers, but the stomach has its own compartments for each course, and adjusts. The menu has expanded to include food from Israel, Egypt, Malta and the South of France — and at nearly 100 pages, it is intended to serve as a coffee-table book on the region and its cuisines.

We start with the Haydari (from Greece, Cyprus, Turkey), which looks like hung curd with a splash of chilli powder and oil on it but is actually soft cheese blended with garlic, and flavoured with paprika and mint. The Saksuka (Turkey), a relish of eggplant, potato, mushroom, capsicum and onions with garlic-tomato sauce, tastes good by itself as well as with a piece of kuboos , a bread commonly eaten in West Asia. The Badami Peynir , Turkish-style cheese balls rolled in flaked almonds, and served with an almond and basil pesto sauce is good-looking and mild. The Karides Sarma (Turkey) — fat prawns fried in pastry — is to be eaten with a dipping sauce.

Make sure you say it's a Mediterranean restaurant, not a Turkish one, cautions Chef Aydemir, but it's easy to see why one could make that mistake. Not that I'm complaining, for how often does one get to taste so much Turkish food in Chennai? He also serves us a thin-crust Moroccan pizza spiced with za'tar , the condiment of dried herbs and spices used extensively in West Asia, and gevurdagi salad — rocket leaves tossed with cucumbers, pomegranate and walnuts.

Platters of the main course elicit a groan but all heaviness is lightened once we dig in; my companion likes the manti (Turkey, Syria) — ravioli filled with lamb and onions, served with garlic yoghurt, but I prefer the Italian risotto delicat , with yellow pumpkin and leeks. The fesulye , a Moroccan bean stew, is served with bulgur pilaf . There is also a vegetarian version with double beans. In a tomato base with cubes of potato, it's full of familiar flavours. The prawn casserole, in a creamy tomato sauce finished off with some grilled gruyere, is rich and heavy, but order it only if you want to make a safe choice.

We taste some sorbets too. The litchi flavour is a startling, bright blue ball of ice. For dessert, there is a moist baklava (“new recipe, old dessert”) and ‘chocolate volcano', a sweet that drips thick, luscious chocolate sauce once it meets the spoon. I wouldn't order the Fruit Romanoff , which is essentially fruit salad with ice-cream. My friend likes the Gateau Fromage , cheesecake spiked with orange zest and Cointreau . I would, however, still go with the Aish-al-Saraya , a banana and ricotta cheese affair, which has never failed to wow me ever since Azulia opened its doors a few years ago.

Note: A meal with a starter, main course and dessert for two will cost Rs 2,000-2,500.

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