Chettinad, India, is synonymous with richly spiced dishes. The Chettinad families live along the coast in the Tamil Nadu state, near Chennai. The South Bay has America’s highest density of restaurants serving these southern Indian specialties. Avoiding them due to unfamiliarity would be a mistake.

Originally, the people of Chettinad turned to the sea to make their fortunes. Their trading ships plied the South Indian sea, moving across the spice routes. Over the generations, they flourished, and many of the large mansions along the Tamil Nadu coast date from the heyday of the spice trade.

The Chettinad spice mixtures aren’t as fiery as the spices in English Indian food, such as phal and vindaloo curries. What they lack in immediate firepower they make up in meaty follow-through. Holding the “gravy” from Chettinad chicken in your mouth evokes an experience of dominant star anise and chile flavors and layer on layer of heat.

Dishes of this region come in two dominant styles: dry, in which chicken or fish is sauteed or fried purely in spices; and gravy, which is typically translated as curry. Chicken and fish predominate.

A dish I have come to love is nethili fry (also meen, which is simply “fish” and can be listed as “Kerala style” or “karavadu”). Nethili is a red spice crust over a plate of anchovies. This red spice mixture is the same as Chicken 65, but without the clever name.

After a few bites of nethili fry, you may never eat Chicken 65 again. Instead of a bland substrate like chicken, anchovies provide a counterpoint and amplifier for the spice mixture.

Three components work together: the crunch of the fish bones, the musky and gamy taste of anchovies, and the red Chettinad spice mixture. The dish is simply fascinating and addictive, like that friend who appears unexpectedly on a Saturday afternoon. With a joke, an offhand gesture and a self-deprecating smile, a Saturday afternoon turns into a Saturday evening, and you wonder where the time has gone.

The best tactic at these restaurants is to inquire about the specials and work methodically through the menu from top to bottom in multiple visits.

The first few chicken dishes are Chettinad chicken, working through to pepper fry. The commonly served bread is parotta, which is similar to paratha but flakier and greasier, almost identical to roti from Malaysia. A trip to any of these restaurants is a trip out of America, into a land where every dish is unusual.

The South Bay’s strong South Indian community supports several restaurants specializing in Chettinad food and spice mixtures. The density of Chettinad restaurants is unmatched anywhere else in America.

Aacha Appakadi in Santa Clara, Sri Muniyand Vilas in Sunnyvale, Anjappar Chettinad in Milpitas and Spice Hut (several South Bay locations) are the leading restaurants, although you can find some dishes (chile chicken) at any number of South Bay Indian restaurants.

Anjappar Chettinad is part of a small chain with branches in Manhattan, northern New Jersey and India. The atmosphere of the restaurant is hard to describe. The room is an undecorated box with a grid of formica tables. On the plus side, full restaurants with lively crowds but such little atmosphere typically offer excellent food. The nethili fry is first rate. No alcohol is served. The lime soda is undrinkably tart—better is the sweet lime soda. Both gravy and dry options are available for the Chettinad dishes.

Aacha Appakadi is a very small restaurant with a poor (but undeserved) rating at several online sources that keeps the crowds down. The restaurant is clearly a converted Mexican eatery, with adobe walls and fast food formica benches.

With only about 15 tables, there can be a long wait after 8pm.

Besides a good meen fry special, the appams are not to be missed. An appam is like a mixture between a San Francisco chowder bowl and Ethopian injeera. A bowl of thinly cooked dosalike bread is served with a bowl of curry that you pour into the center. Rip the sides off the bowl, dip and eventually work down to the curry-soaked bottom layer.

In all the restaurants I sampled, Indo-Americans didn’t just predominate, they were the only customers. The broad citizenry of Silicon Valley has not yet discovered this incredible subsection of South Indian cuisine. Southern Indians know Chettinad has rich, deep and unusual spices. Discover them for yourself.

Aacha Appakadi
3045 El Camino Real, Santa Clara. 408.243.2778.

Sri Muniyand Vilas
3064 El Camino Real, Sunnyvale. 408.244.7915.

Anjappar Chettinad
465 Barber Lane, Milpitas. 408.435.5500.

Spice Hut
Several South Bay locations