It's The Bunny, Honey!

The old "military hotel", ie one that served non-veg food, used to be an institution of Chennai. It got its name, presumably, from the belief that while ordinary folks could be vegetarian, military men needed the animal proteins to pump up their martial spirit. Many of them have since morphed into fashionable ‘Chettinad restaurants’. Ponnuswamy’s is a good example.

Starting life in the mid ’50s as a humble mom-and-pop military mess, it acquired a team of Chettinad cooks along the way, and today enjoys a cult following. Its clientele has apparently included everybody from Rajnikanth to Mukul Kesavan, and even the great MGR. We suggest the basic non-veg meal—rice, with mutton, chicken and fish curries, along with curd, pickle and pappadum, served on a banana leaf. Then, from the sampler of specialities that they bring around for your inspection, you can order exotica like rabbit, pigeon, quail and shark. All very peppery, and delicious. We felt guilty about tucking into the rabbit, though—especially since they’ve got a pair of those large bunny rabbit-shaped waste-bins, sitting up and holding up their paws to you, in an unintended display of black humour.