New Delhi, Oct. 28: Marinated a little longer and not over-fried, Kerala House's version of "beef" fry and "beef" curry were back at its staff-managed Samridhi Canteen today, but more aptly renamed as "meat fry" and "meat curry".

The state mission resembled a polling booth: Rapid Action Force at the gates and private security guards at the canteen reception, with communist politicians giving TV bytes along the way.

Buffalo meat, which so far passed as "beef" at the canteen although the term covers only the meat of cows, bulls and oxen, had been dropped from the menu yesterday after police questioned canteen staff on Monday whether they served cow meat --- an illegal act in Delhi.

Santhosh, a canteen managing committee member, said today's lunch crowd of 300-odd was smaller than the regular weekday crowd of 400. "But the 'beef' was all finished. Some 10kg has been cooked and served," he said.

The canteen buys 15kg of buffalo meat every day, equal proportions of which are kept for lunch and dinner. Within 45 minutes of the canteen opening for lunch at 12.45pm today, the allotted stock of 7.5kg was sold out. A fresh batch had to be fried when politicians and journalists visited after 2pm.

"The 'beef' was really good today. We occasionally come here to eat and we thought we should come today to assert our rights," civil service aspirant Geo George said as TV crews focused on the meat fast vanishing off the plates.

A "red" hand lay behind the superior "beef" ularthiyathu or fry preparation. A kitchen source revealed that the sprinkling of spices was liberal during marination.

"Today, no green chilli, only red chilli. Marinated a little longer and fried just right. We put extra effort into it because it's a special day (since buffalo meat was returning to the menu)," the source said.

The armed forces crowd has been thin since the controversy began. Many of today's customers were "solidarity guests" - mostly Hindus, some of whom did not eat "beef".

A bureaucrat, a caste Hindu Nair who wouldn't be named, said he did not eat any red meat.

"I don't eat red meat for health reasons, not religion. I found the police raid shocking, so I decided to come today and have some fish. I'm not happy that they have changed the name from 'beef' to 'meat'. That menu board was a symbol of resistance," he said as he dug into his aayiram palli or Indian spiny turbot fish fry.

"Beef fry" was written in Malayalam earlier to ensure that it did not make north Indian patrons queasy, a staffer told a TV channel.

Nationalist Congress Party leader K.J. Jose Mon, sitting across the table behind a plate of tuna curry, said he usually ate in the VIP dining hall in the main building but chose to eat at the staff canteen today in solidarity.

Senior Malayalam journalist Jomy Thomas, at the forefront of the journalists' protests, said people could make a connection between incidents like the Dadri lynching on unsubstantiated rumours of beef and the Kerala House controversy.

"This is how we fight hooliganism. This has nothing to do with religion. The hoax call to the police was made by fundamentalists who wanted to test the waters," he told this newspaper.

The communists led the protest. CPM leaders Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, M.A. Baby, Nilotpal Basu and Ritabrata Banerjee visited the canteen.

Banerjee, who has been off "beef" for health reasons, also ordered some "beef" to be parcelled for dinner.

"Farmers are committing suicide and all this government is bothered about is what you eat, wear or speak. We're here to eat 'beef' to show that the RSS agenda won't work," he said.

Hindu Sena leader Vishnu Gupta, whose call to the police had led to the intervention, has been placed under preventive detention lest he organise violence at Kerala House. Police sources said they were looking at whether he can be booked for lodging a false complaint about cow meat being served at the canteen.

Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party has demanded the sack for B.S. Bassi, commissioner of the Union government-administered police. Kerala's Congress government has complained to the police brass against the cop "trespass" on state property.

A few metres outside Kerala House, an anti-beef puja has been on for a year on the pavement.

The organisers, Vishwa Gau Raksha Sangh, say they are appalled at the love for "beef" at the canteen but are encouraged that "people are rising up to protect our mother in Dadri and other places".

A member of the Vishwa Shanti Yagya, former Indian Oil employee Ramshankar Ojha, showed a copy of the FIR filed against outfit members last year for carrying a cow's severed head to the BJP office to urge the party to ban cow slaughter.

"Modiji promised to save our mother cow but his integrity is now suspect. We distributed pamphlets to all MPs listing the diseases caused by beef. These people don't realise that if the cow goes extinct this land will crack open."

Sunita R, a doctor, was one of the early customers for lunch.

"In discussions about this with my friends I was made to feel as if I'm not Indian enough because I eat beef," she said.

"They said we have to accept what they call Hindu culture. Coming here today was my way of telling people that I'm a Malayali and this is my country too."