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Currying favour
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Kerala food finds takers even in distant Chennai...
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At the Kerala Curry Festival at Savera Hotel in Chennai, the territory was home ground. In the white ambience of Malgudi, the South Indian restaurant, the verdant colours of Kerala came only in patches.
The waiters in white shirts and dhotis with randaam mundu tied around the waist were a nice touch.
The soup, Tomato saaru, was good. The Mutton ishtew struck the right chord, but the Appam to go with it was Tamilian. The taste of urad dal was distinctive. The Kadala curry and Puttu were nice. The other staples, string hoppers, parottas and dosas and the semi-polished par boiled rice were all there.
The pathiri or rice flour chappathis of Moplahs could have been thinner. The non-vegetarian curries, Meen pappas and Kozhi melagu did not fit in. The first one was actually Aleppey fish curry under the wrong name.
As far as the original goes, it was not bad.
With the second one too, the name was a problem. Melagu is very much a Tamil term. The Tamil influence became more obvious with the Ulli theeyal or button onion curry.
This was a fusion, no doubt and not a bad one at that. Cauliflower thoran or poriyal could have been better.
The dessert table had the required variety of a standard buffet.
The ethnic sweets were Pal and Payaru payasams. The latter stole the thunder from the milk payasam. Unniyappam, served as a welcome sweet, was quite nice.
MARIEN MATHEW
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