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Country food and rustic setting
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A refreshingly different country menu to savour for the city folks.
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"KUPPU WALKED beneath the palms at sunset. He touched the palms and divined the sap flow, up the trunks to the buds on top. He tapped the sap and brewed it into sweet-sour toddy. He sold this toddy in his little shop." -O.V.Vijayan.
In a bid to capture the rustic flavours and bring a slice of Kerala's charming countryside to the city, Casino Hotel is holding an `Exotic Toddy Shop Curries' festival at its ` Tharavad' restaurant. It is the food of warm hearted and rugged people who make good use of the catch of the sea, the abundant fowl and the simple tapioca or rice. Says G. Premnath the General Manager of Casino Hotel, "This is the food of innocent people and this innocence is transferred to their cooking too." And it is a culinary adventure all right because your very city palate is introduced to some unusual flavours and you end up in tears. (It is the spices that turn on the waterworks, nothing else.) The first thing to do at the festival is to order a sweet fruit juice for the real spirit is missing. `Sorry we do not serve toddy' is clearly printed on the table card. "Casino Hotel doesn't have the license to serve toddy," says an apologetic Subhajit De, the Restaurant -in -charge. Since the spicy toddy shop curries are created for people whose taste buds are numbed by the intoxicant, the curries are high on pungency- a combination of hot, sour and salt. Says Chef Asif Ali, "They don't use much onions, the masala is fried in coconut oil and added to the fish or meat and cooked on slow fire. However, we have reduced the chilly content and made the food more palatable for our guests."
Starters
Even though the sweet country brew is missing, the spirit of adventure makes you reckless and you order Potti fry flinging caution to the winds. The intestines are chopped finely and the villi are evidently present, sautéed well with onions, masala and coconut flakes. And surprisingly it doesn't make you disgorge; in fact you begin to enjoy the taste of buffalo intestines. The chewy rubbery bite is quite different from any other meat you've bitten into before. Fried well it is a perfect starter. Says Cook Anilkumar, "Potti is really enjoyed by the people in the country side." But if you are not game for such daring ventures there is lot of other stuff on the menu. Panni fry, Kakka fry or Beef fry do just as well for starters. Then wash it down with sweetened fruit juice.It douses the fire that lashes your tongue.
Duck roast
The piece de resistance is the Duck roast, a perfect accompaniment to the lace appams. The coconut paste, fried onions and masala meld flawlessly. The onions lend a very delicate sweetness to the bony duck and you will thoroughly enjoy sucking the bones dry. Kappa is served with Mathi or Karimeen vevichathu. Red and Hot- every mouthful needs to be immediately followed by big gulps of fruit juice. But once you begin you can't stop - it is irresistible. And the Malayalam songs belted out by the live band gives the crowd a vocal power, "once more, once more" is a frequent cry. The festival is on till the 26 September.
MINU ITTYIPE
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