Kuttanadan Food Festival @ Ente Keralam - Poes Garden, Teynampet

Chennai being a city encompassing people from all across India, there is no void of any particular cuisine in the city. This provides visitors and Chennaities with a vast array of restaurants to choose from when it comes to dining. Although Chennai is home to numerous Kerala cuisine restaurants, it’s a rarity that I visit them as most of the Kerala delicacies are readily available at home for me, thanks to the influence of my extended family members.

One prominent restaurant that has established itself a name for the Kerala cuisine in Chennai has to be ‘Ente Keralam’, which is part of the Oriental Cuisines chain of restaurants. Oriental Cuisines has played an integral part in shaping up the restaurant scene in Chennai by bringing a host of varying cuisines and being consistent in their offerings. So when a fellow foodie asked me if I would be willing to try out the “Kuttanadan Food Festival”, I jumped in as I knew it would definitely be different to the regular fare.

(Tender Coconut Water)

(Kappa Cutlet)

Upon being seated, the very enthusiastic Chef Jayaprakash gave us a brief overview of the Kuttanadan specialities. He revealed that Tharavu aka Duck is the main protein next to fish in this region as it is surrounded on three sides by water bodies. With the pleasantries exchanged, we were served with the signature ‘Tender Coconut’ drink. This was followed by the ‘Kappa Cutlet’, which was the regular cutlet made entirely using Kappa aka Tapioca. I’ve had kappa in many forms including the famous ‘Kappa and Fish curry’ but this was completely different. I liked the way the cutlet had a very crispy coating while the tapioca inside retained its flavour. 

(Karimeen Polichathu)

(Konju Ularthiyathu)

The next up was the ‘Karimeen Polichathu’ which is a signature Kerala dish. The dish being cooked in a clay pot had all its flavour incorporated into the fish and the masala that accompanied it made it a stand out. The last of the starters was the ‘Konju Ularthiyathu’ which was basically jumbo prawns grilled in a stone pot that provides it with earthen flavours. Although mine was a little dry the flavours sure made up for it.

(Kuttanadan Tharavu Mappas)

(Kozhi Curry Kuttanandan Style)

(Pineapple Puttu & Parotta)

(Payasam)

With the starters all done, we ordered for two curries, the ‘Kozhi Curry Kuttanandan Style’ and ‘Kuttanadan Tharavu Mappas’. To go with the curries, the accompaniments were a ‘Pineapple Puttu’, ‘Malabar Parotta’ and ‘Appam’. The chicken curry was rightly spiced and also had the essence of the clay pot incorporated into the gravy and proved the perfect accompaniment for the Parotta while the Duck gravy was perfect for the Pineapple puttu. Puttu being a regular fare at home, the pineapple puttu was different in a way that the flavour of pineapple was completely infused into the puttu. The chef did reveal the secret but unfortunately it shall remain a secret as a mark of recognition to the hard work put in by the Chef and his team. The evening was brought to an end with two type of Payasam. These were from their regular menu as the Kuttanad cuisine provides more importance to the mains rather than desserts.

The Kuttanadan Food Festival is on at all Ente Keralam outlets across Chennai until the 15th of Feb. A meal for two should set you by ₹ 1200.

If this article interested you, please share it so others may be interested and benefited too!!! Request you to also visit our Facebook page Food In Chennai - Facebook and share the page with a Like amongst your friends and also follow us on our twitter handle at @FoodInChennai. You can also follow us on Google Plus at Food in Chennai-GooglePlus. Please also feel free to g+1 this post so others may be benefited too

Read More

CFG Adyar & Thiruvanmiyur Food Walk

(Bajji Shop)

Banging on the success of a wonderful and interesting food walk conducted in Mylapore by the Chennai Food Guide, another such food walk was planned to be held in the vicinity of Adyar and Thriuvanmiyur to explore the famous yet less-publicized eateries in this side of Chennai. The meet was planned for a Saturday and the entire fraternity was eagerly awaiting it. Being a Saturday, two of my cousins too chipped in for this. With a scheduled start at 4 pm, we were all asked to report at Adyar Bakery. Where else to start an Adyar Food Walk from!!!

Being a working day and having to pick up my cousins en-route, we were slightly delayed and caught with the rest of the team as they finished their endeavour at Adyar Bakery. The next stop was a small yet renowned Bajji shop next to the Adyar Bakery compound. This was no small Bajji shop the moment we noticed what all he had on his offering. The shop has both sweets and savouries. Right from Bajji to Boli to Pakodas and tens of other edibles. Apparently the Cutlets here are supposed to be one of the best in the area. True to the recommendation, we first tasted the cutlets. It was tightly packed and super crispy. The rest of the entourage were busy trying out the other snacks while I was munching in to their pakodas. The pakodas were very minimalistic in oil and had a good amount of crispiness to it.

(Cutlets)

(Pakodas)

(Pakodas)

Following the heavy intake of snacks and sweets, it was ideally desired to have something to quench our throats next. And voila, we landed up at “Coronet Cool Biz”, which is located right behind ‘Coronet’. We had a huge variety of drinks here including a few variants of Falooda’s and a new drink which I was hearing for the first time called ‘Sharjah’. As told by my cousin later, apparently this is a famous drink in Kerala and tends to give an instant brain freeze. No wonder the name of such a drink is Sharjah.

(Super Falooda)

Once we were all done with the clicks and drinks, our next stop was a small eatery tucked in a junction on the busy LB Road. Named “Sri Lakshmi Sagar”, a speciality here is the idly and Sambar. Unlike usual places where Sambar is used as an accompaniment, here the idly is brought to your table submerged in Sambar. Any request for additional Sambar and don’t be frightened with what you will witness. Sambar will be served not by the spoonful but rather by the mugful. Yes, they seriously serve Sambar in a mug. The Idly in Sambar was accompanied by a nice and strong Madras Filter Kaapi. Running short on time, it was decided to wind up the Adyar segment and head to the Thiruvanmiyur area. Now being a food walk, it is an implication that we must savour the different offerings by a walk but the distance from Sri Lakshmi Sagar to our next destination in Thiruvanmiyur was a bit too long for a walk. As the folks were busy getting their logistics sorted out, giving in to a sudden impulse, a bunch of us decided to take the bus. It has been ages since I travelled by a local bus and boy did I enjoy this short trip. It brought back my college memories.

(Sri Lakshmi Sagar)

(Idly in Sambar)

The first stop in Thiruvanmiyur was at “Sri Krishna Tiffin Centre”. Located in Chitrakulam Street, a few meters from the temple, we knew from the bustle around the centre that the food here should be fantastic. Our impressions were a 100% correct. Being a tiffin centre, we decided to start with a Kal Dosa and proceed accordingly. The Dosa was super soft and yummy. The next was time for some Chapatti. There was nothing great to talk about the Chapatti as I felt it to be the same almost everywhere. By now we were all crumpled up inside the tiffin centre, which can hardly accommodate 6 people comfortably yet we were close to double its capacity. Once as everyone were almost done, I offered to know if anyone would like to taste their parotta. Parotta being my favourite variety of Indian bread, it is a self-imposed compulsion whenever I see them on the menu. The moment the first Parotta arrived, I was mesmerized by it. Coming from a place where Parotta and Salna (Term used for only the gravy from a Mutton Curry) is like staple food, I was completely surprised by the parotta here. They were super soft and super fluffy that the moment folks saw me savouring it, I was suddenly swarmed by the entire lot and in a jiffy the Parotta disappeared from my plate. Another set of parotta were ordered and it too met with the same fate. The news slowly spread to the rest of the gang and the next point of attack was the parotta master himself. All of us just stood next to him and ate the parotta as they kept coming fresh from the hot plate. Truly, it was one of the best parotta I’ve had in my entire life. We were so busy attacking the plates on whichever a parotta was there that we even failed to take a single click. 

(Sri Krishna Tiffin Centre)

(Hot Chapatti)

(Kal Dosa)

(The inside of the Tiffin centre)

(The Parotta master with few CFGians)

With all our stomach’s filled with parotta, it was time for one more round of drinks. This time we headed to “Juicetree” which is located at Sannadi Street, a short walking distance from the Thiruvanmiyur temple. It is co-owned by a fellow CFGian and we were welcomed to try out some of their unique juices. Being already full with all the parotta, I decided to give it a skip. A couple of us were busy chatting sitting outside while the rest were quenching their thirst. Being well past our scheduled time of completion, we wrapped up the food walk.

(Juicetree)

This food walk was truly worth the time spent if not for other eateries but definitely for the Parotta at Sri Krishna Tiffin Centre. If you are a diehard parotta fan, then this place is a must visit. Eagerly looking forward to the next CFG food walk to discover some more new places and interesting stories.


If this article interested you, please share it so others may be interested too!!! Request you to also visit our Facebook page Food In Chennai - Facebook and share the page amongst your friends and also follow us on our twitter handle at @FoodInChennai

To keep yourself updated on new reviews, kindly click subscribe by email on the right hand side at the bottom of this page.

Read More