Restaurant Review : Kerala Food Festival at Akshara (3-12th Aug), Marathahalli, Bengaluru

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God’s own country , Kerala is known for its scenic backwaters , exotic flora & fauna, beautiful beaches and loads of good food.

Also home to variety of spices , their cuisine is predictably influenced by the spices like cloves, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon and ginger, along with the ingredients like the fresh coconut and its oil , curry leaves, green chillies, shallots and ginger. With the advent of foreigners of other faiths like Christianity and Islam to Kerala ,you will find their influence on the local food as well. The Moplah, Plantation, Back Water, Syrian Christian and Toddy Shop are some of kerala styles of food , I have known in past one decade.

Recently , I got an opportunity to revisit the flavours of Kerala at the Kerala food festival at Akshara – the hub of southern cuisine at Marathali in Bangalore during the holy month of Onam, their biggest festival.

Since I was with a popular foodie who hails from Kerala, I asked her to choose the dishes from their lavish festival menu.

Here’s what our MENU looked that day:

The Soups

Mutton soup , thin clear flavoursome bone soup, Thengapal Kozhi soup , mildly thick soup of chicken and coconut milk, and tangy and hot Pepper Rasam.

The Starters

Although I am not a huge fan of fried dishes , but their Malabari delicacy of deep fried Prawns marinated with Kerala spices , Malabar Konju Porichathu was simply awesome to have.

We also tried the Vazhapoo Pakoda , the fritters made with shredded plantain / banana flower and onions , that would be indeed my perfect dish with Chai on a rainy day.

Next to arrive was the Meen Pollichathu , a traditional slow cooked Fish preparation , marinated with spices and onion tomato paste and grilled in banana leaf wrap. Very delectable indeed.

For our mains , we tried two seer fish preparations , the first one was the Tapioca with spicy Seer fish curry , Kappa Meen vevichathu , and other one was the slightly tangy Alleppey Meen curry . The seer fish here is simmered in a moderately spiced gravy of freshly ground coconut, ginger along with the raw mango or tamarind (Kudampuli) that gives it the sourness character.

One of the must try , I would recommend is their Njandu Vattichathu , lip smacking crab curry from Kerala. Needless to say , we tried these delicacies with some hot appams and my favourite red rice.

Desserts

No celebration in God’s own country is complete without their payasams and here we tried few like the Chakka Pradhaman, Ada Pradhaman, Paal payasam and Elaneer payasam. The last one being the clear winner for me.