Kozhikode: Football. Game, obsession, merchandise, good business. With the FIFA World Cup taking off in style, madness is only bound to swell. For chefs and restaurateurs, time is ripe to bolster the bond between soccer and snacks. Quite a few city joints are bringing football dishes onto the menu. With 32 countries in the World Cup, the chefs are taking it as an opportunity to showcase their skill in world cuisine.
At Kingsbay, managing partner, Sahir N.M. and his chefs Rahul Krishna and Shamsher Khan, have been at work for the past two months. The takeaway is a new menu with recipes culled out from the World Cup playing countries. “Since lot of countries have Spanish or Italian influences in food, we have made a selection to avoid repetition. So three-fourths of the countries in the World Cup will be represented in food here,” says Sahir. He thinks this is one chance to offer the football-crazy fans of Malabar something new. “People here know everything about the game, they may not know much about the food of the countries their favourite players represent,” he adds.
Sahir connected with home chefs around the world on the web, exchanged and noted down recipes over Facebook, viewed them on Instagram and plunged into a trial and error session with his chefs. “Yeah, we had to handpick a few. There are recipes which I liked, but others felt will not work in our context.”
Among his pick is the barbecued spice-crusted seer fish with tahini dressing from Iran. On offer for lunch and dinner are an array of soups, salads, appetizers and main course. In his repertoire are Brazil’s sopa de mondongo, oriental green salads from Japan, grilled calamari with lemon from Russia and Chile’s Cazuela among a host of others.
Though initially intimidated by the ingredients he would need, he was relieved to know it was not hard to source them from neighbouring metros. He says adaptations were not many. “Just that I used to a little more paprika chilli powder to satisfy the spice factor,” he says.
At Welcom Hotel Raviz Kadavu, Paul Noronha, executive chef, assures they too are on the bandwagon. The chef has curated a snack menu to be served in the bar. “I have chosen baden baden from Germany, empanadas from Brazil and snacks from other prominent countries taking part,” says Paul. On offer from him are patata fries from Netherlands and pirozhki pastries from Russia. At Kadavu, the idea is to create a perfect ambience for football with snacks and drinks.
At M-Grill, the diner would get to sample dishes from countries that are playing the game on a given day. “Our specials for the day will be displayed on the menu board,” says Thomas P.K., Corporate Chef at Paragon Group. The recipes were scooped together from cook books and online. Among his favourites is the Brazilian dish of breaded shrimp in coconut milk. “Every day, four dishes will be on offer including starters and main course,” says Thomas.
