Filmmaker B. Unnikrishnan invites gourmets to dine with stars of the Malayalam film industry at a new restaurant, Grandmaster’s Kitchen, he has started. Just off the main road at Palayam, the spacious restaurant is themed on cinema.
A trip to the eatery is as much a trip down memory lane as a culinary voyage through different cuisines.
Done up in shades of black and white, it is difficult to simply walk up the stairs without pausing to take a close look at the interiors, as all the walls are plastered with old sepia-tinted photographs of the who is who of Mollywood, dialogues from cult classics in Malayalam, posters of Malayalam flicks and English classics. It is hard to forget hunger but these vignettes of cinema make it possible to suspend hunger pangs for some time, while you take your fill of this wonderful collection of cinema.
Unnikrishnan says he is trying to satiate three of his deep interests through this restaurant – cinema, chess and food. “The interiors were all designed by me and the menu too. If the décor is a reflection of the cineaste in me, the menu reflects my wide travels and the foodie in me,” says Unnikrishnan.
Some of the old posters and rare photographs come from Unnikrishnan’s personal collection, while some were collected from collectors of cinema memorabilia. “We also have a collection of important snaps of grandmasters and the black and white colour combination pays homage to chess and cinema,” says the filmmaker.
By the time you tear your eyes off the walls and focus on the menu, you are really hungry and can’t wait to see some food on the table. And the starters and mocktails arrive quickly. With the stars of yesteryear looking on from the walls, we polish off the watermelon mocktails. Sweet corn vegetable soup, mutton shorba (mutton soup) and a selection of well-marinated pieces of paneer, chicken, fish and squid arrive at our table. Unlike bland cornflour concoctions that masquerade as soups in many eateries in the city, this piping hot soup is subtly flavoured with vegetables that you can taste as you slurp it up. Equally flavoursome is the mutton shorba. Choose from the menu the kind of soup that you want.
Different kinds of marinades have been used for the chicken and the seafood and each bite of the starters is a fiesta for the taste buds. Fresh flavours, tangy and spicy, do a tango on the palate as the plates are cleaned in no time.
Then follows a procession of dishes: spicy mutton curry, chicken in oyster sauce, Kuttanadan crab and, for the lone vegetarian, a corn masala with a basket of Indian breads like naan, roti and butter naan. Fresh appams also land on the table. But for the clink of cutlery, there is silence as the food is savoured. Next comes three different kinds of rice.
There is Yangzhou chicken fried rice with egg, shrimp and chicken, peas pulao and mushroom rice. By now there is conversation around the table even as the fluffy rice is served by a friendly waiter. Each morsel is suffused with subtle flavours that do not overpower the taste of the rice. And then comes hot meen pollichathu. What is wonderful about the fish is that the masala is cooked, and not half-done onion smothered in underdone masala.
Generous portions make it mandatory for you to be careful when you order the food. Even after the marathon tasting and eating session, there is still food on the table. Most of us decide to skip the dessert as we want to do justice to the food. So we opt to order one Shahi Tukda and share that.
It is on our way out that we discovered an interesting tea shop on the premises of the restaurant. At that hour, the glass containers showcasing Malabari eats is disappointingly empty. Nevertheless, we decide to have steaming glasses, yes glasses, of tea. The ethnically done up teashop is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. while the Malabari snacks such as unnakaya, killikoodu and so on are available from 11 a.m. onwards.
As of now the week-old eatery has a menu that changes every weekend. On the menu are select dishes that showcase Arabic, Thai, Chinese, Central Travancore and Malabari cuisines.
Indeed a starry addition to the culinary map of the city.
Food for thought
Where: Behind Saphalyam complex, Palayam
Meal for two: Rs. 750
Contact: 0471- 4066090; 9847061236
