Seventeen teams from 15 countries who are participating in the four-day Spice Route Culinary Festival at Bolghatty Palace Hotel found slow cooking and food garnished with spices as a unique trait of ethnic Kerala food.
The hot favourite was fish steam fried in banana leaf. The 34 chefs witnessed live traditional cooking with Nimmy Paul and also tasted these items, on Friday. “Slow cooking was a refreshing experience,” said chefs from the Netherlands. Chef Bernardo Agrela of Portugal found copious use of oil, milk etc., derived from coconut as enchanting. “The fresh curry leaves were very tasty, since we used dried leaves back at home,” said chefs from Lebanon.
I was amazed at the medicinal value of Kerala spices, noted chef Samira Janatdoust of Iran. Chef Songpol Vithanwata from Thailand found that plentiful usage of pepper worked wonders to Kerala delicacies.
Chef Aisha Al Tamimi from Qatar discovered plenty of similarities between her ethnic food and Kerala’s traditional dishes. “Probably because most of our spices are imported from Kerala,” she wound up.
Culinary contest
These professional cooks are all set to try their luck at a culinary contest on Sunday and Monday in which spices, vegetables, fish and meat purchased from Ernakulam and Varapuzha markets will be used.
