It was very early in the morning when Chef Regimon got off the train at Kollam. The chef at Crowne Plaza, Kochi, was expected at Chandran Pillai’s hotel at 7 a.m. The place at Thirumullavaram beach, famous for its seafood, was easily found. Chandran Pillai was an important link in ‘culinary yatra’, a trip he had embarked upon unearthing dishes typical to an area – homes and/or eateries across the State.
Regimon was following a brief – to find dishes known locally but unknown outside the area. Dishes like eri curry , kozhi-kumbalanga , mutton vendakka , niracha kozhi , muringikka pork and cheera avial , to name a few. When Crowne Plaza decided to go local, read Kerala naadan , with its restaurant Trilogi, the team wanted to do something different. “Rather than organise a Kerala food promotion, we wanted to do it differently – with a story, representing Kochi, Malabar and Travancore,” says Rajeev Menon, executive chef.
Research – written and word of mouth – led him, along with Regimon, to identify the ‘culinary stories’. Families were selected based on their food lineage or culinary expertise. They were asked, in advance, to pick a few recipes; the list was later whittled down. The dishes were then included as part of a Kerala food promotion at Trilogi and will be incorporated into its menu.
The ‘yatra’, fittingly, started at Mambally Mana in Thalasssery. Legend has it that Mambally Bapu, who owned a biscuit factory, baked Kerala’s first cake in the late 1880s. With his descendants, Usha Jayaram and Rajendran, Regimon found treasures such as kozhukatta kaduku varuthathu (tempered mini rice dumplings), kaya payasam and kunji kalathappam . At each place he’d join the cook/family in the cooking – right from chopping to cleaning to cooking to eating. “This way I’d know how each is prepared.”
Along the way he found many food stories. At Kozhikode, Bushra Shamsuddin introduced him to niracha kozhi (stuffed chicken). “It is a delicacy which is sent to the son-in-law’s house; often 10 to 12 such are sent.” Typically the stuffing is a combination of boiled egg, masala and dry fruits but it transforms to Ammachi Niracha Kozhi at Regimon’s hands, and the stuffing includes chicken mince, to give that extra something to the guest at Trilogi.
Each recipe has been similarly tweaked, the changes made, always, ‘keeping the soul of the dish’.
He calls the food in the Thrissur area ‘innovative’ – “Nowhere else have I seen a meat cooked with a vegetable such as k ozhi-kumbalanga (chicken and ash gourd curry), mutton-vendakka (mutton and okra) or pork-koorka (pork and Chinese potato).” If in Lally Mooken’s kitchen he found the unconventional mutton vendakka ;Kanjoor (near Angamaly) gave him muringikka pork . “It is nothing like we have had before. I am from that area but I didn’t know of a dish like this,” says Rajeev.
Angamaly is well-known for its pork, though. The pork is cooked in a paste of drumstick skin, coriander leaves, ginger-garlic paste, chilli and other spices. “Drumstick skin is pungent, with a ‘mustardy’ flavour, and that pungency, possibly, cuts through the effect of the fat,” he adds. The pork is cooked with the skin and fat. Back at work, Regimon gave a flavour twist by using Bird’s Eye chilli ( kaanthari mulagu ). There are also vegetarian dishes such as cheera avial and pavakka-manga theeyal from Sudha Sivadas of Ayemenem. While at houseboat owner Thampi Kunju’s place at Kumarakom, awaiting Regimon was his favourite duck curry, now rechristened Vanjikkaran Tharavu curry . Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram (Kovalam) are represented by seafood dishes and fried chicken respectively. At Chandran Pillai’s place he found a variety of fish curry – meen thala (fish head) curry, squid, prawns and the lot.
Regimon has worked with Leela group hotels and the Coconut Lagoon (Kumarakom) among others.
A few ‘grandma’s’ recipes rouse curiosity. “ I possibly inherited the flair from my grandmother who had a popular teashop amid paddy fields in Vechoor, near Vaikkom. And some recipes are my versions of what she used to cook.”
Each region had its individual, distinct stamp on the food – be it the tempering and the seasoning. Like using cumin for fish curry tempering or cooking vegetables with meat.
He says he has barely skimmed the surface of the culinary heritage of the State, “There are plenty more for some more culinary yatras.”
“Next round we’ll cover another area. We see this experiment as a means of documenting recipes so that they are not lost,” Rajeev adds.
