A few days ago, I was informed by the owner of the Monsoon Days restaurant about their plans to finally start Meals options after considering customer feedbacks, including my own feedback suggesting the same a while ago cause being a Malayali, it didn’t make sense to me that they have such awesome Fish Curry options but no Kerala style rice/meals option to go with them… Finally, they have started and I got the opportunity to try it…
They call it as their Thali Meals options and there are two variants priced according to the content… One variant is where you get 3 Non-Veg items in the platter and the other one comes with 5 Non-Veg items in the platter… The one I got as shown in the pic below is the one with 5 Non-Veg items…
As per what the owner mentioned earlier, both platers would have Boiled Rice and Fish Curry along with a Vegetarian Side dish and pickle… The 5 Non Veg platter would consist in addition to the Fish Curry, a piece of Fried Fish, an Egg side dish, a Chicken side dish and a Beef side dish… The 3 Non Veg platter would have any of 2 of the side dishes along with the Fish Curry… For people who don’t eat Beef, they would give an addition Fish/Chicken/Egg side dish instead…
So, the platter I got try as shown in the pics here had Rice with a Pappadom, a bowl of Fish Curry, Moru Curry, Green Beans & Carrot Thoran, Lime Pickle, a Piece of Fried Fish, Egg Burji, Chicken Thoran and because I don’t eat Beef, they gave me a small piece of their Tawa Fried Fish… It was served as shown in the pics below…
First of all, the rice was the perfectly cooked, Chemba rice which is my favourite one to have with Kerala style fish curries… The Green Beans & Carrot thoran was made with Coconut shavings, red chillies and mustard seeds and shallots in coconut oil and was seasoned well… The Moru curry was perfectly spiced with Turmeric and Red Chilly Powder, Dried Red Chilles and flavoured with Curry Leaves, Mustard and Shallots… The lime pickle along with both these vegetarian side dishes were as good as one can expect…
Coming to the Non-veg items, first of all, the Fish Curry given was made with Tuna Mackerel in a spicy Red Chilly based gravy, which in the Kerala cuisine is called Mulakittathu… The gravy also had juliennes of Ginger, Shallots, flavour of Mustard seeds, turmeric and coriander seeds as well… However, the dominating flavour was that of dried red chilles… The only complaint regarding this curry from me was that it ended up being a bit too spicy for me to handle… Otherwise, the fish was quite well done and flavourful… The piece of Fried Fish was made with a tail of Mackerel marinated in the classic Kerala style spices usually used for frying fish… The Fish was indeed cooked perfectly… The Chicken Thoran had a lot of Coconut shavings in it… Minimal use of spices in there and flavours that stood out were that of the coconut, shallots, curry leaves and mustard seeds… The egg burji felt like the classic egg burji made by scrambling eggs with onions, tomatoes, mustard, coriander leaves, green chillies and grated coconut as well… Finally, the Tawa Fried Fish was made out of a small piece of Kingfish coated with a mix of spices, ie, the classic ones along with a sour component which I think is Lime thats used here… So, altogether you get a nice spicy and sour savoury taste which I think works wonderfully with the Fish… The Fish was again cooked perfectly and its ended up being my favourite item from the platter…
So, altogether, I can say that I really enjoyed this Thali meals and I am looking forward to having it again in my future visits for lunch… Once again, I extend my best wishes to the owners and the team at Monsoon Days… 🙂