So, yet another day my parents decided to buy breakfast and this time its from our favourite spot thats local to our neighbourhood as in, literally at walking distance from my home along the route of my dad’s usual walk in the morning… This is also the only place that opens as early as 6 am here and so, like many times before we got what was available early in the morning… The reason I didn’t write the review so far is cause the place never had a name and the board just said Hotel… However, turns out recently they named the place and its now called Hotel Safa and its located at Padinjattumukku (next to the place’s bus stop) in Kaniyapuram…
So, the pics shown below show the food we got today and this is typically what you get when you go there early in the morning… What we had today to eat were Porotta and Appam and along with them 3 curries namely, the Mutta Curry, Thakkali Curry and Kizhangu Curry… These are pretty the local staple food items in the area which is common to pretty much all local eateries here for breakfast… Of-course there is also the Dosa and Idiyappam as well (they keep rotating) but the curries tend to be the same everyday during the early hours… Rest of the menu, comes available later in the day… I think places like these are interested cause their pricing is essentially affordable to all and the food tends to be simple and basic (explains the pricing as to work within that, they can’t afford the shortcuts) and hence have that homemade feel as opposed to being “hotel food”…
Now, lets talk about the food… First of all, the reason why this place is a favourite of ours is mainly because of their Porotta… Porotta as you may know is the favourite layered bread for the people of Kerala made using Maida or refined all purpose flour that generally has a bad rap for being unhealthy or “junk food” which, in reality, depends entirely on how you make them and how you consume them… Anyways, coming back to the Porottas here, the reason why the place is a favourite of ours is because we just love the Porottas they serve here… They are simply the best we have seen anywhere especially in Trivandrum and they are always very soft, small sized, lite and fluffy and best of all, no trace or smell or flavour of unhealthy saturated fats or Fat Extracts like Dalda or Vanaspati thats commonly used by most places… Instead this Porotta has the fragrance of Coconut Oil and is also not greasy or oily at all which makes it one of the healthiest Porottas available and as I said before, the taste and texture is simply spot on as well… On the other hand, the Appam, is just like any other Appam, you can get from any other place… Nothing special about it except for the fact that its neither sour nor sweet as is the case with most other places… Its ok… 🙂
Now coming to the curries, as I said before, we had all 3 curries that were available today morning which were the Mutta Curry which is basically the Egg Curry, the Thakkali Curry, which is the Tomato Curry and the Kizhangu Curry which even though Kizhangu is an umbrella term for all tuber crops in Malayalam, was essentially a Potato Curry that we got… The Mutta Curry was my favourite from the bunch simply because unlike the other places, its not just the Onion Gravy topped with boiled egg… Instead, here they use the same recipe for the masala that they use for their Chicken Curry and also, the gravy does have a nice flavour of the Egg itself along with the taste of the nice spicy and savoury gravy made with the classic caramelised onion, tomato, green chillies, turmeric, chilly powder, coriander powder, garam masala, Curry Leaves, Garlic, Ginger and Coconut oil… The Thakkali Curry appeared to be made using the same recipe but with lesser Garam Masala and it had the sweet and slightly sour taste of the extra Tomatoes, Onions and Garlic added as well making it a Sweet, Spicy and slightly sour curry to have… The Kizhangu Curry was different as in it did have the Same garam masala but instead of making it an onion-tomato based gravy, this was based on ground Coconut and hence had a bit more richness to it, coming from the Coconut… It also appeared to have some pieces of roasted Coconut as well and of-course everything was cooked using Coconut oil and so ultimately the fragrance of Coconut was taking the lead for that one… All the 3 curries appeared to work great with the Porotta as well the Appam, though personally, I prefer the Porotta over Appam any day… 🙂
So, overall, it was a fine breakfast that was enjoyable… I felt the curries were a bit too spicy for me when I tried them on their own, but when had with the Appam or Porotta, it felt ok… Proper local Kerala cuisine is supposed to be on the spicy side anyways so can’t complain 🙂 Other than the Porotta, my favourite breakfast item from there is their Idiyappam which is also the best you can get over here in my opinion… Sadly it was not available which is why we got the Appams… Anyways, I think this restaurant is a severely underrated one as of now and I do hope to see them grow and continue making good and healthy affordable food for the foreseeable future… 🙂
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