Well, my parents are out of town and its time for lunch… Obviously, I am left to fend for myself and of-course feeling too lazy to cook, decided to buy lunch… Now, I have been craving to have the Kerala Meals with Fish again but none of my usual outlets were having meals this time… Hence found this new place called Manasi Bakery Fast Food and placed the order for their Kerala Meals which they call as the Ilayil Oonu With Fish Curry and I also added a portion of their Fish Fry as well… After a short while, the food was delivered as shown in the pics below…
As can be seen in the pics above, there was more than enough rice for me or any other normal person… Quantity of the side dishes seemed to be good enough for one and so I ended up removing the excess rice and opened up and served all the side dishes and the following pic shows the result… You can see the bowl of excess rice as well as some of the side dishes which ended up being excess in the other bowl… 🙂
So, as can be seen in the pic above, what came were as follows: Rice, Aviyal, Pappadam, Kappa, Raita, Lime Pickle, Parippu, Sambar, Fish Curry, Fish Fry and Moru… Of course the Fish Fry was something I ordered separately and not part of the Ilayil Oonu With Fish Curry which was what the rest of the items were parts of… That packet at the bottom left corner was the Moru (spiced Buttermilk) which I planned to open in the end as I prefer drinking it on its own rather than mixing with rice… 🙂
Now, lets talk about the taste… First of all, the rice was perfectly cooked… It was indeed pleasant to see the Chemba Rice as most places serve the White Boiled Rice instead of this red one… The rice by itself was seasoned with salt and so I found it to be possible to enjoy the rice on its own… The Aviyal was just seasoned right and was packed with vegetables like Carrots, Plantain, Raw Mango, Bottle Gourd, Coconut and so on thats typically found in Aviyal recipes… The vegetables were cooked but still retained a bit of their crunch… Pappadam was of-course just like any other Kerala style Pappadam… Compared to the previous Kerala Meal I had, the Kappa (Cassava) here was not the kind we refer to as Puzhukku which tends to be saucy with coconut and all… Instead, here it was just mashed Cassava seasoned with turmeric, chilly powder and salt… The Raita was just like any other that we see usually served with Biriyanis in most restaurants and the Lime Pickle, though it was the White kind made with Garlic and Bird’s Eye Chillies, it too was just like any other White Lime Pickle thats seen in most places… Coming to the Parippu, this was the typical Travancore style Dal curry made using Green Gram, Coconut and Turmeric mainly… This kind of Parippu is only seen in areas that were part of the erstwhile Kingdom of Travancore… Lastly, the Sambar felt thick and had a dominating flavour of Asafoetida and had some vegetables like Carrot, Okra and Cucumber… Seasoning on it was just right for me with just the right amount of spiciness as well…
Coming to the non-veg part of this meal, the Fish Curry was the ground Coconut based one and was made with the Choora (Tuna Mackerel) Fish… Unfortunately the piece of Fish they gave me ended up being overcooked… But the seasoning on the curry was spot on and gravy had a strong flavour of the Fish… I think based on how thick the gravy was, they overcooked the fish reducing the curry to this consistency… Unfortunately the overcooking of the Fish continued in the Fish Fry as well, which was a shame since the seasoning and use of the spices were spot on in it as well…
Last but not least, after I was done with the rice and the curries, I opened the packet that had the Moru and the above pic shows what it looked like… I first got confused cause to me it kind of looked like a dilute version of the Raita… However, on tasting it was clear that it was indeed the Moru as it was buttermilk based and not yogurt based… The buttermilk was not too sour and the seasoning was spot on with just the right amount of salt… The flavour of Green Chillies and the Curry Leaves felt nice as well… As for the Tomato pieces in it, I wish they had avoided them… But I did enjoy it nonetheless…
Thats it… Overall, I did find myself being able to enjoy the meal very much though I really wish they had not overcooked the Fish… Anyways, I do think the team knows what they are doing and the Fish being overcooked, I am hoping its a one time mistake and hence I am hoping to try it again soon… 🙂
