If you are someone who has been following this blog for at-least 3 years by now, you would probably know that the restaurant at the Ginger Hotel in Trivandrum has been a favourite of mine as a place to have lunch and I have indeed posted quite a bit about the food I have to got to try from the place… I have been missing the place ever since the Pandemic started and had been waiting to get back but so far I was under the impression that for safety, they hadn’t restarted dine-in for public in their restaurant and the kitchen was working exclusively for the hotel guests alone… It was yesterday that I found out that it was not the case anymore as I found a post by someone in social media about the place… So, turns out my foodie friend and I were planning to meet for lunch anyways and so, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce her to this place and also some of my favourite food and here we are… 🙂
The restaurant of-course, looked pretty much the same as the last time I have been there except that it seems changed the name of the restaurant again and now is called Cafe Et Cetera… But I found the same familiar staff there… However, the menu is not the same anymore and they are in the process of updating it even further and so, I found quite a number of new items in the menu in addition to the familiar favourite ones from before… Since I had been missing my favourites plus there was also the purpose of introducing my friend to the favourites, I decided to try the new items next time and stick to my favourites for now… So, from the menu, we had their Chicken Clear Soup which has been the favourite Chicken Soup of mine… In addition to the soup, I went for ordering their Honey Chilly Potatoes as the starter (especially since loaded fries is one my friend’s favourite things to eat and this version could be a unique experience) and then for mains, their Chicken Fried Rice and their Fish Chilly…
So, First lets talk about the Chicken Clear Soup… The Chicken Clear Soup that they serve here at Ginger has been my absolute favourite version of the same simply cause of how simple and flavourful it has always been… You get an incredibly rich flavour of Chicken in the broth thats also infused with the flavours of the vegetables and herbs used, which typically includes Carrots, Green Beans, Cabbage, Spring Onion, Celery along with Ginger and Garlic… I was indeed surprised to find out that the soup that I got this time tasted exactly the same as the ones I have had before (except maybe a tiny bit too salty for my taste this time) and hence continues to be my favourite Chicken Soup to have… As I have mentioned in my previous post, they do have a Cream version of this soup and I am hoping to have that one next time…
Next, lets talk about the Honey Chilly Potatoes which is a starter they serve… I first had this started as part of their Lunch Buffet which they used to do long time ago… They make this dish using French Fries and is usually crispy with a Sweet and Savoury flavour profile with enough umami feel and a subtle tanginess… Think of it as a dry Chilly Chicken but made with French Fries instead of Chicken… Regarding the taste, the flavours were all perfectly balanced with the flavours of the Fried Potatoes, Onions, Capsicum, Spring Onion, Celery, Soy Sauce, Tomato Sauce, Ginger, Garlic and Black Pepper… Every ingredient tasted fresh and the seasoning was spot on too… If you are someone who loves Loaded Fries, this Chinese style loaded fries might be a nice try…
Next, lets talk about the Chicken Fried Rice… The Fried Rice they serve here is usually a simple Hakka style Fried Rice thats made with minimal flavourings and seasonings with long grain rice, Chicken and Vegetables… However, the first thing I noticed when they served this Fried Rice as can be seen in the pics below is that compared to before, the amount of Vegetables seemed to be a lot lesser and hence it didn’t look quite as colourful as it used to… And that did reflect in the taste as well as the flavours of those fresh vegetables were lesser as well in the Fried Rice… No complaints about the Chicken and the rest of the ingredients used though… Being Hakka style, this is one of those generic Fried Rice versions which not only is good enough with the accompanying Ketchup, but also works with pretty much any dish from any cuisine (unless you go really extreme)… 🙂
Last but not least is the Fish Chilly which I got to accompany the Fried Rice like before… They would make Dry, Gravy and Semi Gravy versions of this dish and with Fried Rice, the semi gravy version is what I prefer and hence got the same… Its a nice version of the classic Indo-Chinese dish made using a corn starch batter fried Fish thats finished in a flavourful Green Chilly dominating sauce, along with Onions, Spring Onions, Capsicum with a lot of Garlic, Ginger and a hint of Sesame Oil as well and was served as shown in the pics below… However, compared to last time, there is a twist which is that instead of the Cobia Fish that was what they used to use usually, here they used the cheaper Basa Fish… Basa appeared to work fine with the sauce but personally if you ask me, I would prefer the King Fish or Cobia in this recipe…
As before the combination of the Fried Rice and the Fish Chilly felt to work incredibly well and I was surprised at how well the Honey Chilly Potatoes worked with the Fried Rice as I had never tried eating them together and had always eaten it on its own as a starter… Here, I ended up trying together since they served the starter and main course together… 🙂 Anyways, the following pics show my plate and I hope you will be able to see a more detailed view of the items…
That’s it for now… Overall it was a very enjoyable lunch and long overdue one as well since its been so long since I could visit the place… I am guessing that I will be going more often to the place like I used to before the pandemic… As mentioned above, there are quite a number of new additions to their menu and I am hoping to try them very soon… 🙂
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