By Odette and Joe Mascarenhas
Suprabhatam…well that is the word for good morning, and it was really a good morning after a super meal at the Café Azul the night before. You see there is a Malabar festival on at the Café Azul, and I love festivals because there is so much variety and research put in for a particular cuisine.

Well that night was one to remember. We not only learned something about the cuisine, but also how one was supposed to eat it. Let me start at very beginning for you see the traditional welcome is so much a part of the whole experience.
The welcome involved a ‘tilak’ and a welcome drink of Pana Kam, a ginger and jaggery drink with coconut water. ‘It helps clear the throat,’ said chef Vijaynath Nalieurathu, a native of the place, and so it did. Refreshing and wholesome, and when you nibble at the papads and wafers of banana, tapioca, jackfruit you might be tempted to forget the wide array of items temptingly spread on the buffet.
‘Do you think a dash of vodka would complement this drink?’ asked my evergreen husband. Remove the spirit from his life (besides me of course) and he is lost. The ever helpful staff rushed to do his bidding.
But I was more interested in the food and executive chef Prasad Paul was there to answer my queries. ‘Where do I start?’ I asked. ‘The starters,’ was his pleasant reply. And so we followed his methodology. Idli chilli fry and Kozhi Kuruvepilai Varuthathu. Now don’t get fazed, every dish has an explanation written below. The steamed idli was tossed in a seasoning of mulagaipodi (simply translated - gunpowder) before being fried.
‘Wow!’ Joe yelped as he took a swig of his doctored drink. ‘Divine,’ he said taking another gulp. Well it was mildly spiced and I guess he just needed an excuse to get hydrated. The second starter was crisp chicken fried with curry leaves.
Now remember, this was a starter. The next one was from the live counter - mutton and vegetable ishtew with appams. Delicious…the creamy gravy and the appams. I wished I could eat more but looking at the spread I decided to limit myself lest I began to spread. So it was the Malabar kozhi curry with parotta. There is a misconception that the paratha is a north Indian dish. Chef Paul explained that the food was very similar to many parts of India because Muslims and Christian migrations. ‘The taste of many items could perhaps be likened to East Indian and even Goan dishes,’ he said, ‘with a little modification because of the spices.’ So we watched in fascination as chefs deftly flattened, lifted, cut and rolled the dough to get the layers of the parotta.  And how do I explain the kozhi curry (chicken stewed with coconut milk and spices)? All I can say is that Joe left his drink totally unattended as he applied himself wholeheartedly to the combo. Superb! Burp!
Yes. Remember we had already eaten two whole appams/parathas with those stews, but that was only six dishes of the fifteen. A sort of half-way mark. I groaned. ‘You must try the pachadi,’ chef Paul urged. I declined, but Joe decided to keep him happy and then…. ‘A must,’ said he offering his plate to me, ‘just try.’
Fill my stomach with the pachadi? I looked at him in astonishment, but agreed nevertheless to try it out. It was made from different varieties of carrot, cucumber and mixed vegetable. ‘The preparation is different from that of raitas,’ chef Paul explained, ‘the curd is only used as a light dressing.’ Forget the dressing, the spiced up ‘pachadis’ can have you dancing with delight. It can be a meal by itself. The cucumber was tempered with jeera while the mixed vegetables with mustard seeds. Oh! My life was already spiced to the brim.
‘Our mapula biryani is a must,’ said the chef. I glared. If I knew there was so much on offer I would have starved for a week. ‘It is made specifically when a son-in-law visits the home,’ I was told. The chef was right the biryani was awesome and if one would like to address themselves to the other dishes lined up on the counter…Manga Pulisheri (a sweet and sour mango curry that is a close cousin to our very own uddamethi), pachapayaru milagu peratti (string beans pepper fry)…well, I could string you all along with a long list of preparations all for the taking.
The list of eight desserts displayed were mind boggling…kozhukkatta (steamed rice dumplings with condensed milk and cashews quite similar to our modaks), my favourite achappam (crisp rice waffles shaped like roses), sugiyan (batter fried sweetened green gram mash)…
All I can recommend is that this festival is one to be visited.