I've already reviewed Toronto's unique Maroli restaurant where chef Naveen Polapady offers terrific dishes, spicy not hot, from a region that barely gets a mention among foodies.
Polapady is offering the Inaugural Malabar Food Festival on the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 29 and 30th, between noon and 10 pm.
For only $20, food enthusiasts will be offered a rare Indian culinary experience which includes viewing of live food preparation, beer and wine as well as a broad tasting of Malabari cuisine.
LOTS OF SEAFOOD
Malabar is noted for its variety of pancakes and steamed rice cakes and biryani made of mutton, chicken, egg and fish. There's also:
- Arikadaka, a concoction of rice, fennel and coconut filled in mussels and steamed.
- Meen moilee, a yellow fish curry and meen mulligattathu, a fiery sardine curry
- Peera pattichathu, a dry fish dish of grated coconut.
- Oyster stewed in coconut sauce.
- Olath erachi (fried mutton, beef or pork).
The distinctive cuisines of the southwestern Indian state of Kerala encompass a vast combination of vegetables, meats and seafood flavoured a myriad of spices, and cooked, frequently, in coconut milk. The northern parts of Kerala specialize in Malabar Cuisine, which is noted for its liberal use of a wide variety of spices.
In the past, explorers from Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Britain, Greece, Italy, China, France and Africa came to the spice coast of Malabar to stock up on their spices – especially black pepper.
Malabar cuisine, with its enchanting array of seafood and meat delicacies, is a wonderful remainder of the foreign influence on India’s southwest coast.
OYSTER STEW, BULLS TESTICLES AND CRAB CURRY
Exotic dishes at the event include: Curried Goat Testicles in roasted coconut sauce, Oyster Stew, Lamb Trotters Soup, Pan Fried Sardines, Malabar Fish Biriyani, Pepper-Fried Bulls Testicles , King Fish Moilee, Shrimp Malabari, Squid Thoran, Kallumakai Fry (Mussels), Kappa (Cassava),Tuna Chamanthi, Chemeen Curry (Shrimps) and Crab Curry.
Chef Polapady says the inspiration for doing this festival was to enlighten the folks of Toronto about another form of Indian cuisine: "I hope to enlighten people here."
"Many people think Indian food is spicy," notes Polapady. "Most [Malabari] dishes are well flavoured with different kinds of spices but they are usually not hot."
Several of Polapady's dishes are also family recipes handed down from generation to generation.
Some of the more popular dishes at his restaurant are Shrimp Malabari, Butter Chicken and Malabar Chicken – apparently, also a favourite of the chef.
So, if you're intrigued, why don't you drop by?
Interested in Indian dishes? Take a gander:Indian-Chinese Food, Spicy Indian Cauliflower, Quick Chicken Korma, Tandoori Chicken, India Moghul Food, the Ayurvedic Diet and the Vastu Kitchen.
LOCATION: Maroli Restaurant, 630 Bloor St. West, www.maroli.ca Tel: 647 897 5821
