Just like the slick spy James Bond who’s partial to a certain ‘shaken, not stirred’ beverage, Malaylis — the people of the south Indian state of Kerala — have a irrepressible need for their porottas (delicate, flaky bread) and spicy curries, such as Kerala-style chilli chicken.
No matter how fancy the restaurant or how extensive the menu, it’s difficult to sway them from their chosen path. The patrons go straight for their kill (the rest of the world calls it a main course) and achieve food nirvana with bread and curry or a plate of biryani, every single time.
Pandansa chicken
But three men from Dubai are attempting to change the manner in which Keralites order and demolish food while eating out. Enter their restaurant Calicut Notebook, a chain in the UAE that serves Kerala delicacies. But their thrust is their Malabari appetisers, which borrow generously from Thai, Japanese and Mexican cuisines. Their sixth branch in the UAE is scheduled to open at the Lulu Hypermarket in Al Barsha next week.
“Malayalis usually don’t choose starters or soups. They go straight for their porotta and curry for dinner and for lunch they choose either biryani or fish-curry meals. But we want to change that mindset and lure them to try something new. We are not asking them to experiment blindly, but only to give our appetisers a chance,” said Gopi Poovamullathil, executive director of Calicut Notebook, speaking in Malayalam at their location in Deira.
Spicy Raw Mango Salad
As if on cue, a waiter materialises with Pazhassi salad — a large white plate with pechay leaves in the centre and tiny bowls of fried coconut, peanuts, onions, chillies, garlic pieces and honey and jaggery sauce.
“In the olden days, there was a tradition of giving guests murukkan [a betel leaf wrapped around a filling of areca nut, lime and mouth fresheners] as soon as they enter your home as a goodwill gesture, but here we have given it a twist. We want to welcome our guests with a healthier version of it,” said Satheesh Kumar, managing director of Calicut Notebook, as he slathers the pechay (also known as Chinese cabbage) leaf with the brown sauce and fills it with all the condiments. It’s rolled like a mini samosa and is meant to be popped into the mouth in one go. The crunch from the peanuts and dried coconut slices along with the heat from the red chilii and the sweetness from the syrup makes it an apt palate cleanser.
Blanket fish fillet
Next up is their signature blanket fish fillet — a boneless steamed fish roll marinated in coconut milk and infused with turmeric and French mustard. A string pulled from a banana leaf holds all that spicy goodness together. There’s a sliver of beetroot puree in the plate, which helps you cut the heat and dresses it up a notch.
“Even in terms of presentation of food, we have worked hard. For many, it’s the taste that matters when you eat a biryani or a porotta and curry. But we want our guests to enjoy what they see on the plate first,” said Poovamullathil. Any Keralite food lover worth their salt will vouch that presentation of food is the least important thing on their minds.
Chicken chatty curry
If you serve us a plate of spicy dry-fry prawns, we will rarely fuss about the careless way in which the crispy coconut shavings and curry leaves are strewn around.
“But we wanted to give importance to both taste and presentation … and we take the responsibility of being a fusion restaurant seriously. Sometimes that word is used carelessly. But we have genuinely tried to bring different worlds together in one plate. You can’t take away coconut milk from our Kerala cooking, but we can introduce new flavours,” said Kumar. He forks a spoonful of the Thai mango salad. Fresh ripe mango slices have been diced with shallots, red chillies and fish sauce.
Mango fish curry
Chicken yakitori borrows from Japan in the way they skewer the meat, but the marinade is staunchly Malabari with its thick coriander and red chilli paste. To prod their guests to experiment, the appetisers are available on a per piece basis. A piece of yakitori chicken will cost you Dh7, while a piece of blanket fish fillet is Dh8. A meal for two won’t go beyond Dh100.
“This is a budget-friendly restaurant and we want people to try all our fusion dishes. It has worked beautifully because now our guests don’t skip the starters section now. When fusion has entered cinema, music, fashion, it’s high time it entered Kerala food too,” said Poovamullathil, who previously worked with Calicut Paragon, a popular Keralite restaurant in Karama.
Banana crepe
While his appetisers are good, there’s no taking away the goodness from their traditional, unadulterated dishes. Their flaky porotta and mango fish curry (slices of kingfish in a sauce of coconut paste, raw mango and turmeric) are fail-proof. Another curry to try is the chatti chicken curry. Cooked and served in a clay pot, the chicken curry made from roasted coriander, coconut and curry leaves is flavourful and can unblock a stuffy nose.
“We have been sending parcels to actor Nivin Pauly’s family, who’s in Dubai right now, for several weeks now. They like the traditional Kerala dishes, but we always send an appetiser with a fusion twist. They don’t ask us for it, but we want them to try it out,” said Poovamullathil.
Gopi Poovamullathil and Satheesh Kumar at Calicut Notebook restaurant in Deira
