Bored of the usual chicken 65, pepper chicken and chilli chicken? Then, try the chathikkatha sundari kozhi or the puyyapla kozhi. The quirky names of dishes offered at the ‘Kozhikodan Ruchikoottu’ food festival of Café Kudumbasree are sure to tease your imagination even as mouthwatering smell permeates the beach air. The ‘Kozhikodan Ruchikoottu’ is the first in a series of food festivals the Kudumbasree District Mission is planning at the venue with an aim to offer a platform to enterprising women as well as to offer the public a taste of homely unadulterated food.
Six Café Kudumbasree units, including one from Malappuram district, are taking part in the food festival that got under way on Kozhikode beach on Friday evening. For the first time in the history of Kudumbasree, one unit is run by transgenders. Some of the units have had international exposure, having taken part in food festivals in Dubai and other parts of the Middle East. The Karuna unit from Kozhikode Corporation CDS has just returned from a food festival in Delhi. “Malabar food is in great demand in the north,” said Sheeba T. of the Karuna unit. “It is not just Malayalees who come in search of our specialities, but those from other States too. The snacks from Kozhikode are the most sought after.”
The 10-day-long festival will feature traditional food varieties of Malabar such as monchathi biriyani, karinjeeraka kozhi, Kozhikodan kozhikal, arogya porotta, chicken pollichathu and honey chicken besides different types of puttu, payasams and juices.
The organisers plan to conduct similar food festivals at the same venue every month. Kudumbasree units from across the State are expected to take part in the festival in the coming months, offering the foodies of Kozhikode a taste of delicacies from other parts of the State as well while units from Kozhikode will travel to other districts to popularise Malabar cuisine.