In search of a simple Kerala meal

KOCHI: ‘Kochi pazhya Kochi alla’ (Kochi is not the same old Kochi anymore), this dialogue from an Amal Neerad film has become part of our collective memory. It is true in several aspects of life in this bustling city -- from its shopping culture to the art scene, and simply the way its residents spend an evening.

But some changes are just inexcusable. We are talking about the simple Kerala lunch or its slow disappearance from hotels in Kochi. Yes, there are places such as Grand Hotel, BTH, Kettuvallam, Oottupura etc where one could get a typical Kerala lunch, but these are not the restaurants you would visit everyday. At least not me, as they don’t come at ‘everyday prices’. 

It’s not the traditional meals served in banana leaf that I am referring to. But the topic is the simple lunch (even red rice is not mandatory) with just two or three dishes plus sambar and/or moru kachiyathu, a pappad, and pickle.

Recently, when I tweeted lamenting the death of small hotels serving simple Kerala lunch, many people responded. Some cited the above-mentioned premium restaurants but the overwhelming sentiment was that budget-freindly hotels are dead and buried.

So what changed? Is economics at work forcing the small eateries to move to porotta, biriyani, and ‘new-gen’ Arabic entrants such as ‘al faham’, ‘mandi’, ‘shawarma’ etc. The answer, I reckon, is a combination of both. For a small hotelier, it’s simply uneconomical to prepare a proper rice meal that requires a team of people in the kitchen (getting up early in the morning to prepare the food), and another set to serve during the busy lunch hour. The shelf life of the food items is very short — you need to finish preparing for lunch by 3pm, a hotelier tells me. In comparison, parotta, biriyani, and Arabian dishes have a longer shelf life, can be prepared to order, and don’t need an army of people to serve the customers.

Sehiyon Ootushala on Chittoor Road is perhaps one of the most sought-after places for a decent lunch with a variety of fish dishes at affordable prices. The place is quite busy and is frequented mostly by people working in offices and establishments nearby. If you are looking for lunch at rock-bottom prices, then there is the ‘Samridhi’ run by Kochi corporation offering meals at `10/plate. It is an initiative of the Hunger-Free Kochi project and has one outlet now, at Paramara Road. Its second outlet, in Fort Kochi, may be launched as early as next month.

Since this column began with a movie example, let me conclude with a film question. Which is your favourite lunch scene? For me, it’s Bharath Gopi in Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Kodiyettam and Nandu in Naalu Pennungal. Gopi, the acting maestro that he is, shows you how to relish an ‘oonu’  while Nandu, portrayed as a glutton, simply can’t stop eating, from one scene to another. His focus is solely on finishing the oonu, licking his fingers in sheer pleasure after completing each portion. The director has a knack for bringing out the best in actors, especially in ‘oonu’ scenes. Or he may have starved his actors before shooting those particular eating scenes.