This festive season if you are tired of the usual festival feasts that welcomes you everywhere, how about going back to the ‘nadan’?
Walk into the Palace View restaurant of Windsor Rajadhani, Kowdiar in the city and awaiting you there is a refreshing rustic village with a delectable array of ‘nadan’ dishes to dig into.
Replete with a ‘chaya kada’ (tea-shop), ‘murukkaan kada’, a fish vendor selling fish, a toddy shop and the like it is the perfect setting for a ‘nadan’ feast this festival season.
So asked why a ‘nadan’ food fest in between the festive season the manager Pillai says, “The specialty of ‘nadan’ food is that our customers never get tired of it. ‘Nadan’ food is something that will have takers in all seasons without doubt.”
You can start off your ‘nadan’ journey through the rustic village with a soup that is very ethnic to the dot. The rich ‘kozhi kariveppila’ soup with its strong taste of the curry leaves mixed with chicken is the perfect way to begin your ‘nadan’ journey. The soup does not have the slightest inkling of being Chinese that we are familiar with. The vegetarians can opt for the ‘thakkali parippu soup’.
Then comes the salad counter which again is customised in such a way so as to tickle your nadan taste buds. Kappa salad, Malabari kozhi salad, netholi salad, erachi ulli salad, pachakari uppilittathu are some of the delicacies at salad counter.
What is a ‘nadan’ cuisine without the mouth-watering kappa (tapioca), kachil(greater yam), chembu(colocasia) and chena(yam). These lip-smacking tubers that the Malayali are so fond of are offered in various shapes and sizes along with the chutneys and pickles.
You can have it with the traditional seafood delicacies, chicken, beef, mutton, quail, rabbit or duck. The vegetarians are not forgotten, there is a handsome layout of vegetarian dishes as well at the fest such as the ullitheeyal, koon masala, pachakkari stew, kizhangu varutharacha curry and more.
In the seafood category you have the chemmeen manga curry, kanava thoran, njandu roast, netholi peera, ayila polichathu, karimeen fry, kallummakai ularthiyathu. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the entire sea is presented before you waiting to be indulged in.
Ayila pollichathu in plantain leaf, njandu roast, chemmeen manga curry will have you craving for more.
You will be spoilt for choices at the food fest which has endless options that you wouldn’t know where to begin. Apart from the regular chicken and meat varieties the fest also serves duck, quail and rabbit for those who would like to experiment a little.
Apart from the tubers, you also have the chicken biriyani, tomato rice, the good old pidi, idiyappam and pathiri and at the live station you will be served hot appams, mutta paam, kothu paratha, chemmeen dosa, cheera dosa, kadala puttu and so on.
Moving on to the dessert section what awaits you are the things most youngsters these days would be alien to unless they visit their ancestral homes. Some of the goodies on offer are pazham pori, kozhukkatta, vattayappam, pazham nirachathu, avil vilayichathu, ada and so on.
Everything ‘nadan’ and imaginable has been offered at the fest. The fest which is a dinner buffet is on till December 31. The rate of the buffet is Rupees 750 plus tax. Timing is 7 pm to 11 pm.