KOCHI: Thought Bengali food was only about roshgollas and hilsa? Pay a visit to the Bengali thali food festival at the Dream Hotel and you will get a taste of authentic Bengali cuisine. The ambience at the 24-hour Keshai restaurant will set you in the right mood to enjoy the elaborate thali which is a full meal in itself.
The appetiser, main course and the dessert are all served right at the beginning so without much ado, the thali will be brought to you in the traditional steel bowls and plate set. On the banana leaf on the plate is rice, luchis, an appetiser - mangsher chop (mutton chop), begun bhaja (fried brinjal), rice and luchis, (pooris), and a pappad with a sweet mango and date dipping. In the five bowls are a vegetable curry, dal and three non-veg preparations which are a must in any Bengali thali - prawn, fish and mutton - in that order.
There is a way to approach a Bengali thali meal, says F & B Manager Kevin Wilkins.
You begin with the luchis and dal or the vegetable curry, which was doi phulkopir, cauliflower cooked with yoghurt and ground spices, this time.
Like most Bengali preparations, both had a slightly sweet flavour. After that you move on to the rice which you can have with any of the other dishes. We had the chingri malai curry first, which is prawn cooked with spiced coconut gravy. This was again light almost to the point of being bland, but it will be relished by those who don’t like too much spice. The use of coconut in the food is another of the various commonalities between Kerala and Bengal, says Kevin. The fish preparation - katla kalia - was slightly spicier, but undoubtedly the tastiest of the spread, cooked with onion and spice gravy.
The mutton dish was the spiciest, kosha mangsho - spring lamb cooked with ground spices.
We finished off with the pappad and washed it all down with payesh, which was very much like the paladaprathaman, made with rice, milk and sugar, flavoured with cardamom.
A chef has been brought in from Bengal specially for the festival. Vegetarians can opt for the vegetarian thali which will have an equal number of vegetarian dishes. The thali, at Rs 550 for the vegetarian and Rs 650 for the non-vegetarian, might seem a little pricey, but the warm service will quite make up for it. The festival is on till Sunday.
ashaprakash@expressbuzz.com