A SPECIAL SEA FOOD TRAIL AT THE SOUTH OF VINDHYAS

South of Vindhyas, the south Indian specialty restaurant at The Orchid Hotel is running a very fascinating and one of its kind sea food festival till Feb 1, 2016. I say fascinating since I have not come across a sea food display like the one South of Vindhyas is sporting in any restaurant in the city. As soon as you enter the restaurant you are welcomed by about 29 treasures of the sea on offer - from white snappers to sardines, mackerels to salmons, lobsters to king prawns, crabs to squids are on display. Diners can “go fishing” for the sea food they prefer from this eclectic display and ask the chef to prepare it in the way they enjoy.

The mascot of this sea food festival is a beautiful fisherwoman welcoming you to sample chows at this food festival. In keeping with the theme of the festival, the menu design as well is in the shape of a fish. Master Chef Bala is the brain behind the menu for this festival, which has preparations from coastal states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

The entire restaurant is done up in a manner to recreate the look and feel of a fishing village. The restaurant ceiling has been adorned with fish net and there is a boat full of spices, traditional paintings on display.

Here is a glimpse of some of the fares we ended up chomping on:

SOUP:
Chemeen Rasam: This was a very subtle flavored prawn soup and a perfect way to begin our meal on a chilly winter evening. The flavors were derived from use of very simple ingredients like onions, tomatoes, garlic and dry spices like coriander powder, cumin seed powder and pepper powder.

APPETIZERS:
Raal Vattal: This was a lip-smacking preparation of prawns that were wok-tossed with curry leaves. The flavors of the dish were arrived at by marinating the prawns in garam masala powder, ginger-garlic paste, red chili powder, coriander powder, cumin seed powder and pepper powder, which also imparted a delicate amount of heat to the dish.

Talela Tarla: Tarla or Sardines were deep fried to arrive at a very crunchy starter flavored again with aforementioned traditional ingredients. The fish had a distinct flavor of its own and the spices just worked enhancing this flavor further.

Talela Surmai:  Also known as King Fish, the surmai was tawa fried in the traditional ingredients like lemon juice, ginger-garlic paste, red chilli powder and turmeric powder. The fish was perfectly cooked, however it had not been able to absorb the spices and left us underwhelmed.

SEA FOOD SIT DOWN BUFFET:
This had a variety of offerings of seafood and a few vegetarian preparations and dessert too. Here is a look at some of the dishes this sit down buffet for the day included:

• Eral Pandy: This was the most delicious preparation in the thali. A Pondicherry specialty this dish comprises of prawns cooked in a lovely spicy gravy.
• Kundul Ularthiyathu: The Ularthiyathu is a sought after preparation in Kerala cuisine. This dish comprised of squid rings fried in a spice mix that shouted of garam masala, red chili powder, pepper powder and curry leaves, mustard seeds. The squid rings were crispy and all spices gelled well with them.
• Meen Ghassi: The fish used was pomfret and was cooked in a gravy that comprised of coconut milk and Manglorean spices and had a tangy flavor.
• Crab Flesh Dry Roast:  This was a minced crab preparation but not a gravy or curry. Even though the dish was prepared as dry roast, the crab was moist and imbibed flavors of coconut and spices like garam masala and chili powder.
• Kottu Curry: A popular dish of the traditional Onasadya this dish consisted of lentils cooked in a spicy gravy that is finished off with a tempering of mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and coconut. In front of the sea food preparations this preparation seemed lackluster.

The accompanying breads with all the above mentioned Thali items were piping hot Appams and Kal Dosa. A special mention for one of its kind mobile Appam unit in the restaurant that moves from table to table dishing out hot appams. Rice preparations served included steamed rice and lemon rice.

The restaurant also has a mobile pickle unit that consists of delicious vegetarian and non-vegetarian pickles to go along with your food. My favorites from this wide variety of in-house pickles offered were the gongura pickle and the chicken pickle.

DESSERTS:
We tasted four different desserts on offer. They were as under:

• Vathalappam: The dessert resembled a crème brulee in appearance but consisted of a coconut milk based custard that had a very strong cardamom flavor. This was the best dessert according to me has the hot of cardamom was simply refeshing.
• Manni: This was a traditional rice based dessert from the state of Karnataka that has rice blended with coconut, jiggery and cardamom powder and cooked till a thick custard consistency is reached.
• Boondhi Payasam: This could be described as sev kheer adorned with colorful, sweet boondi. The payasam was not very sweet. The addition of boondi was a little unusual and did not add much flavor to the dish.
• Kalakant: This was the usual milk cake.

The restaurant is offering sit down sea food, non-vegetarian and vegetarian buffets.
Pricing: Rs 1800 plus taxes (sea food sit down buffet), Non veg- Rs 1500 & Veg Rs 1300++
For further information on the festival below are the details of the restaurant.
Venue: South of Vindhyas, The Orchid, 70/C Nehru Road, Near Domestic Airport, Vile parle (East).
Contact No.: 022-26164000

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