A tall table covered with little bowls of sundal, boiled peanuts and sliced raw mango generously dusted with chilli powder. A counter with trays of fish and prawn coated in masala, ready to be grilled or fried. Paper cones filled with roasted peanuts. You can be excused for thinking you’re at any of Chennai’s beaches. But this is the ECR Route 49 food festival at ITC Grand Chola’s Madras Pavilion, celebrating the vibrant food culture of the iconic East Coast Road.
Having moved to the city about four years ago, Chef Sandeep Kapoor and his colleagues made several trips down ECR. “All of us were new to the city, and we often drove down to Puducherry or Mamallapuram. Each time, we had a fantastic food experience, and we have always wanted to feature this in our hotel. We have finally done it, after a lot more travel and research,” says the sous chef, who is the mainstay behind this event. The basic idea, he says, is to give diners the opportunity to experience the food without the hassle of driving down the stretch.
The meal begins with neer mor, and a plethora of starters served at the table. The highlights include a crispy nandu rava fry (soft-shell crab coated in semolina), brain kavapu — it looks like a bajji, but is filled with creamy lamb brain that has us going back for seconds and thirds, and fried mushrooms. Apart from this, there is also kara paniyaram which tastes like a denser version of the dhokla, an overtly-sweet banana dosai and yam cutlet, which isn’t a vegetable I’m really fond of, so my opinion might be skewed here. Before wandering over to the buffet counter for the main course, we indulge in a refreshing East Coast cocktail, and for the non-alcoholics, there’s a mouth-puckeringly tart mocktail. Or just have plain tender coconut water served in the shell.
If you aren’t in the mood for a full-fledged meal, or love anything with seafood in it, opt for a big bowl of kadal meen pouillabaisse. No, not bouillabaisse, but it is inspired by the French dish. It’s a hearty stew/soup filled with fresh crab, prawn and fish.
The kassa kassa kozhi curry (chicken in a khus-khus gravy) is packed with flavour, and the Nagore chicken biryani is delicious, so is the urulai kola urundai. And while the keerai molagutal — greens with lentils and red chillis — tastes a little too raw, the ripe jackfruit curry is the surprise of the meal. It manages to be sweet and savoury, and tastes especially good when paired with kal dosai.
For dessert, there are deep-brown jaggery macarons, filled with jaggery cremeaux. It is quite overwhelmingly sweet at first bite, but the cremeaux has a slightly more chewy consistency than usual, which makes it interesting enough to polish off. There’s also a tender coconut pudding served in an earthen pot.
End the meal with hot coffee from the tea kadai-style counter, replete with the large glass jars that are so synonymous with our roadside shops.
