Chettinad cuisine at Taj Samudra’s Navaratna

Wednesday, 18 January 2012 00:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Navratna, arguably Colombo’s finest Indian restaurant, serves you South Indian delicacies when speciality Chef Arasakuma joins the restaurant from Chennai to host the Chettinad Cuisine Promotion from Friday 20 January to Sunday 5 February.

This unique food promotion will feature mouth-watering delicacies from the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu, India.

Chettinad cuisine is one of the spiciest and the most aromatic of all India’s fine cuisines. Stemming from the infatuations of richly cultured Chettiar people, this cuisine is truly distinctive with its blend of hot and tangy flavour of freshly ground “masalas”.

The spices that weave together include marathi mokku (dried flower pods), anasipoo (star aniseed) and kalpasi (dried bark), tamarind, whole red chillies, cinnamon and cloves to mention a few. Whilst Chettinad food is spicy, you need not worry about it setting your palate on fire… the spiciness is less from chilly and more from pepper, ginger and cumin.

Spices are a deep passion in Chettinad cuisine, and no self respecting Chettinad chef settles for anything other than freshly blended dry or wet combinations of spices, herbs and nuts.

Navratna will bring you some of the most famous dishes to emerge from the kitchens of Chettinad in a choice of vegetarian and non-vegetarian.

Navratna’s menu during the Chettinad Food Promotion will feature an extensive array of signature dishes including karuvepilai era (prawns marinated in a unique curry leaf paste and deep-fried), kari vathakkal (boneless pieces of mutton cooked dry with assorted spices) kozhi varutha curry (tender pieces of chicken cooked in a tangy curry), paalkatti pattani thokku (cottage cheese and green peas cooked in a Chettinad onion tomato masala). Most of the dishes are eaten with rice and rice based accompaniments such as dosas, appams, idiyappams and idlis.

Come experience the extraordinary diversity of India’s cuisine at the Navratna during the Chettinad Food Promotion and be a part of this culinary adventure.