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A tasting menu in Kochi explores Kerala's gastronomic past
Summary
An interesting food pop-up experience in Kochi is a gateway to its past
There is a unique multi-course, immersive dining experience in Kochi featuring a series of meals shaped by the chefs’ food memories and traditional dishes of Kerala. They are conceptualised by a local food experience curating agency, Bites & Banter. It was founded by three gourmands and friends—artist Anna Pynadath along with chefs George JP Mayne and Georgy Vinod—in April.
The trio don’t have a restaurant space and they pick different venues to complement their menus. It gives them the flexibility to play with decor and create a different mood each time. Their first menu titled, Burn’t Butter and Bad Jokes, was unveiled in May. It has influences from Mayne’s Luso-Indian lineage rooted in Kerala’s Indo-Portuguese heritage. It is a prominent community residing in Kochi and their food is known for smoked meats and roasts. The menu reflects this in dishes such as smoky chicken tart, roasted beets served on a bed of wild greens, among others. The last itineration of this menu was held at the art studio and lounge Ō That Vibe in Ernakulam in October.
Their newest menu named Forgotten Cochin is a seven-course meal and was launched in October. The seating is limited and they host a sit-down experience once a month. I signed up for the November edition hosted at the Brunton Boatyard, a restored period building currently managed by the Kerala-based hospitality company Casino Group of Hotels. It was the site for one of Kochi’s oldest ship builders, Geo Brunton and Sons (of England), in the nineteenth century. From flavours to techniques, complete with regional influences and storytelling against the rustic background of a historic building, it was an immersive experience like no other in the coastal city.
Both the chefs, Mayne and Vinod, intended to bring something like this to the coastal city. “Going beyond concepts of conventional dining is what we’re aiming at with these dining experiences," says Mayne, who studied culinary arts from the Delhi affiliate of Le Cordon Bleu, Paris at GD Goenka Institute, Gurugram. Vinod, who graduated from the Bangalore Culinary Academy, also holds a degree in finance from London. While in London, he worked at around four different restaurants and went on to do a six-month stint with the Hyatt in Bengaluru. Pynadath, an architect by profession, helps setting the food in the right ambience and decor. Some of the most memorable meals that Mayne enjoyed were in Bengaluru. One of them was at the restaurant Oota, where hyper local delicacies from Karnataka were served with a smattering of theatre; another at the famous Naru Noodle Bar by chef Kavan Kuttappa; and a pop-up experience at food events space, The Conservatory. “These were learning curves for me," he shares.
Each of the seven courses in their current menu champion regionality and the chefs’ backgrounds. The meal started off with the first course of kadathala pashtel or the taro pâté. It is a traditional roll found in Kerala made from rice dough and stuffed with egg and potato. Here, it was presented in the form of a pâté on a cracker. ‘Pashtel’, a word of European origin means pastry or pie crust, and in this case reimagined as a cracker. The pashtel is characteristic of the Jewish community from the island of Vypeen in Kochi, Mayne informs. And taro or arbi or cherub, as it is called in Malayalam, is another key ingredient from Kerala’s 400-year-old culinary history and came in through trade from China, he adds. The pâté was mashed taro root blended with spices of erachi ularth (beef roasted in spices).
This was followed by arancini made of the indigenous matta rice, filled with shredded, chicken cooked in vindaloo spices--a Portuguese inspiration. “Now, one might say that vindaloo is more of a Goan speciality, but it is very much a Malayalee dish, with shared Portuguese origins," Mayne says. Courses five was seared yam or a mackerel option served with vattayappam (a rice cake made of fermented rice batter) on a bed of fish moilee gravy. “Now, the moilee course is another one that’s close to my heart as it is a Kerala-style fish curry. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, coconut milk was added to suit the palate of the Portuguese traders living here," Mayne explains.
The fifth course was a splendid pork belly paired with sourdough bread and mussadth, a condiment unique to Luso-Indians of Kerala. It is a flavour-bomb made with fermented yellow mustard, ginger, garlic and bark of moringa tree. My favourite course was the one with succulent pork and rose cookie. A guava drink sans sugar and a shot of coconut water with ginger and lime served as a palate cleanser. The meal ended with a dessert named Queen’s Surprise, a medley of pumpkin payasam, banana halwa and a delish coconut cardamom crumble.
Also read: The secret sauce of Kochi's Luso Indians
Mayne said they didn’t want to open a restaurant as that would’ve limited them to one type of cuisine and set portion sizes. “Also, at a restaurant, the decor cannot be changed. We opt for venues that are like a a bare shell, where we can play around with decor and other elements. The upcoming pop-ups might not even have formal seating—we might have cooking stations, where guests can move around and be seated casually on the floor." The trio soon hopes to take the curated experiences to other metros, and are already in talks with venues in Bengaluru.
The dining experience featured musical stylings of Gung, comprising Nandana V, a pianist and vocalist from Kochi, and June, a guitarist from Kolkata. With the menu tied to the neck of a bottle, a nod to Brunton Boatyard’s shipping connection, the whole evening was a treat to the senses.
Bites & Banter will host another themed pop-up on December 14 and 15, at Ō That Vibe. The average price is pegged at ₹ 2,800-3,500 (without taxes, without alcohol). To book, visit their Instagram page, @bites.banter.
Sumitra Nair is a journalist based in Kerala.
