You can be hungry in the Sahara , thirsty in the Atacama desert but one place you shouldnt starve is ......Calicut ... The land of Zamorin Kings .....Strictly speaking the cuisine of present day Calicut is not the Zamorin Kings cuisine ,. But that is ok ... for its a great cuisine of its own " the malabar cuisine " . I personally like good vegeterian food as well as non-vegeterian food . But in Calicut the AUTO mode in my stomach goes into non vegeterian and the settings are set by theMalabar cuisine which is 99 percent nonvegeterian unless you count the sweets as vegeterian ... So here it goes
Paragon Hotel ... Seafood, Biriyani , you name it you get it in paragon around 100 metres from the famous mananchira maidan ( ground) . Be it the prawns masala or the "Ayakkoora " fry ( claims to be the sister of the Nemmeen (seerfish ) available in South Kerala )) their fish items are good each one better than the rest . Which to choose ? Dont ask me choose all:) . Their biriyani is good but i feel not as classy compared to their seafood curries or masala with any of the main dishes --parotta or idiyappam or appam . And please ... please dont try to be a chinese here ordering fried rice at paragon ( though avialable ) . This is a Malabari hotel and stick to your malabari dishes
Sagar ............hotel ... its near the bus stand ....When i was a tutor in Calicut Medical College when i came back from trivandrum first thing in the morning is i used to go to Sagar hotel for tea . And coming from South Kerala i was shocked to see people having Hot Ayakkoora curry and Appam at 7 am . Used to dosa iddali etc in the morning eating a FULL breakfast of hardcore nonveg food early in morning was unthinkable . Then slowly i too started to have this combination from Sagar Hotel . (but not at 7 am ) . Yes their Ayakkoora curry is too good ..... best in town . And the competing dish is their Biriyani ... i dont know whether the best in town but i like it the best ....And here also a word of caution ... dont be a chinese here (i think all these malabari hotels have a chinese connection due to it being a seaport with trade to China ((my view : no references))
Al Bake .....Arabian food ... authentic minus the belly dancers ., their broasted chicken which is prepared in a special imported device ( something like a cooker ... but more sophisticated ) . The chicken which goes inside comes out with a personality of its own called Broasted Chicken .And you have it with Kuboos ( yes the same one which u get in middleeast ) .The other specialities are Shawarma , Shaway chicken , kapsa rice etc and their milkshakes are worth every dinar ....And my personal comment is their arabian food is better than the arabian food i had in the middleeast .
Zains Restaurant (near the beach ) .........Zainu thatha .... and her husband Hmmm ... In malabar it is ladies first ... seriously ... if in doubt check the restaurant name ...This restaurant is really ethnic .... So you may like it best sometimes .... All the malabari goodies which are not available in other hotels are available here ... Arikkkadukka ... Its seafood mussel which is baked with pulverised rice served inside the shell of mussel . is delicious . And unnakkaiii ...a sweet dish made with eggs and banana but which looks much different from both its parents is good . These are the starters ... If you are lucky and in the right time you will get muttamaala called garland of egg which is a 1 mm thick fried with sugar dish made only from egg yolk ( cholesterol yes .....rich ...health conscious beware )
Main food you have all the seafood (take ur pick) or Mutton Estew with aripathiri ... my favourite .
tender mutton stew with a soft chappathi like thing made of rice ....but leagues away from chappathi .
( You can challenge anyone that u can eat 20 of these ...... they r so soft when mixed with milk of coconut ) . And dont challenge me .... i can eat 40 if im really starving ...
Ok .... so you have had a sumptuous food from any or all of the above ... then what to do .... ? If you read carefully .... i gave you two landmarks .... the choice is urs ..... The Calicut beach which is historic or the Mananchira Maidan (equally historic ) ....
And please say thanks to me as a comment ...
Paragon Hotel ... Seafood, Biriyani , you name it you get it in paragon around 100 metres from the famous mananchira maidan ( ground) . Be it the prawns masala or the "Ayakkoora " fry ( claims to be the sister of the Nemmeen (seerfish ) available in South Kerala )) their fish items are good each one better than the rest . Which to choose ? Dont ask me choose all:) . Their biriyani is good but i feel not as classy compared to their seafood curries or masala with any of the main dishes --parotta or idiyappam or appam . And please ... please dont try to be a chinese here ordering fried rice at paragon ( though avialable ) . This is a Malabari hotel and stick to your malabari dishes
Sagar ............hotel ... its near the bus stand ....When i was a tutor in Calicut Medical College when i came back from trivandrum first thing in the morning is i used to go to Sagar hotel for tea . And coming from South Kerala i was shocked to see people having Hot Ayakkoora curry and Appam at 7 am . Used to dosa iddali etc in the morning eating a FULL breakfast of hardcore nonveg food early in morning was unthinkable . Then slowly i too started to have this combination from Sagar Hotel . (but not at 7 am ) . Yes their Ayakkoora curry is too good ..... best in town . And the competing dish is their Biriyani ... i dont know whether the best in town but i like it the best ....And here also a word of caution ... dont be a chinese here (i think all these malabari hotels have a chinese connection due to it being a seaport with trade to China ((my view : no references))
Al Bake .....Arabian food ... authentic minus the belly dancers ., their broasted chicken which is prepared in a special imported device ( something like a cooker ... but more sophisticated ) . The chicken which goes inside comes out with a personality of its own called Broasted Chicken .And you have it with Kuboos ( yes the same one which u get in middleeast ) .The other specialities are Shawarma , Shaway chicken , kapsa rice etc and their milkshakes are worth every dinar ....And my personal comment is their arabian food is better than the arabian food i had in the middleeast .
Zains Restaurant (near the beach ) .........Zainu thatha .... and her husband Hmmm ... In malabar it is ladies first ... seriously ... if in doubt check the restaurant name ...This restaurant is really ethnic .... So you may like it best sometimes .... All the malabari goodies which are not available in other hotels are available here ... Arikkkadukka ... Its seafood mussel which is baked with pulverised rice served inside the shell of mussel . is delicious . And unnakkaiii ...a sweet dish made with eggs and banana but which looks much different from both its parents is good . These are the starters ... If you are lucky and in the right time you will get muttamaala called garland of egg which is a 1 mm thick fried with sugar dish made only from egg yolk ( cholesterol yes .....rich ...health conscious beware )
Main food you have all the seafood (take ur pick) or Mutton Estew with aripathiri ... my favourite .
tender mutton stew with a soft chappathi like thing made of rice ....but leagues away from chappathi .
( You can challenge anyone that u can eat 20 of these ...... they r so soft when mixed with milk of coconut ) . And dont challenge me .... i can eat 40 if im really starving ...
Ok .... so you have had a sumptuous food from any or all of the above ... then what to do .... ? If you read carefully .... i gave you two landmarks .... the choice is urs ..... The Calicut beach which is historic or the Mananchira Maidan (equally historic ) ....
And please say thanks to me as a comment ...
thanks! made me miss Calicut
ReplyDeletemy mouth waters as i read!
ReplyDeleteGood one..., but you have forgotten Topform and Bombay Hotel..isn't that unfair?
ReplyDeleteThanks I miss calicut , the people n the food
ReplyDeleteThanks all :) for reading and commenting ... @ helios its a great paradox as someone told bombay hotel was not as good as before so never tried it at all .. And our "canteen " food was so awesome (no pun intended ) that didnt feel like trying other than these and the scores of little restaurants which served awesome local meals .
ReplyDelete@ drsmitha : only in calicut the autodriver welcomes you and is the friendliest in the world ... i dont know but periphery of calicut people i liked best especially the suburbs of kuttiyady, quilandy etc ..
Thanks for sharing useful information. Anyone visiting Calicut can feel blessed while enjoying all the modern day comforts without missing lush greenery which is a rare combination. Check out all the popular hotels in Calicut.
ReplyDelete