The Raviz Calicut – Cuisine | Currylines

This is a multi part account of my stay at The Raviz Calicut and The Raviz Resort and Spa Kadavu, in collaboration with Panache, the travel designers.

This post speaks of my favorite part, the cuisine at The Raviz Calicut.

Guests at The Raviz Calicut have quite a few options to dine at, with its 3 restaurants serving local and global fare.

The hotel is quite the complete destination for dining, corporate events and private functions.

The Café Mavoor (named after the adjoining road) is a 24 hour coffee shop

that also has a separate entrance to the RP Mall, which the hotel is a part

of. This lobby level café serves sandwiches, pizzas, burgers, pastries and

other quick snacks and beverages.

Pergola is the classy al fresco dining space on the 4th floor by the poolside and opens

only at dinner time. With its open air seating, stylish décor and vertical

gardens, it is also a premium space that is popular for hosting memorable

events.

Mainly serving seafood, the big draw here is its live grilling stations.

Live takes on a literal meaning, with fish that flip right out of large

tanks into the pan and plate.

The hotel has these enormous aquariums installed in into which the

catch of the day is released and made to feel at sea (no pun intended :-D)

by the saline water that fills the tanks. A truly unique concept, this

has a great fan (fin?) following among discerning diners who are prepared to

pay that premium for fish that cannot get any fresher.

The restaurant being closed due to the Onam festivities and since the

duration of my stay at the hotel was less than a day,

I did not get a chance to try out anything at the Mavoor or Pergola and

and all my 3 meals were at the Keraleeyam, which is the signature restaurant

across all the Raviz properties.

This is the main restaurant of the hotel with its long buffet counter and comfortable seating and its traditional décor includes large murals on the wall, showpieces that include brassware, lamps and even the Urumi, the flexible whip like sword used in Kerala’s martial arts.

Having landed during the Onam celebrations, there was naturally a grand

Sadya (the traditional Kerala festive meal) awaiting my palate.

Well there are sadyas and then there are sadyas at The Raviz, for this meal

that was on for 4 days as a part of the grand Onam celebrations was a

uniquely organic one. Chef Prince who took care of me like royalty 😀 spent

many hours with me explaining the effort that went into the creation of this

feast.

The sadya consists of several items that are served on a banana leaf, served

in a pre specified sequence and a pre determined location on the leaf. During

festivals the sadya is enhanced by an increased number of items and the

medley on my leaf consisted of all the traditional dishes like Nei parippu –

dal mixed with ghee, Thoran – a dry vegetable with coconut, Avial – mixed

vegetable, curd based curry, Kootu – a mixed vegetable curry, Buttermilk

curry, Sambar, Olan – a curry with ash gourd and coconut milk,

Mezhukuvaratty – dry vegetable, Pachadi – a curd salad, Curd, Banana chips,

Chakara varatti – jaggery coated banana chips, fried Curd chilli, Inji

puli – a ginger and tamarind chutney, Pickles, Chammanthis – coarse chutney,

papad and banana and of course the Red rice.

The drinks included Spiced buttermilk, Rasam and warm herbal water that

derived its red color from the Pathimugam bark.

Desserts were the typical Ada pradhaman, home made rice flakes cooked in

sweetened milk, a fruit payasam and a Paruppu (lentil) payasam.

As I mentioned earlier, it was highly commendable that almost every single

ingredient was either organic or unpolished and the chef had gone through

weeks of foraging for the choicest and best produce.

I was amazed to learn that this passion and dedication took them out of

Calicut’s boundaries and deep into tribal areas of Wayanad where some of the items were procured.

It was equally exciting to hear that in their great quest, they had also

discovered the hill station of Kanthaloor which is a hidden gem known as the

apple valley of Kerala and has organic apple orchards and farms growing

exotic fruits like strawberries, plums and kiwi and also all kinds of

organic vegetables and rice. The fruits in the payasam were sourced from here.

Needless to say, the flavors of this sadya were heightened by the purity of

its ingredients and I was extremely delighted and fortunate to have

experienced it.

News of my love for seafood having spread far and wide :-D, Chef Prince also made sure that I was served squid fry, prawns and a divine slice of fried seer fish, even though it was not humanly possible to eat after that huge spread.

Dinner was a low key affair due to the hectic festivities of the day. However, the very hospitable serving staff who sincerely thought I needed fattening 😀 went out of their way to make sure that I sampled more of their popular dishes.

Being passionate about their local cuisine, the Raviz group had conducted the Ruchi Mazha festival a few months ago, where chefs from all the Raviz properties came together to curate and create around 80 traditional dishes from the 3 main cuisines of Kerala namely the Malabar, the Syrian christian and the Royal Travancore. This resulted in an additional special menu being available in all their hotels, with the best 15 picks from all the dishes.

I was urged to try the Prawn Mappas, Beef Uliyarthu, Meen Polichattu and appams.