Ayubowan | The Sri Lankan Food Festival @ Vivanta By Taj - MG Road | Bangalore
01:09 |
| Lunumiris and egg salad |
In the past few months, we have visited a lot of luxurious
dining spots mostly covering different festivals from across the world. Some of
them were the dragon boat festival, Chinese New Year, generic impromptu
festivals and much more. This time we bring to you our experience of a festival
we have very recently been to at The Vivanta by Taj- MG Road, Bangalore.
This ongoing festival goes by the name: Ayubowan which is the Sri Lankan
food festival and it is sure to take your taste buds to a ride further down
south!
Geographically as well as on cultural grounds India and Sri
Lanka share many similarities and after trying out the food in this festival
one can understand the deep connection between these two glorious countries
both in terms of rich culture and food!
This festival is running at Cafe
Mozaic which is run by their multi award winning Executive Chef Ramasamy
Selvaraju. We are not sure whether we will visit Sri Lanka in the near future,
but thanks to this festival we sure went on a fabulous culinary trip.
Cafe Mozaic has indoor and outdoor seating. Indoor seating
is for people who prefer privacy and a certain degree of sophistication whereas
the outdoors is pool side and has a different charm to it. Except for the food
factor, this festival also includes Sri Lankan folk dance performances by the
renowned Budawatta dance troupe. We really enjoyed the food and the
performances just made the experience a whole lot better!
There were no particular starters as such but the fried fish
and the chicken Koththu were simply outstanding! The fish was fresh, juicy and
crispy. The batter coating was equal throughout and what made it better is that
the fish was not too bony. This fried fish and beer is a terrific combo and a
must try.
The Koththu had two variants: chicken and veg. We tasted the
chicken one and honestly speaking: if we go there again we would definitely
want to retry this one! It was perfect in every sense. It was full of diced
chicken (so that guarantees what you get in every bite) with onions and the
right amount of curry leaves.
Apart from this there was a tender coconut station which is
the best drink you can start your meal with! There was also a counter where
there were small, thick roti’s made up of rice and were filled with chilli’s predominantly.
This one also tasted pretty good.
There were a couple of salads which were very interesting
and tasty: Lunumiris and egg salad, chicken and mango salad and the Sri Lankan
red chilli and garlic marinated calamari salad. The egg salad had a simple boiled
egg topped off with a spicy head and was very appetizing. The chicken salad was
mildly sour and the combination of chicken and mangoes always yields great
results. Lastly, and the best salad was the calamari. It had fat rings of
calamari which was perfectly done and chewy and the taste was remarkable. The
mixture was well marinated and the flavours were present throughout!
There were no marked main course, but we would like to call
the above dishes as starters and so now the main course:
There were quite a few vegetarian preparations out of which
we tried only the pineapple curry which was outright amazing! It had a tangy
flavour and the sweetness of the pineapples tasted brilliant.
All the preparations were kept in earthen pots. On the non
veg side, we tried everything of course. The pork black curry was exceptional.
Fatty pieces of pork, distributed in black gravy which had dominating flavours
of black pepper! This dish had a sharp taste and if you love pork, do not leave
without trying this!
 |
| Chicken preparation |
The Kukulumas Siyambala Curry was a chicken preparation
which tasted a lot like the pork and so, was delicious. What made it better is
that the chicken was on the bone.
The crab curry with drumstick lines was another delicious
dish. It was very flavourful and had a lot of coconut in it. The soft shell
crabs where easy to break and juicy.
The devilled prawns were equally good! It was mildly sweet
and had lemon grass and coconut in it. The fusion of flavours and the sweet
prawns made the preparation lip smacking!
Lastly, the Kaha Bath Bithara Samagan Kaju was an egg
preparation. It had fried eggs on a bed of flavoured rice so, the concept is a
lot like egg biriyani but it had no masala. It was light, flavourful and the
eggs tasted great!
The main course items had one accompaniment: Sri Lankan
hoppers which looked and tasted identical to what we call appams. There were
two varieties: normal and with egg.
Time for the ending streak:
 |
| Watalappam |
 |
| Strawberry Panacotta |
 |
| Cham Cham |
There were quite a wide variety of desserts and most of them
are definitely worth a shot! The Inguru pudding was the best dessert according
to us. It had mild flavours of cardamom and cinnamon and tasted a lot like our
traditional halwa. The chocolate brownie was pretty decent as well. It was a
bit gooey in texture and had the right amount of sweetness. The Watalappam was
unique. It tasted like chocolate pudding with a round piece of musk melon and a
slice of kiwi. The cham cham's were soft and had the right amount of sweetness as well. Also, they were a bit different from what we normally call a cham cham.
There were some other dessert items which were pretty good
too but these were the highlights!
This was again a well executed festival in terms of the
dance performances and the delicious food of course.
This special festival menu is only for buffet dinner along with unlimited kingfisher beer and live dance performances: Now that's a steal when you see a price tag of INR 1500 + taxes!
Two chefs from Vivanta by Taj, Bentota, Sri Lanka were a part of this festival too and they were behind the hopper and koththu counters in the buffet.
This special festival menu is only for buffet dinner along with unlimited kingfisher beer and live dance performances: Now that's a steal when you see a price tag of INR 1500 + taxes!
Two chefs from Vivanta by Taj, Bentota, Sri Lanka were a part of this festival too and they were behind the hopper and koththu counters in the buffet.
The best thing about the food was there was nothing to hog!
The food was flavourful and each item had a separate significance. So, unlike typical buffets you will end up trying all the preparations.
This festival runs till the 15th of August, so if you are up for trying out some different type of food which will give you a mouth watering experience you know where to hop in!
If you guys visit, do let us know about your experience.
We'll be posting about a new experience soon!
Till then, bon apetit!
This festival runs till the 15th of August, so if you are up for trying out some different type of food which will give you a mouth watering experience you know where to hop in!
If you guys visit, do let us know about your experience.
We'll be posting about a new experience soon!
Till then, bon apetit!
14 comments
I should not have seen this now :'( Now am craving for chicken and mango salad! Brilliant pics Priyanjana :)
ReplyDeleteThank you :) The food tasted very different. If you love salads, the calamari one was the best :D
ReplyDeleteOMG! All that food is making me hungry in the middle of the night :( Amazing pictures Priyanjana!
ReplyDeleteNow this is making me crave for something sweet in the middle of the night.. Lovely post
ReplyDeleteYou guys don't try veg food :P
ReplyDeletehahaha!! :D good observation! Actually we do in small portions, but not always :)
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