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!



Now, coming down to the food:




Calamari salad




Dal and snake gourd curry


Pineapple curry
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.
 
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!  
Cafe Mozaic - Vivanta By Taj Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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14 comments

  1. I should not have seen this now :'( Now am craving for chicken and mango salad! Brilliant pics Priyanjana :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you :) The food tasted very different. If you love salads, the calamari one was the best :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. OMG! All that food is making me hungry in the middle of the night :( Amazing pictures Priyanjana!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Now this is making me crave for something sweet in the middle of the night.. Lovely post

    ReplyDelete
  5. You guys don't try veg food :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hahaha!! :D good observation! Actually we do in small portions, but not always :)

      Delete
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