March 22: The Kerala Food Festival is underway at Kakori, a restaurant at Soaltee Hotel in Kathmandu. The two-week festival will conclude this Sunday, according to the organiser. The food festival offers the authentic taste of Kerala for food lovers in Nepal.

The food festival which kicked off on March 11 at the Soaltee Hotel with Kathakali dance performance will continue till March 24.

According to Kakori Restaurant, special guest chef from India, Rejimon PS along with chef Yubaraj Pokharel have prepared the menu by leading the culinary team “to create scrumptious Kerala style dishes”.

According to the organiser, the chefs have introduced varieties of mouth-watering dishes like Koon Ada, Kappa Chemmeen Cutlet, Attin Noolappam Soup, Seafood Savala Roast, Kozhi Olan, Kaya Konjukizhi, Malliyila Manga Choru and many more.

A must-try dish at the festival is the Vazhapoo Kadala Parippu Cutlet, which is a traditional dish made with delicate banana flowers and Bengal gram. Other dishes like Kanthari Chicken, Chemmeen Ilayappam Aleppy Fish Curry, Suriyani Kozhipidi, Kochulli Koon Theeyal are also available at the festival.

“The cuisine boasts the use of coconut cream and milk for thickening and flavouring while spices are used to temper the flavour of the dishes. The menu has fine selection of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes with varieties of seafood, mutton, chicken curries and gravies,” reads a statement issued by the restaurant.

An array of desserts like the traditional coconut-dusted sweet dumplings called Tenga Jaddu as well as Palada Payasam - rice flakes cooked with cardamom and sweetened milk - are also prepared by the chefs.