Kerala hotel prepares feast for Id-ul-Fitr

From a variety of soups - pineapple rasam soup and prawn soup prepared using coconut milk - to the popular appam, thattu dosa and Kerala paratha, a luxury hotel here is prepared for the Id-ul-Fitr celebrations Tuesday.

For the past week, Hotel Hycinth by Sparsa and its executive chef Macs M. Colbey have been busy organising a special buffet dinner as the Iftar season peaks with the grand finale Tuesday.

Colbey has previously worked for two years with the Venetian Macau at the Indian restaurant.

"In Kerala, the true Muslim cuisine is basically what is seen in the northern districts of Kerala like Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasargode," he said.

"We in our hotel here have been following that ever since we began this special short food festival that's currently on," said Colbey, who has been a chef since 2001 and has travelled across the globe.

Kerala is observing Id-ul-Fitr Tuesday and Colbey and his team of 26 cooks have finished working on the menu for Tuesday's feast.

There are many items on the menu. Besides others, it includes the traditional puttu (steam cake) tapioca, taken with steaming hot lamb curry prepared using raw banana; the traditional Malabari fish curry followed by steamed rice and the ever popular north Kerala ghee rice.

To top it all, Colbey has lined up six different types of desserts and ice creams too.

"The speciality of north Kerala (popularly called as Malabar) Muslim food is that in the mutton curry they use raw banana and tamarind for the fish curry. In central and some southern districts, the Kocum variety of tamarind is used for making fish curry. We have gone for the traditional Malabari ingredients," said Colbey.

Giving Colbey all the support is manager Santosh K. Sinha.

"Due to the huge response to the short food festival that's currently on, requests are coming in for extending it and we have decided to extend it by a few more days," said Sinha.