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Food coma: Travelling nearly 1,700 kms for ven pongal
I've lost count of the number of years I have been attending the International Film Festival of Kerala held in Thiruvananthapuram. Has it been 15 years or 17? I first went there on the recommendation of fellow critic and friend Rashid Irani and stayed in the hotel he suggested. I consumed a delectable banquet of cinema an irresistible side dish: ven pongal.
Ever since then, my hotel of choice in Thiruvananthapuram has always been Ariya Nivaas. It's across the street from one of the major festival venues and close to other cinemas too. But the lure of Ariya Nivaas isn't just convenience. It's the ven pongal – the pale yellow rice-and-lentil orb dipped in ghee and garnished with pepper that is a breakfast staple across South India.
Annoyingly, the tariff at Ariya Nivaas does not include breakfast. But thankfully, Ariya Nivaas has two restaurants (AC and non-AC) that serve round-the-clock meals – soft idlis, perfectly crisp dosas, wholesome thalis that come with payasam, a ghee roast that is probably hard on the arteries. And ven pongal – delicious, perfectly spiced ven pongal.
I always start a manic day at the festival (catching a minimum of four films and a maximum of five) with ven pongal. It doesn't just layer the stomach until lunch. The dish reminds me of my mother's cooking back home in Bombay, vacations to Chennai, wedding breakfasts. It's both comfort food and Proustian experience.
The couple of times I didn't stay at Ariya Nivaas, I skipped the offer of the free breakfast at my hotel to schlep across to the Ariya Nivaas restaurant. The warm, hard-working waiters there know me as “Bombay Amma” and they serve up the ven pongal seconds after I have placed my order.
The hotel has seen renovations, the introduction of a hydraulic parking system and higher prices. Through all of this, the quality of the food has never once diminished. The ven pongal tastes the same as it did when I first walked into Ariya Nivaas nearly two decades ago.
There is probably better ven pongal available elsewhere in Thiruvananthapuram. Other eateries possibly offer tastier variations of the dish.
Do I want to experiment? Not really. Just as I routinely plan my trip to IFFK months in advance without knowing anything about the festival programme, so do I plot my mornings around the ven pongal at Ariya Nivaas.
Tastefully curated cinema and mouth-watering ven pongal – can anything be more blissful? Year on year, neither of them disappoints.
Source: Scroll
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