One theory says that town is dead since everything has shifted northwards and eastwards.
The other maintains that it is what it is. As the children say, whatever. The fact is that it looks buzzing during the day and the little bylanes of Fort are chock-full of stationery shops, couriers, offices, restaurants, heritage buildings and all the rest of the excitement of a working area. It is a pleasure to visit after years of being trapped in middle-Mumbai and pretend that you’re part of the Fort buzz.
But even better actually, in real terms, is eating and in this case, at Deluxe Hotel. This was once quite a small and dare I say it dingy eaterie in a lane off Janmabhoomi Marg (what was Ghogha street I think). Now it has expanded and includes an upstairs and an air-conditioned section. The focus of the cuisine remains Kerala, though the menu does include a huge Chinese section. Everyone I saw, upstairs and downstairs, was eating off a banana leaf, so I’m guessing that Manchurian Chicken is not the hottest selling item.
Instead, my Malayalee friend and guide shoots off a series of mellifluous instructions to the waiter and I catch the one important word: karimeen. This is a delicious, flavoursome fish known as pearl spot in English and is to the Malayalee what the hilsa is to the Bengal: precious and worth fighting for.
Already, this is a deluxe experience. The banana leaf arrives, the various pickles, chutneys and fried curd-soaked chillies follow. The menu for the day includes the aviyal, which is a must with its strong, fresh and coconutty flavour, a thoran of cabbage and coconut and an elisseri of yam and banana.
The karimeen arrives, spiced and fried and just melts into the mouth. It has a fair complement of bones so has to be eaten carefully, but this is a no pain no gain situation and the gain is tremendous. The fish is light and vanishes before the famed barota arrives, which beats the lachedar paratha version so prized in North India. With the barota we take one more break from the banana leaf and try a chicken sukha. This is redolent of red chilli and curry leaves, but the flavours are light. The barota just blends perfectly with it.
Then, it’s time for the Kerala red rice — which is a huge improvement over every other kind of red and/or parboiled rice that you get in India — and to mop all the vegetable dishes and then move on to the sambar and of course many of the delicious fried popadums.
Then it’s time for a spicy rasam palate refresher to prepare yourself for the kadalaparippu payasam or the channa dal payasam, with the taste of jaggery adding to the deliciousness.
We forgot to have the buttermilk but were so full after it was all over, that it would have to be another time. When the experts tell me the list is endless — the istu breakfast of my youth, the evening snacks of some kind of a meat-filled samosa and the beef chilly fry at night. Many visits, clearly, will have to be made.
Rating: *** 1/2
Meal for two: Rs 300
Deluxe Hotel,
Off Janmabhoomi Marg,
Fort, Mumbai 400001.
Tel: 22042351.
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