Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels: YummY! - Kerala Curries & Spice Shop @ Guru's

Saturday, January 24, 2015

YummY! - Kerala Curries & Spice Shop @ Guru's

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YummY!

Jotaro's Food Review

KERALA CURRIES & SPICE SHOP @ GURU'S (HALAL)

Guru's Restaurant & Guru's Spices, Munnar, Kerala, India - January 2015

We were on a holiday in Kerala, India and on our second day's tour we had very good curries at the hill station of Munnar.
The food was good and the food was spicy! You must be having the same thoughts as me, of course curries are spicy, especially Indian curries. But make no mistake of the term "spicy" when used in India, lest you err the way I did! Read on to find out.

Our lunch was at Guru's Restaurant located at Munnar's town centre. It's a fairly clean single-storey restaurant and it's reddish exterior and large signboard makes it a noticeable building in town.
The waiter came to take our orders, made some recommendations and then asked whether we want our curries "spicy". I like my curries adequately thick and spicy, and so I answered, "Of course, I would like the curries spicy." That was a mistake on my part as in India when they say "spicy" they mean chilli hot and not full of spices. So our curry came real chilli hot.
Fortunately, coming from Malaysia, we were used to chilli hot food. Still I was sweating rather profusely from the "spicy" food!

Okay... let's have a look at what we had.

First to come was this Karimeen fish; deep fried with a thin skin of spicy batter.
From the menu the fish looked small, but what came was close to a foot long! And we ordered two of them!

We were concerned whether we could finish both of the fishes. But they had done the fish well; deep-fried it in very hot oil so that the batter and fish extremities were crispy while the flesh inside was still tender. The fish was very fresh, however the meat was not that sweet. The spicy batter was the saving grace that made this a great dish.

Other curries (Clockwise from top left) : Kadai Vegetables, Fish Curry, Butter Chicken & Mutton Curry.

The Kadai Vegetables were cooked in Paneer Cheese which gave them a tinge of creamy flavour. This one did not have cubelets of cheese. Well cooked the vegetables were soft and easy to bite into.
I can't say much about the fish except that the fish was fresh and the curry loaded with spices (by this I mean many spices and not spicy hot; have to clarify here to avoid miscommunication). The spices have enhanced the freshness of the fish making it all the more yummy!
The Butter Chicken was equally good, tasting more spicy than buttery (that should be the way it should be cooked).
My favourite, the mutton curry had the meat tenderly soft with bits of fat. The tender meat had soaked in the curry well too.
Overall it was a good meal..... a bit spicy hot though! So, readers you all know what to say when the waiter asked if you want your curries spicy!

The pricing was very reasonable too; total for the all the food and drinks for the four of us was 1,400 rupees. The fish alone cost 800 rupees, more than half the meal.

Guru's Menu:

GURU'S SPICE SHOP
Finding their Masala Tea to be very good, we enquired about where they got it from and were surprised by their answer : "We have a spice shop next door." The girls were most pleased and promptly trooped over next door.

Prasanth, the Indian lady at the spice shop was a pleasant, friendly and helpful in giving advice on the cooking and health benefits of her products - tea, spices, oils, dried fruits etc.

Even though her shop was small, it was full of different product placed on high wall shelves and counter shelves.

On some shelves were different types of teas (lemon, ginger, Masala) and coffees. They even have teas coming from different plantations. I am not enough of a black tea connoisseur to be able to distinguish them; perhaps like wine, tea from different plantations tastes different.

On other shelves were spices, dried fruits, nuts, scented oils, etc.
They even have home-made chocolates!

To one corner were pre-packed spices - Jeera, Cloves, Star Anise, Kalpasi, etc.

In another corner were scented soap (Lemongrass, Sandalwood, etc.) packed in cute looking fruit shells that looked like sea-shells.

And on the service counter were large jars of spices ready to be sold and dispensed to the daily user.
With so much choices, the girls must have been happy and satisfied customers as they spent closed to an hour in the shop.