Nadodi has set a new benchmark in KL for modern Indian fine-dining with its “The 11 Mile Journey” menu degustation - taking diners through an amazing culinary journey spanning the South Indian cuisines from Kerala, Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu.
Combining traditional spice blends & cooking techniques with molecular gastronomy & modern interpretations of old dishes, Nadodi’s inventiveness was a breath of fresh air in KL’s dining scene.
Started off with a couple of cocktails:
“Cocktail with No Name”, served in an egg-shaped vessel in a bird-nest. It consisted of gin steeped for 48-hours with truffles & basil.
“Madras Central” cocktail - vodka with slow-drip Indian coffee, topped with cream foam.
The waiter creating a foamy head for the cocktail by pouring the vodka-coffee mix from one decanter into another, the traditional Indian-style for preparing coffee.
Appetisers:
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“Destroyed Staple” - traditional South Indian curd rice, transformed into a feathery-light rice wafer, topped with curd dust.
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“Malayalee Trade” - pottu (rice cakes) in “brownie form”, topped with dots of coconut crème, pumpkin crème & carrot crème.
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“Lactose-Free” - crisp “coconut milk” cones, filled with “kiribath” (Sri Lankan milk rice), sambol (Sri Lankan spiced fish-chilli relish) and chilli flakes.
Mains
4) “What Came First” - reimagined Chicken 65, served as a pulverised chicken skin crisp, in Chennai street-style scrambled egg or “Kalaki”, deconstructed as a spiced egg mousse.
- “Fishing the Backwaters” - a tribute to God’s Own Country, Kerala - spiced white fish, topped with shards of chilli-coriander-fennel meringue.
- “Out of the Shell” - spicy Chettinad-style curried scallops, topped with tamarind foam.
- Soup course: Spiced lentils at the bottom of the bowl, to be topped with tomato broth.
Executive Chef, Johnson Ebenezer, personally prepared the tomato drip-broth, consisting of three types of tomatoes, together with herbs and spices.
“Monsoon Ritual” - recalls the Executive Chef’s childhood in Tamil Nadu whence a hearty, spiced tomato broth was served to children at the onset of the monsoon season, to stave off colds.
Each soup bowl bore a “lipstick mark” to indicate where the diner is encouraged to sip the soup.
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Meat course: “Silence of Our Lamb” - lamb cooked sous-vide at 68 deg Celsius for 48 hours, served on a curried base, with fennel-coriander crumbs.
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The rice course: The biryani rice was served in 3-tiered vessels resembling what we thought was the Death Star from Star Wars!
Top tier contained a carrot-onion raita, topped with a yoghurt-curd globe.
Prick the globe to release the yoghurt-curd sauce - it’s El Bulli’s molecular gastronomy meets South Indian culinary tradition.
The middle tier contained the fragrant biryani, which was cooked using a varietal of imported South Indian short-grained aromatic “seeraga samba” rice known as “parakkum sittu”, together with Malaysian organic “kampong” chicken.
The bottom tier has a Patchadi - grilled aubergine, topped with Demerara sugar, served atop a spiced puree of hazelnut-cashewnut-almond paste.
Desserts:
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“Kandy Tea Story” - Chamomile macaron, peppermint tea globe, and Earl Grey sponge cake.
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“MInd of a Coconut” - the traditional warm Keralan dessert, Ada Pradhaman, is being reimagined as a cold ice-cream, flavoured with cane sugar, ice apples (made of sea coconut), topped with a Tulsi leaf.
Overall, a very satisfying meal, prepared by an enthusiastic kitchen team, led by a creative executive chef. A lot of potential in this place.
Address
Nadodi
1st Floor, The Mayang
183, Jalan Yap Kwan Seng
50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: +603-21814334
Operating hours: 6pm till late (Mon-Sat)
