[Thekkady, India] Lunch at Amrutham, Greenwoods Resort

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So here we are in Thekkady, the Keralan frontier town on the edge of Periyar National Park, a riverine game reserve with wild elephants, Bengal tigers, the Asian bison, and much more.

The bustling main street was lined on both sides with shops, mainly selling spices, fried banana chips & halwa (a local sweet), souvenirs and clothes.

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Shaving slivers of Keralan bananas/plantains into hot, bubbling coconut oil, resulting in the famous crisp banana chips.

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Our first lunch in Thekkady, at Greenwoods Resorts’ gorgeous Amrutham restaurant, reputedly the best in town.

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One of us decided to have fish-and-chips.

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I am not having anything besides Keralan food!
Erachi Ularthiyathu - Keralan beef dry roast. Very nice rendition. I think Kerala has a higher proportion of beef-eaters compared to any other state in India.
They do beef dishes so incredibly well here.

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Kozhi Peralan - Keralan dry chicken curry: another intensely flavoured dish, and one which went very well with the parotta breads we ordered.

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Keralan parotta - of all breads in India, this Keralan one is the closest to Singaporean roti prata and Malaysian roti canai. I do believe now that, even though Tamils make up the overwhelming majority of Indians in Singapore and Malaysia, the Malayalees were the ones whose cuisine influenced our cooking.

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A good first meal in Thekkady. Off to do some tiger-watching tomorrow morning.

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Address
Amrutham, Greenwoods Resort
Kottayam - Kumily Rd, Thekkady, Kumily, Attappallam, Kerala 685509, India
Tel: +91 4869 222752, 224382

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The hotel also offered its guests some afternoon tea and simple snacks on its palatial grounds each afternoon between 4pm to 6pm.

Tea is served from a recreation of a ‘thattukada’ (covered street cart).

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Good, thick and rich masala chai.

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An interesting Keralan street snack: ela ada - banana leaf-wrapped, steamed rice flour cakes stuffed with grated coconut & jaggery. You won’t stop at one.

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Our main reason for coming to Thekkady was, of course, to take the boat cruise out on Lake Periyar, a wildlife sanctuary and renowned tiger reserve, and hopefully spot some Bengal tigers.

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We had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 5am to get ready for our driver to bring us to the ticket counter, and hopefully snare some tickets to get us on one of the several boats setting out that morning. We managed to get on one of the 7.30am ones.

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We found out when we already got there that there are only about 40 Bengal tigers slinking around in the 297 square miles (770 square km) sanctuary! So, there’s actually a higher probability of us spotting Amitabh Bachchan in Mumbai than a Bengal tiger in Lake Periyar. :expressionless:

Still, it was a very pleasant, languid boat-ride.

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A mild excitement ran through our boat when some fauna was spotted in the distance!

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Turned out, they were a sounder of wild boars. A groan of disappointment washed over our fellow boat-trippers. It’s like looking for Shah Rukh Khan, and it turned out to be Kal Penn.

Back on shore after 1.5 hours.

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Anyway, it was back to our hotel for breakfast.

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Greenwoods Resort does a very good breakfast buffet, with a wonderful dosa counter.

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Wonderful Mysore dosa, with its ultra-spicy smear of chili filling.

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Plain dosa here was light and went well with the sambhar and chutney.

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Ven Pongal - savory, lightly-spiced rice & lentils, with black pepper, ginger, cumin, curry leaves, hing and ghee. I love this dish to bits.

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Idiyappam - clumps of stringhoppers topped with grated coconut, and served with a lightly-spiced, milky-rich vegetable ishtew.

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Fab breakfast - more than assuage our earlier disappointment with our futile tiger-spotting fiasco.

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Muslims and Christians make up about 45% of Kerala’s Population which probably accounts for the commonness of Beef even in the time of Modi.
I believe that a good bit of Beef as well as lots of Pork is consumed/available in Goa as well. Even though it is about 65% Hindu.

Thank you for these wonderful Posts, I really want to return now!

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Yes, and beef consumption amongst Keralan Hindus also surprised me. Of course, it’s common to have beef-eating Hindu friends among Singaporeans and Malaysians, but so rare for me to meet those in India - until this trip, which is also my first time ever to Kerala.

India is indeed such an utterly beautiful country, and I’m so much in love with Kerala now.

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