Maapranam Shaap (The Maapranam Toddy Shop) -- നാടന്‍ രുചികള്‍

Visiting this place was in our to do list since the day we happened to see a forwarded chain mail,that not only boasted about the authentic tastes of traditional toddy shop food items in Maapranam shaap (non-malayalees read it as 'shop'), it almost carried the aroma as well.

A Saturday morning looked ripe for this visit to Maapranam and we set out by 11 30am in our Enfield 350 classic.The scorching heat was playing its part to spoil the party but we kept ourselves up with some refreshments on the way.

Beating the Heat

The destination-' Mapranam' is a village around 5-6 kms from the national highway(Turn left from Nandancode when you go from Ernakulam)

Infront of Mapranam Shaap

Once we reached Mapranam there was no trouble locating the shaap, and by 1-30 we seated ourselves in the wooden bench of the Maapranam shaap.The ambiance and the customers were typical,everything looked set for delivering the promised treat in the shaap.There was a long list of curries as per the owner Joy chettan ,and we decided to order the most of them.Tapioca (kappa vevichathu) was served as the main dish along with kallumekka fry,duck fry,meen(fish) curry,Njandu(crab) roast and kakka fry.A pot of toddy was ordered as well.

Kappa,Meen Curry,Kakka,Crab,Kallumekka

Duck Fry

The taste was one of its kind with all the hot spicy mouth watering stuff burning down into your food pipe.As usual with the typical Kerala shaap food, most of the dishes had an extra dose of spiciness to make you quench for their toddy.Carry some water/some soft drinks if you would not like to have a sip of the toddy.Though never had before i even tasted some toddy,I eventually had to give up to have some fizzing toddy to cool down the heat built up by the dishes.

Whats sweet....?

-Food,food,food......the taste was worth it!
-Common man's costs !
-The typical Ambiance you would expect ...!
-Far from all hectic traffic,no issues of parking.....Just drive in!

Whats not....?

-Nothing really,may be you could say that it quite understandably, is not the ideal place for families to be in ,but still there were families enjoying the dishes in their cars ,parked out side the shaap!
-The summer was at its peak and there was minimal relief provisions inside the shaap!

Potbelly Picks-Fish curry,Kallumekka,Kakka.....More shaap dishes awaits you...!

Rating -4.25/ 5

Coming out of the toddy shop after the hefty lunch something was still missing.We did not get to taste some karimeen.This led us to a neighbouring hotel named Graamya which by look itself convinced us to go in.Built in a miniaturized naalukettu sort of architecture the ambiance is good to be in with family.Everything looked promising untill the appam and Karimeen pollichathu was served.The dish was a letdown with nothing much to boast about.Cannot comment more on the hotel as this was the only thing we tried.

The Exteriors

Karimeen Pollichathu and Appam

Whats sweet....?
Excellent Ambience.

Whats not....?
-The karimeen pollichathu was just average.The appam wasn't good either.

The Kick Off - Kozhikodan Travellouge!

We started off to Kozhikode from Aluva railway station on a rainy sunrise of September.

With all the malabar dishes prioritized we decided to have a quite breakfast from the Aryas hotel nearby aluva railway station.The masala dosas were ok to hold us till Kozhikode but were nothing special to gaa gaa about.

 

The Typical Aryas Masala Dosa!

 
The temptation for the travel was too hard to resist with names of the giants of Malabar taste reckoning us since the days our taste buds had started dominating us on the food habits.

The mere thought of names like Paragon,Bombay hotel and Zains sent out visual images to our organic silver screen,that urged us to put these hypes to a test.Reached Kozhikode around 10am and decided to walk out of the railway station to paragon so as to create maximum void spaces in our bellies.The idea was not to have the paragon biriyani so early and to taste the other delicacies and to parcel it to finally have it on the return train.

Scene 1: The paragon hotel

Not a hifi hotel in looks as the hype might misleadingly portray. Yellowishly lit up limted space,paragon has the typical look of a hotel which had survived several eras relishing generations.Somebody came to the table to serve us and to much of our surprise and dissappoinment ,most of the items we had travelled for was unknown to the 'non mallu guy'. As per him,items like kallumekka,irachi pathiri etc were never served there!However he urged us to have the Biriyani and was just the push we required to go for it. We decided to start off with appam Chicken stew and meen mulakilittathu to keep us engaged,as biriyani was only just about getting ready.

Appam- meen mulakilittath,Chicken stew

                             

Appam- meen mulakilittathu was as tasty as the visuals look above.Chicken stew was just about OK.The biggest disappointment was the Biriyani,which by hype was expected to give us a taste that was never experienced before. But it went in like just another biriyani.

Sweet:

Common mans hotel.

Common mans Rates.

Crispy Tasty Appam.

Walkable from railway station.

Bitter:

A bit congested.

Biriyani wasn't as anywhere near to the Hype we had heard about.

Not much of malabar special delicacies were served.

Verdict: Well...... Did not give the kind of kick start we expected!

Rating 2.5/5

The heat of the spicy fish mulakilittathu began to take toll during our walk past paragon and we deiced to cool off with the Milk Sarbath ,which again was yet another Kozhikodan special drink.

   Milk Sarbeth

Made of Milk poured into a special mix of Sarbath, the drinks taste was fresh, nothing experienced before. Can be tried if you happen to travel near paragon hotel!

Scene 2: Around 2PM we decided to move on to the next biggie...The Bombay hotel....It was with dismay that we received the news from a pedestrian in front of the hotel that it has been shut down for the Ramsan holidays! We decided to move on to some hotel that would serve some good sea food...kallumekka was still there top in our prioity list.A Friendly auto driver tried to help us,as he dropped us to a hotel that was a bit far from the city,but again the attempt went in vain as we had to please ourselves with prawns fry,Karimeen Fish Molly and Neychoru. Taste was nothing distinguished! Sorry to say that we dont recollect the name of the hotel.

    Neychoru,Fish molly and Prawns Fry

Verdict: Ordinary!

Rating : 1.5/5

 Something apart from food we should mention here is the attitude of auto drivers in Kozhikode. We had never seen such amicable attitudes from auto drivers anywhere else we had travelled so far. Kudos to the way they treat your travel concerns.

Scene 3 : Kozhikode Beach

The sun had started to show some charity on his hot spell. There were only a few hours remaining for us to make the travel back.We were yet to taste the delicacies that we traveled for .An information from one of my colleague led us to the beach, where as per him,kallumekka would be available. The beach gave us a sigh of relief not only just because of the deep blue elegance,but also of the four wheeled carts which sold chat items including,kallumekka fry.Desperate,we gave in for the freshly fried ones in the glass box.The taste was baffling! Still we had another plate,as this was the kind of  stuff that we traveled for. In fact we went ahead and ordered another chat item, which had green peas and eggs scrambled together. That wasn’t great either.

Green Peas With Eggs Scrambled,Kallumekka

                             

Scene 4 : The Zains Hotel

Walking back to the railway station,we knew that the trip wasn't quite there.On the way a a roadside board read .... Kallumekka,meen pathiri,irachi pathiri,Mutta maala,kaayada etc....available here. The guy in the shop just smiled and said that the board was just outdated.....but then he recalled that these items were available in Zains hotel. The spark of hope galloped us to our last try....the Zains hotel.

Aesthetically projected,the hotel looked pretty loyal to the Kozhikodan legacy. A glass box with many distinctive dishes welcomed us to much of our delight.Almost a plate of each were ordered that the guy who served us gave bit of an astonished look!Kaypola,Kayada,Chatti pathiri,irachi pathiri,Kallumekka fry,Muttamaala.......filled the table space....! These were too tasty that we managed to gulp them despite the severely filled tummy!

Chatti Pathiri

Irachi Pathiri

Pazham Fry,Unnakkaya,Kallumekka,Muttamaala

              

Sweet:

Malabar dishes galore here.

Though not Royal, the Hotel looked Splendid in its place!

Not much congestion, Tables are arranged with lot of space to move about!

The taste lived up to the hype surrounding Zainu thaatha,who was quite busy being both the cashier and the Main chef at the same time....!

Negatives:

It took quite a bit of time for somebody to attend us. Though all the items we ordered were ready in the glass box ,took some time reaching our table!

Verdict: Must Visit Hotel for Malabar dishes. Definitely made our trip worth it!

Rating 3.5/5

By around 7 we were in an Ernakulum Limited stop bus, with heavy, confused tummies! :)