Time to try some fusion Moplah cuisine in Dubai.

Gulf News

Moplah or Kerala Muslim cuisine is known for its richness. This former Dubai-based investment banker has brought Moplah cuisine with a modern twist, to Dubai. https://gulfnews.com/news/uae/community-heartbeat/fusion-moplah-cuisine-at-this-dubai-restaurant-1.2229615

Transcript

00:00The history of Chai Kada was like, it was a pop-up concept.

00:11I just started during the Ramadan.

00:14It was in my ancestral house, I kept a small stall or a pop-up stall just for inviting

00:20my friends and relatives.

00:22The first day we invited some 60-70 people, it was in 2014.

00:28The second day, my friends called their friends and came, so it became some 200 people.

00:34The third day, the media came, they reported, and the fourth day, then the numbers went

00:39from 1,500 to 4,000 people during that, that's how the brand started.

00:44Coming to Adam, the name Adam, my name is Aniz Adam and my grandfather, who is my role

00:49model in my life, his name is Mr. C.P.

00:52Adam from Calicut.

00:53I started in his memory, the concept, he was a very good foodie.

00:58We both used to, my childhood, we used to go for all these places, have all these dishes

01:03in the late night, and he was a hardcore foodie.

01:05So for his remembrance, I took this name as Adam in the Chai Kada.

01:10If you see Chai Kada, people will think that it's only tea, it's not tea.

01:15It's in Kerala, if you see, it's from the Chai Kada, all the dishes are invented.

01:19Even from puttu, chicken, biryani, everything, nooks and corners, there will be one Chai

01:23Kada.

01:24In each Chai Kada, there will be one famous dish.

01:27Some Chai Kada will serve biryani, some will serve idli, upma, puttu.

01:31So Chai Kada is basically a laboratory, a food laboratory, that's why the name Adam

01:36in the Chai Kada comes.

01:38Our biggest event is during Ramadan, where we, it is, the name is Adam in the Albudha

01:42Nombudura.

01:43Albudha means surprise in Malayalam.

01:46We have 71 varieties of chicken fry.

01:49We have 51 varieties of sarbat, we call it as Umamanda Sarbat, which is the homely sarbat,

01:57then we have patris, which is a traditional patris, which is a fusion dish.

02:04You know, we have 21 varieties of patris kept here, we have different varieties of curries

02:09and total with this Ramadan, in Calicut, we used to keep some 101 varieties and this 101

02:16varieties was discovered in last three years and this time in Dubai, we have brought all

02:20101 varieties.

02:23People come to us to have chorindi ice, which is a very hardcore.

02:26It's like, you know, ice gola in Bombay, we have similar in Kerala.

02:32We put with tender coconut, we put with avocado, lot of fruit creams, we put pickles, date

02:37pickles, so we are pretty known in the region for that.

02:40This is our first Ramadan in Dubai and we started our store in March in Dubai and we,

02:48even we never expected this will be such a, you know, good success.

02:51Mopla means mapla, that is the Muslim community is known in the Malabar region as mapla and

02:59the ancestral or the roots was from Arabs, you know, where the Arabs came to Calicut

03:04or Kerala for trading and they came, they settled down, they married and generation

03:09passed.

03:10That's how the mapla community started.

03:12So having said that, mapla means we have lot of similarity with the Arab community from

03:17the Middle East.

03:19There was a community named Barami, which is again Arab traders, lot of people from

03:24Yemen came, people from Oman, they used to come to Calicut.

03:28So whenever they came, they came up with lot of cultural and also food ingredients.

03:32There are lot of food ingredients, which was exchanged with people of Kerala.

03:38Actually the patri, we call it the patri, it is like patir, that is sweet dish in Arabic

03:45and the samosa, it is what samosa we say.

03:47So there are lot of dishes with Arabs that contributed to mapla cuisine.

03:52We have mutamala.

03:53Mutamala is again a Portuguese dish, which is called egg li, which is egg garland.

03:59We serve mutamala with ice creams.

04:02We serve unakai, that is a banana, you know, it's a sweet dish, which is very popular

04:06for iftar snacks.

04:08We give that with ice creams.

04:09Patris, the Kannu vachcha patri, that's the most popular dish in Calicut.

04:13It's like folded, you will see the eyes on it, puricha patri, we have valapam.

04:18Valapam is again a typical Calicut dish.

04:21The vala means, the ladies used to wear bangles and make the dish.

04:25That's the name of valapam kids.

04:27The lady with the bangle used to fry this dish.

04:30Soft chicken, which I call, we call it as pudiyapala chicken.

04:33Pudiyapala is, we call, you know, for marriages, we have special dishes, especially for the

04:39bridegroom when they visit.

04:41Now, for the groom, we make, the mother-in-law makes a special dish as pudiyapala chicken.

04:47From Arabs, we got the dish like chicken stuffed in ghee, dry fruits and it is a little sweet

04:55comes masala dish.

04:57We add garam masala, that's how the fusion comes.

04:59Usually, it is stuffed with ghee rice or the biryani rice or the basmati rice.

05:04This is again a speciality of what Arabs came and given to us.

05:08In our weddings or any special occasions, we have a full goat.

05:12Inside it, we put a chicken.

05:13Inside the chicken, we put an egg.

05:15That's all the whole thing then and we serve it in a rice.

05:18It's like, we call it as a supra.

05:20Supra is again, it's like a platter, where three, four people have from the same plate.

05:26So, we also had the culture in our marriages, we used to serve in supra.

05:31Now, if you go to Hindu families, in wedding, they used to say, okay, my feast was served

05:38with two thousand sadyas, sadyas means, you know, that is per head, they say that.

05:44But in Muslim family, they used to say, my marriage was like five thousand supras, that

05:49is five thousand into four is twenty thousand.

05:51So, that's all the community used to address and this supra concept came from Arabs.

05:55We have also introduced this concept of supra here.

05:57The Moplah food is more rich, you know, it's known for its richness.

06:01As Adamrit Chai Kada, we want to give a nostalgic feeling to the customers.

06:05We want to show them, what were the utensils, what were the instruments, which our forefathers

06:12used for cooking and that restaurant or the tea shop ambience.

06:16So, what we, and the speciality of this restaurant is, almost, we got everything from Calicut,

06:25like 40 feet containers, we took around 30 numbers of 40 feet containers from India.

06:31Everything was loaded, you will find the post boxes, you will find samavar teas, you

06:35will find the puttu puttis, you will find all gas towels, you will find tiffins, whatever

06:42they used to have it on their dinner table or the form of transporting food on those

06:48days has been displayed here.

06:50This was a concept, what I wanted to show, our forefathers used to eat like this or our

06:56forefathers used to enjoy food like this.

06:59Now, the concept came and I had my childhood friend, who was an architect based out of

07:04Dubai, his name is Imfer Alam, he helped me out in putting up the concept, the entire

07:09thing.

07:10Though the entire thing was brought from Kerala, it was a very tough task for us, you know,

07:14sourcing everything.

07:16You see this, the latrines tiles, which is taken hand-picked from Kerala.

07:22Again, you see the soda bottles, that is the holy sodas, you see everything, the windows,

07:27the doors, all the, almost 90% of the items is more than 120 years old.

07:33The most authentic dish coming to Mopla is, I would say, the best dish is my Oivakkan

07:38Paddada Kadigal, that is the evening snacks.

07:41Oivakkan Paddada Kadigal means, you can't think anything beyond that, you know, that's

07:46the concept.

07:46Coming to my main dish, my main item is Nirthi Puricha Koi, that is chicken Malabari masala,

07:53deep fried in coconut oil and salt.

07:55So, we call it a standing chicken fry also, that's my main dish, that's my hit.

08:00And again, my Malabar Dum Biryani, which is made with pure ghee, that's again our speciality.

08:06Then we have our Erchi Chor and Chatti Chor.

08:09These are some of the specialities, what people come to have only in Chai Kada.

08:15Yeah, the best thing about this restaurant is, first the ambience, then that homely

08:20feel, we feel like we are back home, right?

08:23Then the quality of food, they serve both fusion and authentic Malabar.

08:30And we come here very often, even the kids love it.

08:33My first Iftar meal here, excellent, great, nostalgic.

08:38Adamant Chai Kada is based off Calicut and it has only two branches as of now.

08:42One is in Calicut and the other is in Dubai.

08:45In Kerala itself, we have almost 12 restaurants in the name of Adamant Chai Kada, but none

08:50of them belongs to us.

08:51We are only from Calicut and the only store is in Calicut, now in Dubai.

08:55Dubai also, we have one or two cafeterias and small, small joints in the name of Adamant

09:00Chai Kada, which is not at all related to us.

09:02Our Adamant Chai Kada is in Kizzes, next to Grand.

09:06And other one is in Calicut Beach, which is in Calicut.

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