My Malayalam is no better than my Polish. But whether you speak the language of the southwestern state of India or not, much like Polish sausages there are some obstacles in Chicago to exploring the vastly diverse food of the subcontinent’s Malabar Coast. For one thing, despite some 50,000 Keralites (or Malayalis) residing in the Chicago region (largely around Glenview, Mount Prospect, Morton Grove, and Des Plaines), there are few places to eat it.
Photo above, clockwise from left:
Kallumakkaya: The folks behind Kairali Foods hail from central Kerala, home to a great variety of seafood preparations. This peppery dry mussel stir-fry is a proper drinking food according to co-owner Ginesh Elackattu.
Thoran is an endlessly variable coconut-based dry curry of minced vegetables, typically found (like many of these foods) on a sadhya, a kind of smorgasbord arranged on a banana leaf. From left: an excellent mushroom thoran, beet and kale thoran, and long bean and black-eyed pea thoran, all next to the store’s chewy paratha.
Egg puff: masala-spiced hard-cooked eggs enveloped in flaky pastry
Pulissery: aka moru curry, a rich, spiced buttermilk curry that can act as an extinguisher to spicier dishes
777 N. Milwaukee, Glenview 847-729-2100kairali-foods.com
