Down the memory lane: Chilli Stuff at Mamma

Back in the mid-90s, Dining out was a once-in-a-while family tradition for us. Me and my brother will be really excited when Dad stops our mighty old ambassador by the well lit parking lot of any of our regular diner. I still remember those tastes. It was exquisite, Out of the world and nowhere comparable to what we are getting now in the name of indian chinese! Our dinner date menus were pretty much preset and regular. Sweet Corn Chicken Soups, Vegetable Fried Rice, Nans and Chilli Chicken. Well cooked chicken pieces in a light and red viscous gravy along with green chillies and capsicum. The taste is unexplainable. It satisfied every single bud in my tongue. As time passed and with more and more hotels and fast food counters, the above said taste was somehow lost. The chicken pieces became a last minute add-on to the thick buttery spicy gravy and Chilli Chicken started tasting like any other Chicken in the menu. Traditions became memories.

Last month, I was traveling in and across Cochin on an assignment when my senses unexpectedly flew back down the memory lane. We stopped at Hotel Mamma in Tripunithura for our lunch, Well we got the exact same Chilli chicken I was talking about earlier (Note for dummies: not the exact same stuff, that wouldn't be edible after all these years!).

We (me & my brother) ordered a Portion of Chilli Chicken,Chilli Beef, Chilli Pork , Butter Nans and a plate of Mixed Fried Rice.

Fried Rice with Chilli Chicken.

Naans with Chilli Beef.

Naans with Chilli Pork.

All of these were awesome and not that expensive. We spend the next 1 hr there eating, drinking and refreshing our memories!

Discovering the Hainanese

Our visit to Singapore Universal Studios was a Semi-Disaster due to the unexpected bad weather. We hardly went on outside rides but made sure that we are in the Jurassic Rapids, the best ride in the park. We had to wait in the queue for about an hour (which is usually considered fast moving there) and had an exciting Jurassic Water Adventure.

I was quite hungry after all the waiting, animatronic dinosaurs and water splashes. So we decided to have lunch at the Discover Food Court.

The place, though heavily crowded (most of them were there to escape the rain), reminded me of the Visitor Center in Jurassic Park.

There was a huge queue to the food counter. We could see only two items on the display board from there and hence decided to go with it . The Hainanese Chicken Rice Set and the Roasted Chicken Rice Set.

The Hainanese chicken rice set had Sliced up Grilled Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, Rice and Onion Sprouts.

"The chicken is prepared in traditional Hainanese methods which involve the boiling of the entire chicken in a pork and chicken bone stock, reusing the broth over and over and only topping it up with water when needed, in accordance with the Chinese preferences for creating master stocks. This stock is not used for rice preparation, which instead involves chicken stock created specifically for that purpose, producing an oily, flavourful rice sometimes known as "oily rice" with Southeast Asian pandan leaves added sometimes. Some cooks may add coconut milk to the rice, reminiscent of the Malay dish nasi lemak." - Wiki

The Roasted Chicken Rice set had a No-Frills Roasted Chicken , Flavored Cabbage Slices,Rice and Onion Sprouts.

Being inside the park, the food was comparatively expensive at 10.50 S$ each.

Don't ,by any chance ,miss out on the Hainanese Chicken Rice set, if you are anywhere near Malaysia, Singapore or Thailand. It is definitely worth a try.