On the last day but one, the children dragged me to the KFC at Lu Lu Mall, a huge air-conditioned 21st century retail construction.
I was grumbling all next day, but on the last night I made up for it by ordering two meals at the same time from one of the Mall food court shops, Vazhayila. The name means banana leaf, and their gimmick is cooking everything in banana leaf. Steaming in banana leaves is a fairly traditional approach, but these people have truly done something innovative with this:
Vazhayella biriyani! (In the middle ground in the photograph below)
The green banana flavour steams through the biriyani, and when you open the packet the aroma is incredible. The "side" plate was chicken cooked in an earthenware pot, delicious in its own right. Plenty to share, but I was eating with vegetarian in-laws and my children who don't really like hot food. Every cloud, no matter how dark, has a silver lining. I stopped my moaning, to the relief of the wife and children. Not a bad end to a fabulous two weeks.
