Sunday, April 5, 2009

South India: Kerala: SAS Restaurant

SAS Restaurant
Across from Alleppey Jetty
Alapphuzha, Kerala




One ferry ride (back to the mainland from Fort Cochi) and one harrowing bus trip later we made it to Alapphuzha (Alleppey) to catch yet another ferry to Chennamkary. We missed our 1pm ferry and breakfast at Rossitta seemed like a long time ago. We ducked into SAS Restaurant across the jetty for lunch.



SAS looked like your average place by the bus stations around here. Slightly dim, slightly grubby, and definitely not your typical western franchise.



It seemed that everyone was getting the fish thali, so I promptly ordered one. Pretty much just locals were eating at the time, and maybe one other tourist besides us, so I was confident that the food here was good.





Fish thali. It came with some sides--- yogurt, lentil in masala sauce, shredded cabbage, coconut-tomato sauce, some salty pickles. Naturally, I ate with my washed hands and tried hard to use only the right hand (which is the traditional Filipino way of eating, btw). The food was seriously good, and I received seconds of everything without even asking! This thali felt like the real deal--- a lot of different spices and textures. I am not sure what the fish was, but it was small and bony.


My dish was so good, I completely neglected to take a picture of DJKung's chicken fried rice. He did not say anything while he was eating, so I thought he was really unhappy with it. Plus, he had just one bowl, instead of unlimited seconds, like mine.


But when I tried it... I could not believe how they had Hong Kong style fried rice down so well!!! It had the chinese sausage taste and the perfect wok sear flawlessly. Later on, I read in our guidebook that Chinese food is quite popular among Indians due to centuries of trade, so authentic Chinese is not hard to find.
Oh, and I think this is possibly the cheapest meal we've had the entire trip. The fish thali was 25 rupees and the fried rice, 60 rupees!

After lunch, we waited at the jetty for our ferry to Chennamkary.







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