Coracle At BIC Cafe Wins For Kerala Syrian Christian, Mangalorean & Tamil Food

Chef Tresa Francis gave most of Bangalore a taste of Kerala Syrian Christian food through her home kitchen brand Travancore Tasties. Her new restaurant, Coracle at BIC Cafe, located inside the premises of Bangalore International Centre, gives you a wider look — a Pan South Indian look, as she puts it. It's food that feels like home and then some.

Chef Tresa Francis, who joined us at the table, was talking about how the whole menu is based on flavours that she and her team have had all their life. Dishes that have made it to the menu include the ones based on her aunt's recipes, dishes that estate nasranis (another name for Syrian Christians in Kerala) cooked during feasts, and dishes from the culinary team's home towns in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. If we have to get technical about the Pan South India bit, it's Kerala and Coastal Malabar to Mangalore with Karnataka and Tamil Nadu peppered in between.  

Chef Tresa started us off with Kappa & Kandhari, a staple Kerala snack made with steamed tapioca. If you are a Malayali, you know this is the OG snack that takes you back to the days when you'd eat this during the summer holidays. It's served with a spicy bird's eye chilli chutney that you can't get enough of. No, really, we couldn't get enough of the chutney. They got us another portion, much to the chef's disbelief.

Just as we finished the tapioca, the kitchen sent out Chicken Cutlets, Mutton Ularthiyathu, Prawn Fry, and Mutton Pallipalayam. The cutlets tasted like home, while the ularthiyathu, a slow-roasting technique used in Kerala cooking, was divine.

Chef Tresa made sure the mutton shone like the star it was. The Pallipalayam, spicy just the way we like it, took us back to the time in college when we had gone to Erode and Pallipalayam to document about eponymous dish and how it's such a staple in Tamil Nadu local restaurants.

Between mopping up the plates clean and asking for more bird's eye chilli chutney, Chef Tresa asked us if we had space for some Appam and Prawn Mango Curry. We did, and it probably is the best prawn mango curry we've had in recent times. You cannot miss it when you are thinking about ordering your mains.

During the whole meal, one thing that we kept telling Chef Tresa was how everything just tasted so distinctively like home cooking, yet elevated to suit a restaurant format. It's probably why when the chef mentioned that they have a kids' menu and they do shape dosa, we knew we had found a bit of home at Coracle. The shape dosa for this writer is peak childhood.

It's nothing much but a dosa shaped like Mickey Mouse or, in our case, a tiger. It was just the perfect ending to our meal, or so we thought, until the Tender Coconut Pudding arrived. Give a Malayali anything coconut-based, and instantly, you've made it to the top of the list.

Coracle at BIC Cafe feels like home, and there are a few dishes, such as the Ulli Theeyal, Syrian Christian Pork Roast, and Alleppey Fish Curry, that we spotted, so we are going back for them.

Cost For Two: INR 1,200

Ratings: 4.6/5 on Google

Timings: 12:30 PM to 3:30 PM and 5:30 PM to 10 PM. Closed on Mondays

Social Handle: @coracle.blr