Café Malabar

Their reputations precede them. Kolathodan cooked his way around the world, from the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge to the Shangri-La Vancouver, with stages at Noma in Copenhagen and Boragó in Santiago before landing at the Westin Bear Mountain resort in Victoria. There he met Tenpa, a fellow Keralan (of Tibetan descent), who earned renown at Conrad Pune and Mumbai’s Yazu before making his move to Vancouver Island.

With these pedigrees, it is almost a surprise to find them hawking hoppers (fermented rice and coconut pancakes) at Victoria Public Market. But if the throng gathered around their stand is any indication, the secret is clearly out. They’re here for the duo’s vibrant Keralan cooking – cuisine that thrives in the heat of southwestern India’s Malabar coastline, from fresh seafood to intense chilies and fermentation. I watch as an extended family of 12 pulls three tables together. They remind me of my aunts and uncles. As I step up to the counter, I find myself ordering enough food to feed my own family reunion.

I may be dining solo, but thankfully, the Keralan fried chicken is something to write home about. Marinated in red chili paste, coconut oil and abundant spices, the meat is beyond tender – with flavour right to the bone. I text my parents photos, along with shots of the pepper beef roast and no fewer than three fire emojis. The dry-style curry is the product of patient braising and then concentration, so the onions and fennel meld with the spice into a compellingly sticky sauce mollified by, you guessed it, coconut oil.

Kerala means “land of coconuts” in Malayalam, after all.