Scallops with Momotaro sorbet and chilled rasam dashi, warm ama ebi custard deepened with aged vadagam, saffron biryani with blue crab curry: Nadodi's latest creations chart an exhilarating new course through South Indian and Sri Lankan traditions.
For the first time, Nadodi by Cinnamon Group has launched a six-course tasting menu, a more compact counterpart of its nine-course odyssey, transforming classics of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Sri Lanka through fermentation, curing, charcoal cooking and precise temperature plays.
Executive chef Yavhin Siriwardhana leans on his Sri Lankan and Malayali heritage for cooking that's rooted in memory but flowering with surprises, its ancestral flavours finding inventive new forms in modern Malaysia.
The opening tidbit looks to thosai, recasting the rice-lentil staple as two crisp, slender cones with sambar and coconut chutney, piped in with potato masala that's freshly churned into savoury-stretchy ice cream. A welcome beverage of watermelon, tamarind and chilli aligns sweet and sour with sharp heat to awaken the palate.
The Three Regions is the first formal course, setting out a trio of intricate canapés representing Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Sri Lanka.
For the Idli & Karuvadu, a steamed rice cake is deep-fried, converting idli’s typically soft, springy crumb into a crisp, porous structure with podi spiced lentil powder for fragrance. The concentrated seafood centre conceals an umami-intensive karuvadu chutney of dried shellfish, draped with cured sea bream for supple salinity, lifted with shiso flowers.
The Kosho Avial Pillow is a condensation of avial, the Keralan mix of vegetables, coconut and yoghurt, packed here into a brittle wheat-flour shell. Yuzu kosho introduces the bite of Japanese citrus and chilli, while a tomato sheet and Tanjung Malim caviar sharpen the filling.
Sri Lanka shines in the Sakura Egg Hopper, a miniature appam shaped like the island’s bowl-like hoppers. Fried sakura ebi are tucked in with tamarind and moringa sambol, cloaked with coconut jelly and an egg yolk emulsion to evoke an egg hopper.
Highland, Seabed connects Hokkaido scallops with Cameron Highlands produce like rock melon and curry leaves, briskly buoyed by Momotaro tomato sorbet and chilled rasam dashi that ingeniously weds Indian rasam’s spice-led acidity with Japanese dashi’s savoury intensity, served cold to make the liquid feel lucid, stimulatingly tightened with vinegar for extra clarity to surround the scallops.
A Warm Custard is Nadodi’s reinterpretation of chawanmushi, its steamed smoothness infused with rasam, lusciously layered with ama ebi, tea-smoked ikura and Lao Gan Ma-inspired curry leaf crisps for an undercurrent of heat. A pouring of vadouvan curry contributes creaminess with lingering mustard seed notes, rounded with aged vadagam aromatics of tempered spices.
God’s Own Country is centred on Sabah-sourced coral grouper, dry-aged for seven days, left unscaled and shallow-fried rapidly for its crust to crisp into coral-like brittleness, finished over charcoal for a final trace of smoke.
The fish’s head is used for mappas, Kerala's coconut milk curry, treating the grouper as a whole rather than merely extracting its prime fillets, providing profound seafood character. Beneath, fennel, young mango and ginger chutney convey crunch and tartness, reinforced by curry leaves and dried chillies.
Nomad’s Globe enlivens our world with saffron biryani, blue crab curry and kyuri-pomegranate patchadi. The rice is Seeraga Samba from Tamil Nadu, its compact grains remaining distinct while readily absorbing saffron and spice. The blue crab curry retains a firm pulse of heat to power the crustacean succulence, while cucumber, pomegranate and yuzu bring cooling relief.
Dessert returns to Tamil treats with Nadodi's take on kesari, typically a warm semolina pudding. Nadodi cooks with Granny Smith apple puree instead, with a translucent jelly topping of green apple juice to extend the fruity elegance, with dill lending a lightly anise-like aroma. Miso caramel supplies salt and fermentation, while a cashew-fennel candy crumble channels crunch. Coconut ice cream softens the sharpness, capped with a thin meringue disc grated with lime zest.
Caraway-seeded financiers close the meal, brightened with calamansi, their buttery French crumb giving voice to savoury Indian whispers that echo murukku.
Nadodi
Level 7A, Four Seasons Hotel, Jln Ampang, City Centre, Kuala Lumpur.
Open Monday-Saturday, 12pm-3pm, 6pm-10pm. Tel: 017-296-9520
Reservations: sevenrooms.com/explore/nadodi/reservations/create/search
