Fine Dine – Trying the Fish Curry Meals

During my last visit the Fine Dine Restaurant, I noticed my neighbouring tables getting served the Fish Curry Meals and I felt it looked good… Even back during the Chefmaster days, I have never had their Kerala Meals because I have never been to the old place for lunch and all my visits with my parents have always been just for dinner…

So, when I got the chance to visit the place recently, I decided to go for and try the Fish Curry Meals and along with it I wanted a dry fish dish and among the choices in the menu, I chose the one called Masala Fried Fish… So, that’s what I ordered and they were served as can be seen in the pics below…

So, first let’s talk about the Fish Curry Meals which came in a tray as shown in the pic below:

As we know, the contents of the meals platter tend to change on a daily basis in pretty much all the restaurants that do them… So, what I got this time in the platter was of course, the Rice with Pappadom, a dollop of Chammanthy, a single piece of Mulaku Kondattom, a dollop of Pickle and then a tiny cup each of Payaru Mezhukkupuratty, Mathanga Vanpayar Erissery, Pachadi, Pulissery, Sambar, Fish Curry and Vermicelli Payasam…

Although I liked the sight of the contents of this platter, when it comes to the taste, its a mixed feeling with this one…

So, lets talk first about the positives… Three of the items in the platter, I felt were quite good and they were the Sambar, Payar Mezhukkupuratty and the Mathanga Vanpayar Erissery… All three were seasoned well and packed with flavours and the Erissery ended up being my favourite of them all with its really nice earthiness from the Vanpayar and sweetness from the Mathanga (Pumpkin)… I’m definitely looking forward to having that one again as I just loved it… The Payar (long beans) Mezhukkupuratty was also nice with the flavour of the Payar along with Shallots with Chilly Powder and Turmeric… The Sambar was also nice with the flavours of the classic Sambar masala and cooked onions and tomato and Okra with the fragrance of Coriander and Mustard Seeds…

The Payasam ended up feeling to be ok for me… It was mildly sweet which was okay for my taste, but I felt the flavour to be a bit watered down… But like I said, its ok and I definitely have had much much worse payasams… So, lets call it average… 🙂

Unfortunately, the rest of the items on the platter, I felt to be lacking in flavours and quite frankly felt quite a bit bland for me… Usually, our naadan Fish Curries have a very strong component of the Fish being used as well the sour component like Garcinia or Mango for example… Here, sadly, even though it looks like its packed with intense flavours, I couldn’t sense any of it… I could only taste the mild presence of the Chilly powder, Curry Leaves, Mustard and the Coconut that was used in it… However, the plus side is that the Fish piece in it was cooked perfectly… But at the same time flavour wise it felt to be on the bland side… The Pachadi, again, felt to be bland and in desperate need of some seasoning…

The Pulissery / Mooru Curry on the hand felt to be seasoned well, but to me personally, it felt too sour… I personally don’t like it when anything is that sour… Thats why and I think people who like to have sour things will definitely be able to enjoy it… The Kondattam and Pickle felt to be like usual but the Chammanthy, again, felt to be on the bland side…

So, altogether, an ok meal for me… Neither good nor bad… At this point, I’m hoping that they will correct the issues and things will be better very soon…

As mentioned above, along with the Fish Curry Meals, I had got what they call as the Masala Fried Fish… It came as shown in the pic below:

First of all, when I heard the name, I expected to see a piece of Fried Fish with a Spice/Masala marinade… However what came appeared to be a Slice of Fried Fish topped with a sautéed Tomatoes, Onions and Green Chillies mixture with Ginger and Garlic and Spices, which I guess to be Chilly Powder, Turmeric and Coriander Powder, with tempering of Curry Leaves and Mustard Seeds… And as seen in the pics it was served on a plate garnished with slices of Tomato and Cucumber…

Once again, the fish was cooked perfectly… But I do wish they done what I expected ie, spice marinated fried fish… This is because that “masala” topping that they had ended up being bland and quite frankly I felt like it got in the way of the Fish as well… Flavours did feel quite watery… So, I ended up eating the Fish and discarded the Masala part… The Fish alone with the very very slight coating of the Masala (from being in contact with), seemed to be good… Clearly the fried fish was seasoned well… So, thats the positive on this one… So, I think this recipe really needs a review…

So, this along with the Fish Curry Meals and thinking back on my previous experience there with their Chinese-North Indian fusion option and also the experience when my parents recently brought a parcel consisting of other Chinese and North Indian options, were together making me wonder if the Chef(s) they had working at the line on that day was new to cooking the Kerala Cuisine… Anyways, not too bad an attempt if so, especially as I mentioned above, that Mathanga Vanpayar Erissery was quite good… So, at this point, I do hope that the issues get resolved and things improve very soon… I’ll definitely be going back to the place but based on this, I think I will be sticking to the Chinese and North Indian menu for the time being…