Today I was back at Mall of Travancore and I had skipped breakfast today having woken up late and so, as you can imagine I was quite hungry… So, I thought I’ll have a brunch from the Azad Star restaurant as I enjoyed the food I had last time and did the same…
Last time when I was here, I did notice some interesting “Chinese” options and so, this time I decided to go ahead and try something from that… So, among the available options, I went for what they call as their Chilly Garlic Seafood Fried Rice and also their Fish Chilly… They arrived as shown in the pics below…
First, lets talk about the Chilly Garlic Seafood Fried Rice… I must say I was surprised by this fried rice, primarily because it was completely different from any of the Fried Rice options I have ever had before… One key part, as you can see from the pic below is the very generous amount of crispy fried crushed Garlic Bits along with nuts all over the Fried Rice (made me wonder if it should’ve been named as Fried Garlic Chilly Seafood Fried Rice)… It did emit a nice and strong fragrance of Garlic along with the nice fragrance of Soy and Chilly sauce along with the Seafood in it…
Coming to the taste, first of all, I felt that all the flavours were concentrated on the fried Garlic bits and the Seafood… The rice mostly was bland and I felt needed at-least some salt in terms of seasoning… As for the seafood part, it was mostly consisting of Prawns and I must say that I have never seen a Fried Rice being served anywhere in India being loaded with this much Prawns and this one had pieces of Fish too in addition to it… Garlic does indeed dominate the flavour profile due to the very generous inclusion of it… But the flavour of the Chilly – Soy sauce combination with the Coriander and Spring Onions was nicely felt whenever I was biting into any of the seafood pieces… Overall, I think this is a good fried rice option which would’ve been one of the best in India had it been done right with the right amount of seasoning and balance of flavours… I hope they do the necessary corrections soon…
Next up is the Fish Chilli I ordered along with the fried rice and the reason why chose that is because I was informed by the waiter that its a dry preparation and so I asked for it as the starter… However, they served both together with the same Radish flower garnish on them 🙂 For those who may not be aware, Fish Chilli, just like its more popular elder sibling, Chicken Chilli are “Chinese” dishes that have originated in India, developed by Tibetan/Chinese migrants who ended up opening restaurants and adapted to local palettes and hence part of the Indo-Chinese cuisine…
Coming to the taste, again, like the fried rice, I felt that all the flavours and seasonings were restricted to the fish pieces and the vegetables tasted mostly bland… The flavour profile was pretty much exactly like how it was with the fried rice except for the fact that the fish pieces felt like they were essentially marinated in the Kerala style using Chilly powder, Turmeric and Coriander Powder and then tossed in the sauce after frying, hence making me wonder if this should’ve been named as Fish Fry Chilli instead of just Fish Chilli… The inadequacy of salt was felt here too but I liked the idea of this dish where the chef used the Kerala style fried fish with the Chilli sauce and I felt like its a nice fusion idea… So, I think it is worth trying at-least once to experience the unique taste of it…
So, that was a nice brunch overall for me and quantity was enough to satisfy my hunger at the time… Both the rice and the curry ended up being unique in terms of the taste and thats the reason why I would recommend these to my fellow foodies as we are always looking for new flavours to explore… Thats all for now… Take care… 🙂
