Today I was back at Mall of Travancore and I felt like visiting the Azad Star restaurant here for lunch again… As I said in my previous post about this place, me and my parents have been enjoying the food at their original location for many years… So, one of my favourites from the place has been their Kothu Porotta that too the Chicken Kothu Porotta and so this time I thought of having the same as it has been a long time since I had the same and got reminded of the same as well… So, perfect opportunity indeed, rt?? 🙂
The following pic shows the Chicken Kothu Porotta that I got today… Quantity is pretty much same as their Biriyani and so perfectly fine for a single person… It was served with a cup of Onion Raita, which was the same as what I got with the Biriyani before, as well… One of the main reasons I like the Kothu Porotta here is that you get a really generous Meat to Onion-Tomato to Porotta ratio whereas in most places, it tends to be mostly Porotta and Onions with Tomato and very less meat… Here, its slightly less than 50% meat so you can have a piece of meat with each morsel… 🙂
Coming to the taste of this Kothu Porotta, as usual, it was quite spicy and the Raita and the tomato pieces do help cut it down… Chicken was cooked well and had the taste of Garam masala through out… However, unlike what I can remember from my previous experiences with the original Azad restaurant, the Porotta portion felt to be a bit too dry… Usually it tends to be moist enough… Not sure why though… Anyways other than the dryness, no complaints… 🙂
Usually, whenever I used to get the Kothu Porotta from Azad restaurants, I get their Chicken Mappas curry, which I have always felt to be a great combination with it, although its perfectly fine to eat the Kothu Porotta on its own… However, here, it was not available and among the available options in the menu, I decided to go for their Butter Chicken which was something I have never had before from any of the Azad group’s restaurants… It arrived as shown in the pic below… Unlike the Kothu Porotta, I felt the quantity given was fit for two people here… 🙂
Though how this Butter Chicken looked reminded me of the Butter Chicken that I have had from my childhood days when restaurants used to garnish dishes from Mughal cuisine using grated egg while on top… However, coming to taste, first of all, I couldn’t help but notice a mistake in the recipe where they seemed to use pieces of Chicken Tikka whereas for Butter Chicken we are supposed to just use yogurt marinated Chicken and have the Chicken get cooked in the creamy tomato and onion based gravy with a lot of Butter, where as its the Chicken Tikka Masala where we use the precooked Chicken Tikka pieces and toss them in the gravy without the Butter thereby letting us feel a bit more intense tomato and cream flavour along with the spices whereas the Butter in the Butter Chicken helps mellow everything down and bring in some sweetness in the mix… So, what I am trying to say is that this “Butter Chicken” felt like a hybrid of the two, as in Chicken Tikka Masala with a little bit of Butter added cause even though I could feel the sweetness from the Butter and the Cream, the flavours of the Masala / Spices felt quite intense too… The gravy felt very thick as well, which was unusual for both the curries which led me to wonder if the chef ended up reducing too much when cooking it… The Chicken Tikka Pieces appeared to be slightly overcooked if you ask me, but its ok… Overall, I felt it to be a nice curry to have… I guess instead of the spicy Kothu Porotta, a far better choice would’ve been to have with a Veg Pulao… Hopefully, will try that next time… 🙂
Last but not least was the drink I had which was their Cold Coffee Milkshake… It arrived as shown in the pic below… It looked like they blended expresso into a vanilla milk shake and added a little bit of expresso on the top as well… Overall, felt to be very sweet and the flavour of Coffee was quite intense as well… If you are feeling tired or sleepy, this shake is guaranteed to give you the kick if you ask me… 🙂
Overall, the lunch felt ok… Like I said, the combination of the Kothu Porotta along with their Butter Chicken clearly was a mistake but individually, as I have mentioned above, they were unique and good enough to want to try again… So, thats it for now… Hoping to visit again soon…
