I am back at the Mall of Travancore and since I was hungry and had a craving for Biriyani, I decided and went to the Azad Star restaurant there… I had written about Azad’s own style of Biriyanis in my previous post and so, it was indeed a surprise to see this new Hundi Dum Biriyani displayed at the entrance… When asked, the head waiter who happened to be standing over there at that time, he informed me that its a new addition to the menu and its cooked in dum and served in a personal sized claypot a.k.a the Hundi… And of now, they only do this with Prawns and hence the name Chemmeen Hundi Dum Biriyani…
I have been familiar with a whole cuisine based on Dum cooking using the clay pot known as Hundi back when I used to live in Mumbai and its a cuisine that I liked the best back then… Hence, obviously, I couldn’t resist the suggestion to try the Chemmeen Hundi Dum Biriyani… The pics above and the video below show how it was served…
I did like the fact that they bring the sealed Hundi and open it in at the table in front of the customer… Thats definitely a plus on the service the staff provide over there… Now, because of the name Hundi, I expected this to be the North Indian kind of Biryani that I have had from my days in Mumbai, but as he opened the Hundi, it was immediately clear from the aroma that it was not and instead it was the same Travancore Style Biriyani but served after backing in the dum fashion in the Hundi… The Biriyani was served with Pappadom and Onion Raita as can be seen in the pics below…
Coming to the taste, I felt that the masala, rice, etc were exactly like the Travancore Biriyani I had from there before with subtle flavours that don’t overpower anything… The only difference was the prawns which I found to be cooked perfectly… My favourite part as always with Dum Biriyanis was that dough used for sealing which was partially cooked and had absorbed the flavours of the entire biriyani in it, which in this case ended up being very delicious if you ask me… 🙂
Along with the Biriyani, as I tend to do sometimes, I also got their Neymeen Tawa Fry… Though interestingly presented on a sizzler plate as can be seen in the pics below, it was a pan fried piece of fish marinated in that traditional Kerala style… It was indeed nice to have it with the Biriyani…
So, altogether it was a nice lunch I had and but I am left wishing that the Hundi Biriyani was really the Northern kind of Biriyani than what was served, which if you ask me ultimately felt like a gimmick… But its ok as the Biriyani was good and better than the one I had from there before… So, alls good and I for one am hoping to see other variants of the Hundi Dum Biriyani as well… Hopefully soon…
