Well, today was the day I had a very strong craving to have some Pothichoru but sadly there were none available for delivery to my area as the ones who does somehow weren’t open for orders… So, that got me thinking… What do we have in Pothichoru?? Its basically a Kerala Style Meals with Omelette, Fried Meat/Fish, rt?? So, How about I get a portion of Meals with Omelette, Fish Fry and Fish Curry and then assemble them together?? Will I get an experience similar to eating a Pothichoru?? Well, depends on whether I can get Banana Leaf too which I sadly couldn’t… But I still decided go ahead with the plan with what I can get and that brought me to the menu of Al Saj Restaurant in Kazhakuttom in Swiggy… So, added their Veg Meals and Omelette into the cart and then I realised that there was neither options of Fish Dry nor Fish Curry… Instead what I could get ended up being their Boneless Chicken 65 and the only Seafood option in the menu ie, Prawns Roast… So, the following pics show the end result 😀
The Veg Meals arrived as Rice and dry side dishes ie, Aviyal, Pacchadi, Thoran and Achaar/Pickle wrapped together and the rest ie, Sambar, Rasam, Kappa (Cassava) and Pappadom along with the extra items ie, Omelette, Boneless Chicken 65 and Prawns Roast, arrived in their own individuals packs and so what I did was that I opened up the pack containing rice and then added all the dry side dishes the omelette and some of the Chicken 65 and Prawns Roast to it as shown… I also then opened and poured the given Sambar on top of the rice… I discarded the Rasam and Kappa cause I don’t particularly like Rasam and as for Kappa, I usually skip it when there is no Fish Curry around (doesn’t work with the Prawns Roast)…
Now coming to the taste, Al Saj’s Veg Meals is a Kerala Meals option thats one of my favourites from Trivandrum… They do make a really good Fish Curry too but sadly I couldn’t get it this time (for some reason they refuse to include it and any of the Fish Fry options in the menu of food delivery apps and you can only get them as take away if you go there personally to order and collect)… So, as expected it was a nice Meals… The rice was cooked perfectly for me… Both me and mom love the Sambar here which as always was thick enough with enough lentils and vegetables in them including Carrot, Tomato, Bottle Gourd, Aubergine, Long Beans, Onions and ofcourse Green Chillies and Curry Leaves… The Pacchadi was made with Beetroot as can be clearly seen based on its color alone… It was not too sour and had the flavour of Beetroot in it… Quite well seasoned… The Thoran on the other hand felt overcooked and dry for me and it was made mostly using Onions and Coconut… It had a couple of Cashews as well… The Aviyal was as just like any other made dry using Raw Mangoes as the sour component… Nothing special there worth mentioning and the same goes for the Pappadom too…
Now coming to the Non-Veg items, first of all, the Omelette was cooked just right in the usual Indian style where the egg is well cooked and is also quite fluffy… It had chopped Onions and Green Chillies and a little bit of Coconut as well and it was seasoned with Salt and Black Pepper… I felt it to be a tiny tiny bit more salty than what I usually like but its ok as most people tend to like that much around here… The Chicken 65 is a known Tamilian spicy Chicken Fry recipe and here at Al Saj, you can get them as boneless and I found the ones I got this time were cooked perfectly with the meat just melting in my mouth… It was spicy with a subtle hint of sourness from the use of Lime juice… It worked great with the rice and also works on its own like a finger food… The Prawns roast on the other hand, was something I didn’t quite like this time… It was different from the usual version that I have been getting from them and seemed to have the wrong kind of Garam Masala where the flavours of Cinnamon and Clove were overpowering everything else including the Prawns themselves… And the whole thing felt like it was thickened using corn starch like how they do with their Chinese dishes… I guess it might work with Porotta or Chappati but I don’t think it works with the Kerala Rice…
Anyways, even though not exactly what I was hoping for, it did turn out to be a good meal altogether that I could enjoy having that I can recommend everyone to try… Feel free to do so… 🙂
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