Its time for another Pothichoru day and this time, trying from another new place I haven’t tried before… For a past few weeks, I have been noticing a new place come up in the Swiggy app called Sree Vinayaka located near Technopark as per the app… Obviously, my pure vegetarian mom got a bit excited believing that it might be a new vegetarian place especially since vegetarian places serving good tasting food is a rare sight sadly… However, when we checked, all that hope went up in flames when the recommended special for the day shown was “Fish Fry” lol 😀 Anyways, later once when both me and my dad were indeed craving for some Fish Fry, we tried the same which turned out to be good… However, at that time I also noticed that they have Pothichoru in the menu but we had rice at home and so didn’t get it back then… This time however, I finally got the chance to try their Pothichoru and this post is about the same… Of course, I also placed the order for a couple of their Fish Fry as well for both me and my dad and the parcel arrived on time as shown in the pics below…
So, after unpacking, the following pics show what the Pothichoru and the Fish Fry that arrived looked like… The Fish Fry was clearly made using Ayala (Mackerel) fish and each portion had one whole small sized fish… Inside the pothichoru, there was the obvious Chemba Rice along with an Omelette, a small piece of Choora (Tuna Mackerel) Fish Fry, Payar (Long Bean) Mezhukkupuratty, Kathirikka (Eggplant) Koottu Curry, Chammanthy, Kappa (Cassava) and some Mango Pickle… Along with the Pothichoru, there were Sambar, Parippu, Pulissery and Fish Curry (the plastic packets see in the pics above)…
I am not sure why but for some reason in all the Pothichoru that I have had since this whole Corona Pandemic started, the quantity of food was just right with just the right amount of rice and the side dishes… Earlier the quantity of the rice used to be much higher as in enough for 2-3 people with side dishes barely enough for one… These days, I for one am happy to see a far far better rice to curries ratio and in my personal opinion, just enough rice for one… Eg:, in the pics, the Parippu, Pulissery, Sambar and Fish Gravy seen on top the rice are just 1/3rd of what arrived in their respective packets…
Now coming to the taste, first of all, the rice was cooked to the perfect al dente which is how I like my rice… The same goes for most of the Cassava too clearly cooked with turmeric and chilly powder which is again how I like to have Cassava, which I found to work so great with the given fish curry gravy… The Parippu was made with mostly Green Lentils and Coconut and it along with the Green Lentils had one problem, which was basically a lack of salt… The Eggplant Koottu Curry on the other hand was incredibly flavourful and had in addition to Eggplant, some Bottle Gourd, Green Chillies and Curry Leaves in it along with the spices… Personally I don’t like to eat Eggplant but this curry I could enjoy with the rest of the contents of the Pothichoru… The Chammanthy again was the typical Coconut and Dried Red Chilly based one made with Tamarind and Ginger that we mostly see with most Kerala Meals option but unlike the others I have had, this had much stronger seasoning and I could feel the presence of Tamarind quite well and even got a piece of the same… And Just like the last time I had Pothichoru, I loved the Sambar and Pulissery here as well… The Sambar had pieces of Onions, Eggplants and Long Beans along with the Yellow Lentils and the Pulissery appeared to have Onions and Tomatoes along with Coconut along with Turmeric… Both were seasoned just right… The Mango Pickle was of course as salty and spicy as how such pickles typically are… The Mango was quite sour in this too and I think it provided the sour component that ended up balancing everything else especially the Parippu and the Mezhukkupuratty which were on the bland side…
Regarding the non-vegetarian dishes, that fish curry gravy had an amazing flavour of the fish along with coconut and Kokum and was the typical Kerala style fish curry recipe… There were very tiny bits of Mackerel fish in the gravy but no Pieces as such but as I said, the gravy was completely infused with its flavour… It was spicy but not too much for me… The Tuna Mackerel Fish fry piece was also made in the typical Kerala style fish fry way with the basic coastal spices which is at that perfect boundary where you feel it strong but still doesn’t overpower the flavour of the fish as if they are in equilibrium… Tuna Mackerel is indeed a great fish to have as fried like this… The Omelette was quite fluffy and had Onions, Green Chillies and ground Black Pepper in it… I felt it was good on its own and also with the Rice and Cassava with the curries and the Fish Fry as well… The Fish Fry I got extra was a whole Mackerel as I mentioned above and it can be seen in the pics below… It was coated with the same spice rub as it was withe the Tuna Mackerel piece but again thanks to the spice usage being just right, the flavour of the Mackerel Fish does come thru and I found the fish to have been cooked perfectly with the slightly crispy skin and fluffy white flesh inside…
So thats it… Another fine Pothichoru that I loved having… Come to think of it, I really didn’t feel that I was eating the food cooked by a restaurant kitchen, but rather a meal that was made at a home… Everything tasted clean and except for the ones I mentioned above, everything else was seasoned perfectly… So, loved the food very much… I for one am hoping to be able to try this food again soon… 🙂
