Today, I went out for some shopping with my parents and after we came back, we were all too tired and so we decided to buy lunch… As I was checking for options, Purple Circuit, the restaurant of Flaming Inn, from which we bought the North Indian Combo that we loved last time showed up and without any further doubt, we decided to buy the North Indian Combo again (pretty much exactly like last time and hence not going to talk about here) and for me, I chose their Chettinadu Fish Biriyani and I don’t think I have seen a Chettinadu style Biriyani for a very long time and hence I just had to try… Ofcourse Chicken Biriyani was available but its been a long time since I had a Fish Biriyani as well and so, here we are… 🙂
So, the pic above shows how the Biriyani arrived, along with a Raita and Lime Pickle, all packed in “environment friendly” paper containers as can be seen… Although they are said to be good for the environment, as in being biodegradable, I am not a fan cause they tend to be very flimsy and its hard to bring wet curries without leaks (unfortunately from, one of the items in my parents’ combo which was the Gulab Jamun, the syrup leaked all over the bad and so every container was sticky to touch with it)…
Anyways, coming back to the Biriyani, it had a single piece of Seer Fish and enough rice for me and also for my dad to have a taste… The Fish was cooked well and was seasoned just right… To be frank, from the name Chettinadu Biriyani, I expected the Biriyani’s masala to be super spicy as thats how dishes from the Chettinadu cuisine tends to be, atleast from what I have seen so far… Here, on the other hand, the use of spices appeared to be quite controlled… Every element of the classic Chettunadu masala could be felt but at just the right amount where it never overpowered the fragrance and flavour of the Fish used as well as that of the Biriyani rice… I felt that the flavours were well balanced overall with the flavours of the Chettinadu masala itself consisting of the ground dry spices with the flavour of Mace taking the lead by a bit, all fried along with of-course the flavour of the roasted and caramelised shallots and onions and also they appeared to have added some chopped mint on top as well… As I said, overall, it tasted quite clean and appeared to work really well with the given Raita and the Lime pickle both of which were just like any other except for the thickness of teh yogurt used in the Raita…
The above pic shows my plate consisting of some of the Biriyani, including the Fish (Dad had his own Fish curry and so let me have that whole piece from the Biriyani for myself) along with some of the Raita and Lime Pickle and also some of the Salad that came with the combo that my parents had… 🙂 As you can see, it was a fine lunch for me, a delicious one at that that I could thoroughly enjoy and I am hoping to try the Chicken version of the Chettinadu Biriyani next time… Hopefully soon 🙂
