It was only yesterday that I had food ordered from the Le Arabia restaurant and turns out my parents wanted to order what they had again cause they loved what they had and wanted it again… This time however, instead of the grilled Chicken option, I went for their Biriyani and chose their Hyderabadi Chicken Biriyani… Now, I must say that have had the so called Hyderabadi Biriyani from Le Arabia many times before and quite frankly, I never liked it cause all that I could taste were the extreme heat from the chillies as is the case with many places who believe that the food just magically becomes “Hyderabadi” if you put in a lot of chillies and make it spicy… But this time, I was told by a friend who recently tried the same, that they seemed to have changed the recipe and the version now is worth trying and here we are after I tried the same delivered for lunch today…
As it can be seen from the pics (the meat with half of the rice that was given), I can say that the Biriyani certainly looks different when compared to the times I had before… As for the taste, compared to being just the chillies bomb last time, I felt that there were a lot more flavours going on with the taste of the caramelised Ginger-Garlic paste, the Biriyani Masala (which in this case felt to be dominated by Cardamom and Star Anise) and a bit of Saffron, all along with a sour component, which to me felt like a mixed taste of both Lime and Yogurt… The heat level from the Chillies used was still quite high but unlike earlier versions, thats not the only component that you can taste here… The Chicken was cooked well as well and hence no complaints there… However, the downside I felt was that the rice felt a tiny bit overcooked when compared to how it is usually with such Biriyanis and the Raita ended up being too sour for me… But its forgivable as the taste of the Biriyani is what matters the most…
Overall, I felt like if the use of chillies was reduced a bit, this Biriyani would be a lot more enjoyable, but compared to previous versions from this place, the flavour profile felt a lot more closer to the authentic Hyderabadi Biriyanis and hence I think it looks promising… Hopefully, next time it will be even better 🙂