Sunday is the foodie day for me….. with every meal in the past few months eaten out, eating out isn’t a special thing anymore. However Sundays is different. That’s when I’m a bit relaxed, not much on my mind and I can give myself up to the sheer pleasure of being a gourmand!!
I started off my Sunday pigging in Bangalore with looking for the perfect Chicken Biryani…. most accesible from my home. That meant I needed to reach the place within 20 minutes maximum… that was the first criteria…. (though most will agree in favour of a yummy place called Hyderabadi House, it fails the accesibility test!! But you can’t leave a fantastic biryani out, so more about HH later!!!)
The second criteria was that it should be Chicken Biryani…. if its not available, it doesn’t count.
Sundays also happens to be Church day…. and being the good lil’ catholic boy I am, every Sunday you’d find me in church. So as all good things begin with the Lord, so did my Sunday pigging quest!!
Dakhani Degh [loosely translated as Deccan Cauldron] is a neat restaurant on my way to church. Its a Muslim eatery, so the food being tasty is guaranteed. As far as the palate is concerned, I’ve always had the utmost respect for Muslim eateries. Somehow they’re the final word on non vegetarian food. People familiar with Bade Miyan’s in Colaba, Mumbai and my foodie experience in the Muslim khau-gallis [food bylanes] of old Ahmedabad bear testimony to the fact.
So I settle into the neat ambience, the loud music and the cool air-conditioning, and order my biryani… and a sweet nimbu-pani [lime juice]
The first thing that hit me when the order arrived is the neat way the serving was packed. a shallow bowl, holding just enough biryani for one person, wrapped in cling film. It was a rather novel way of serving a dish, like as if it was a packaged item that came off a production line. So the whole act of opening the Biryani was like opening a present. They serve it with a bowl of raita and a thick and greasy salaan [curry].
When you pull away the cling film, the steaming aroma of basmati rice, clove, cinnamon and star anise will smother you. However, I did not find a physical trace of even one of these spices while eating. I have no idea how they did it, but its a rather mouth watering invitation to the feast.
As I dished some of the hot rice onto my plate, I found the chicken at the bottom. Considering the dish being about an inch and a quarter in depth, how they packed three large pieces of chicken and all that rice is beyond me. The biryani is Hyderabaadi style, so there is no gravy in the rice, its always served seperately….while the rice, though dry, can be relished on its own and needs no additional side dish.
And then the moment of truth………… The first taste that explodes in your mouth is the gentle profusion of pepper. Just right, not too bland, not too peppery. The rice is long slightly aromatic basmati rice, boiled just right, so that it is not too sticky, nor is it raw. There is the generous sprinkling of deep fried onions and masala, which play an eternal hide and seek with the tastebuds.
The pieces of chicken that I got were half a breast, a medium thigh and a large wing. I still wonder how they packed all that so tightly. The meat is very very fresh, judging by how easily the meat came off the bone with a fork. but when I realized that I was not doing justice to the chicken, away went the fork and nature’s contraptions [read fingers] took over. The meat was well infused with the taste of the biryani rice, which suggested the meat being cooked with the rice together.
I usually prefer to serve myself…. its a personal preference. The place has attentive but untrained staff, so if you walk in there expecting the attentiveness of an English Butler waiting on you, think again. You will have to ask them to serve you, fill your glass of water etc etc. But once you let them know what you want, they get it done quickly.
And price?? Well that meal cost me 100 rupees with a tip included. Not bad for a happy stomach and a single diner.
