WTF? When did this chef taste MY mom's biriyani!?! Those were my thoughts when the biriyani was served, but a lot of things conspired between when we were seated and when the biriyani was served. Traditionally, Iftar had samosas and cutlets and the nombu kanji and on a special day, mom/grand mom will make their biriyani and that is how I remember special Iftars as a child. Park Hyatt recreated that experience for me! An Iftar menu at Park Hyatt and I had to find out at the fag end of Ramzan. Why God? Why? Wish they had called me earlier!!!!
The evening started off with traffic. Stuck on Kotturpuram high road for more than 30 minutes, we were starving and itching to get something into the stomach to maintain sanity. And thank God, when we walked into The Dining Room at Park Hyatt, we were seated and before we blinked, we were served a fantastic dry fruit smoothie and was lip smacking a platter of fruits and dry fruits. Apricots, walnut, the works!
By the time the stomach stopped cursing, we were served a two pieces of cutlets and sheekh kebabs each! The samosa was very typical and the sheekh was excellent! Gulped down shamelessly too! And we were ready for main course. This is where, Park Hyatt got the dishes right and the names, wrong. 'Nombu kanji' was fantastic. If you're the type who drinks the rasam or sambar, or you've ever wondered how a mutton sambar will taste, this is your chance. It was soothing, flavourful and yummy, but a little too thin. It should have been named something else. We were served a piece each of shreemal a thick, but super soft bread. I dipped it in what they called the 'haleem' and it was fantastic. This was not 'haleem' by any stretch of imagination, but it was a fantastic gravy. Mom style. The butter naan was skimmed off with the haleem and the wonderful dhal makhni too!
And then came the biriyani moment. Loved it. My family style of biriyani has a little more ghee, tomatoes and coriander/mint and this was replicated. Both of us fell in love with the biriyani and it brought back memories stuck somewhere in the base of my skull! Memories of grand mom. But besides that, the biriyani was excellent and was served with a fruit raita, again family style. Dinner was done with a simple kulfi!
Priced at a fantastic Rs. 1000 nett per person, this is a fantastic dinner with a great quality at a superb price! Fasting or not, this is worth a shot! I only wish I knew of this earlier as I would have gone a couple of times.
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