Saturday, January 29, 2011

Hot N Spicy Restaurant, Irving TX

So I'm finally posting my first review.  A few friends and I checked out Hot N Spicy restaurant in Irving, TX.  This joint is situated right next to a large Indian grocery store owned by the same owner.  They have a vegetarian restaurant in the grocery store and the Hot N Spicy restaurant is there non-veg version.  This place is like your typical small hole-in-the-wall joint.  No more than 8-10 tables, with a limited menu but cover all the Indo-Pak basics.  We tried out 3 Biryanis at this place.  The chicken, boneless chicken, and goat biryanis.  They also had egg, and shrimp biryanis.  Whenever I see that many varieties I get a little leary.  Usually that means it's all the same rice and then they throw in the other ingredients.  This seemed to be the case with all of our selections.
Chicken Biryani

Boneless Chicken
Goat Biryani
As you can see it is difficult to tell which is which, but that is usually the case.  The meat is usually at the bottom.  The top pic is of the Chicken Biryani, and the middle one is of the boneless chicken biryani and the bottom is the goat biryani.

The Rice
As is usually the case with restaurants like these, it seems like these guys are making pakki biryanis(see earlier post).  The rice for all three dishes was pretty much the same.  Since we ate at about 8:30-9:00pm the rice was lukewarm at best.  So I'm sure it had been cooked and ready for several hours.  in fact considering how a couple of us felt the next day (bloated), I wouldn't be surprised if this rice is even more than a day old.  It just didn't taste fresh.  It would have been nicer if the rice were warmer and had some bit of steam coming off the top just for the effect and first bites.  The flavor was a bit mild (possibly due to it not being fresh) for me and one other in the group but the rest felt it was pretty good.  I think there was a little too much black pepper or something that had that same taste.  Slighty overshadowed the other flavors.  The fresh onions and cilantro were a nice touch and always add a crisp dimension to the dish.  Another thing I liked it was that it was not too oily.  Sometimes they can over do it on the ghee or oil.  The rice texture was light and fluffy.  A few parts were clumpy but that's ok considering it's made in large quantities.  Color was nice and yellow interspersed with some red grains and white grains which is pretty much what you are used to seeing with "Hyderbadi" style biryani.  Overall would give the rice around a 2.5 out 5.

Chicken Biryani

I have to say the meats overall were cooked well.  With biryanis, the meats are usually not heavily spiced and are slow cooked so that they are tender and fall off the bone easily.  As well the juices and fat are supposed to flavor the whole dish.  The chicken with bone was tender and juicy and easily fell off the bone with minimal urging.  As you can see, the meat was slightly pink on the inside which is ok with the dark meat of chicken.  It was mildly spiced and blended well with the composition of dish.  The amount of chicken I felt was one piece less than they should have given, but isn't that always the case? haha. They also provide the curry masala in a cup with which the chicken was cooked in to add to the flavor of the dish.  You can also add some raita (runny yogurt with cumcumbers, tomatoes, and spices) for added flavor and also to tame the heat if it's too much.  Some places add chili to the yogurt as well.
curry masala for chicken biryani
The boneless chicken biryani was basically chicken tikka, small boneless pieces of white meat chicken grilled in a tikka masala sauce.  I was hoping for actual boneless dark meat chicken which I think would have been much better.  The white meat chicken did not blend well with the overall composition of the dish but was like just putting pieces of chicken onto an already made dish.  The tikka sauce was much more red with more of a tomato base than the other curry masalas.
tikka masala sauce for boneless chicken biryani
Overall for the chicken in the biryani I would rate about 3 out of 5.  Boneless chicken 2 out of 5 simply because I would have liked to see boneless dark meat and not chicken tikka pieces.

Goat Biryani
goat meat
The goat meat I thought was cooked well too.  It, like the chicken was tender and fell of the bone easily.  It is difficult to cook goat because it can be a tough meat depending on the age of the goat cooked.  This tasted like young goat because of the softness of the meat.  I have been to places where the goat is chewy and tough and that means either they did not cook the goat long enough (several hours) or that the it was an older goat.  It tasted like they had simmered the meat in the same blend of spices as the chicken, which for this place was fine.  It was at least consistent.  I felt of the three dishes we tried I enjoyed the goat most because I felt the flavor of the goat meat itself blended better with the composition of the rice and the spices used to cook it.  The richer flavor of the meat complimented the overall dishes better than the chicken varieties.  I would rate the goat 4 out of 5.

Summary

Hot N Spicy of Irving is a great place to be introduced to biryani because the blend of spices are not too overpowering and they do a good job with the cooking of the meats.  Though it is not a kachi biryani, they do a good job of giving it that feel.  I would recommend this place for anyone who wants to try out biryani for the first time and to seasoned lovers as well for an good average biryani.  


Rice 2.5 out of 5 - could have been warmer and fresher (seemed like it was over a day old)
Chicken (with bone) - 3 out 5 - could have been spicier but still good flavor
Boneless chicken - 2 out of 5 - wished it were dark meat and not tikka peices
Goat - 4 out of 5 - good, though could have been warmer
Overall Rating - 2.8 out of 5

This was great first experience for reviewing biryani.  Good friends, and good food.  Thanks to the peeps who came out!

The Seeker
biryanilove.blogspot.com