You’ve eaten a sumptuous biryani. You’ve wiped your plate clean of all the delicious morsels of meat and fragrant rice. The only logical thing to do next (as per most of Chennai’s biryani lovers) is to now dig into a serving of rich and decadent bread halwa, no?
But what if you could follow up your biryani with something more interesting? Something that combines traditional deep Indian flavours with something less rich, creamier and lighter; like a jar of Red Velvet Paneer Jamun that deliciously sets the richness of a chewy rose-flavoured paneer jamun in a bed of moist red velvet cake crumbs bathed in some soft and airy fresh cream. “The idea was to ensure that our biryani lover had a wider range of desserts to choose from. We all love the bread halwa combination. It’s a classic! But we decided to introduce indulgent cake jars as an option post this last lockdown and it worked. This new dessert option pairs really well with biryani too and many of our loyal customers like the idea of a lighter dessert to complete their meal with,” says Murad K Shahuna, the owner of Fill Belly.
Fill Belly, a wood fire Muslim wedding style biryani cloud kitchen that began functioning in 2013 from Royapuram, is otherwise well known for its decadent biryanis in mutton and chicken. They have also recently added a Parsi Mutton Pulao to their ever-expanding menu. The menu also features a vegetable biryani option and some authentic traditional succulent Chicken 65 and Pepper Chicken that work really well as sides and do absolute justice to their original recipes. For purists, however, they do serve bread halwa, even as a separate item on the menu; and also feature a Pulpy Grape Juice as a beverage option. If the cake jars intrigue you more, there’s also Dark Chocolate Gulab Jamun and White Chocolate Mysore Pak to choose from. And they also feature gulab jamuns as dessert options.
“It’s amazing to see how people have accepted our brand with open hearts and we continued to receive orders even during the lockdown. This has only made us want to work harder to keep our customers satisfied with even more innovative menu options,” concludes Murad.
Biryanis from INR 350. Cake jars at INR 200. Order online.
romal@newindianexpress.com
@elromal