Chicken Mandi (RM18) at Parsia Restaurant in Taman Universiti, Skudai, Johor (2013 price)
I love the Chicken Mandi at Parsia Restaurant. The grilled chicken is fragrant with the skin outside slightly crispy and the flesh inside still moist. The chicken is served on a bed of aromatic Basmati rice and eaten with savoury yogurt and tangy vegetable dips. I enjoyed the chicken mandi so much that I asked the boss, Amin, how this delicious dish is made.
Amin graciously invited me to return one early morning to watch how Parsia Restaurant's chicken mandi is made. The process is fascinating - just watching how the chicken mandi is made makes my mouth water.
Work starts at 10am with Chef Jahangir preparing the charcoal and the grill in Parsia Restaurant's large traditional Arabian oven. This special oven is the only one that I have seen in Johor, so far.
When the charcoal is red hot, Chef Jahangir puts the pieces of marinaded chicken into the oven to grill.
After grilling in the oven for about 20 minutes, Jahangir transfers the pieces of grilled chicken to large trays partially filled with sauce. Jahangir then sprinkles the grilled chicken with ground spices and herbs.
The chicken grilled golden brown coated with a thin layer of special herbs and spices, ready for baking.
The trays of chicken are wrapped in foil and put back into the oven for baking.
Chef Jahangir pushes the heavy 200 Kg iron cover over the oven.
The chicken is left to bake in the oven for 45 minutes.
The freshly baked chicken mandi is ready! Amin is a very hands on boss. Here, the friendly boss is explaining to me the process of making Parsia Restaurant's chicken mandi.
Amin showing off the freshly baked Chicken Mandi, one of the most popular dishes at Parsia Restaurant.
After all that complicated and tedious process, this is the delicious chicken mandi served at the table for RM18. Personally, I feel it is good value.
Besides the chicken mandi, Parsia Restaurant cooks many other dishes using their large charcoal oven. Here, a worker is cooking Parsia Restaurant's Basmati rice.
Parsia Restaurant serves several other delicious dishes such as their popular Iranian Lamb Mandi, kebabs, stews and other Arab and Iranian classics in a simple and clean environment.
Amin and I spoke about the Arab and Iranian favourite goat's head dishes - I am looking forward to coming back to Parsia Restaurant for that :))
Restaurant name: Parsia Restaurant
Address: 63-01, 64-01, Jalan Pendidikan 4, Taman Universiti, Skudai, Johor Bahru
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/dwA8d
GPS: 1.545076,103.629237
Hours: 11:00am to 11:00pm
Halal
Date visited: 18 Dec 2012, 16 May 2013 | Update: 15 Jul 2021
Restaurant is permanently closed
drooling...by the way why is the name chicken mandi? something to do with malay word? or mandi is a word of persian?
ReplyDeleteI am told that mandi means "grilled" in Persian.
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