First things first, Rukhsaars team couldn’t make puris, they were coming out as papdi. How did they suddenly manage so many puris?
I’ve grown up eating crisp fried lotus stem (popular amongst Sindhis), don’t understand the brouhaha over it. It’s always had as an accompaniment and not a stand alone item.
A Idli sandwich isn’t an innovation, I’ve had it before.
Also guacamole is a pani puri? Where’s the bite? Normally you’ll find kala chana, aloo, ragda or boondi in a pani puri. I wouldn’t mind guacamole as innovation, but I’d miss the bite. The colour of the pani seemed like it lacked mint and cilantro. Is it really a pani puri then?
On the other hand, the blue team - the papdi did look too thick to me, and if it wasn’t baked at low temperatures for long enough it wouldn’t be properly cooked. Again, the texture of potatoes was like the texture of their sauces, where’s the play on textures? I wish they’d atleast topped it with sev, and if they didn’t have time for that, crushed puri!
The prawn popcorn - it looked very crispy, reminded me of a tempura. The problem is such crispy batter fried stuff needs a sauce to impart flavour, or as the judges said some sprinkled masala.
I’ve never had a paniyaram and have no idea of what it should taste like. So I’ll go with the judges comments that it was excellent.
The chicken cannoli reminds me of a chicken roll my mum used to make - creamy chicken in a spring roll wrapper. I’ve turned vegetarian so haven’t had it in years, but I could almost taste it when I saw Ashiq cook it. The pasty texture may not be for everyone. But then when he described the dish he said mildly flavoured chicken - not very apt for fast food.
Just basis this, I’d have given my vote to the red team. But this was a restaurant service challenge and I strongly believe that the customers views should’ve been the deciding factor.
Also, they said Rukhsaar, Nambi and Suraj are semi finalists. 7 people in the semi finals? Does that mean the show ends in 2 weeks from now?
This season seems really rushed, like they aren’t interested. Wonder if we’ll see another season.