India on Platter Reviews

When Zahra and I went to Taj Emporium the other day I saw a bunch of new Micro-curries, from Kohinoor, called India on a Platter. Of course I was excited by all the new Micro-curry options! I bought five of them, for some reason all including paneer (Indian cottage cheese - NOTHING like the American version). Here were my impressions:

General: From looking at the packages, I quickly found that the India on a Platter dishes, while usually not super unhealthy, especially for convenience food, were generally not as healthy as the SWAD microcurries I've come to love. It's ironic, because the boxes are covered in propaganda about how healthy they are. However, the relatively high fat contents I found may also have something to do with picking all paneer varieties. Cheese adds fat. I also found it amusing that the packages stress somewhat odd English translations MORE than the original names of the dishes. Finally, the line is apparently quite new, only about 6 months old.

1.) Paneer Makhani - Creamy Cottage Cheese. I ate this one first because I love the dish Chicken Makhani at the local Indian restaurant. I was really disappointed in the micro-curry. It was thin, watery, had only a few chunks of sort of tough paneer, and just didn't taste very good. I was barely able to finish it (but then, I don't finish things if they're truly gross) and certainly won't be buying it again. In fact, for a brief moment I felt I had made a mistake by buying 5 of these right off the bat. Coincidentally, Paneer Makhani is also the least healthy of the five I bought. Rating: Not Good

2.) Mutter Paneer - Splendid Cheese Peas. Since I thought Paneer Makhani was so thin, I went for this one next. It was the only one of the five to have anything except paneer in it, since it also has a great deal of peas. When I first started eating it the strong pea taste throughout caught me by surprise and took me a moment to fully recognize. Overall, I thought this was a great micro-curry. The sauce was thick and flavorful and there were lots of peas and paneer both, with the paneer nice and tender. This was the healthiest of the five I bought, no doubt because of all the peas, and it was also in the end my favourite. Rating: Great

3.) Paneer Tikka Masala - Smoked Indian Cottage Cheese. This one had a sort of barbecue flavour to it... probably all the onion flavour. I'm normally not a fan of barbecue, but it really worked. The gravy was maybe a little bit thin, even though on the box it describes the gravy as 'thick'... but I would definitely buy this one again. Rating: Good

4.) Paneer Butter Masala - Spicy Creamy Cottage Cheese. I'm starting to believe that everything these packages say is crap - this one wasn't spicy at all. (Shahi Paneer was actually spicier). Just one was just okay, nothing super memorable but not bad. Rating: Okay

5.) Shahi Paneer - Royal Cottage Cheese. This one was for some reason the spiciest of the bunch. I liked it well enough.... it was somewhere between Paneer Tikka Masala and Paneer Butter Masala. Rating: Good

India on Platter so far: The results were good enough that I'll be back for more, lots more in the case of the Mutter Paneer. I want to try the rest of the micro curries in this brand as well. Just stay away from Paneer Makhani, if you want my advice! ;)