Makanan Bollywood - Nasi Briyani

Nasi Briyani is a favourite for many. I have previously featured Taj at Mosque Street where they have additional dishes like chicken tikka, tandoori chicken, lassi (yoghurt drinks). A good nasi briyani, besides the long grain basmati rice, has to be fragrant and not oily. Taj does excellent briyani but their best briyani is the fish bryani.

There is another crowd favourite at Beach Road, at a HDB block just behind the hawker centre where there is always a long queue. That one has a very good chicken curry. Very good too. 

Then there is this one I knew but recently tried again after some time there is really as awesome. Dum briyani is cooked by using basmati rice with chicken or mutton marinated in awesome herbs and spices and is one the the most famous briyani recipes around the world now. And so I found myself coming to a favourite place of my youth when buying jeans and t-shirts at the Peninsula Shopping Centre (basement) and where I canvass for business as a sales person in days gone by.

The Makanan Bollywood Restaurant.

It must have been closed to 12pm and the crowd was filtering in and very quickly after we sat down, it was filled to the brim in no time but the service was quick and swift. I always want my meals to be light so I settled for chicken to be washed down with teh halia and was happy when it came not in a huge plate but with not a lot of rice, just enough for me which a great because many people are simply overeating. You should not eat that much unless you work in hard labour burning lots of energy.

I was very impressed with the quality and taste. The chicken was especially excellent. I can't claim to have tasted chickens in every place on the planet but I can tell this one is absolutely fabulous. It was not dry but tender and even juicy inside with every herb and spice taste well absorbed in it. Wow!

Clearly satisfied and more than happy, a friend suggested we also try the mutton. When I said it would then be too much, he offered that he order one and we share it. It was like drinking with some friends and you had to go and then they say okay one more, then last for the road and night cap and so on. When it is all done, someone would say okay a final one and you say no, they would suggest okay one more, we share.

So to cut a long story short, the mutton came. And boy was it good! I was thinking, I should have one by myself and not share it. That was the devil on one side my shoulders speaking but then the angel on the other side warned and planted the thought of gluttony that dawned upon me. 

I am absolutely proud of Singapore's culture of a multi-racial /religious society where foodies of Singapore and the world must unite. We must do nothing to destroy it and do everything we can to protect it. God made the country and man made the town. Diversity makes life interesting.

''Variety is the very spice of life, that gives it all it's flavour.'' - William Cowper.