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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Uncle Choo

Image
Preface It has really been awhile since I have last written and published an article on my blog with the last being in October last year. Before that I have been writing and publishing non-stop for 15 years since 2008.  I was not suffering from writer's block. They say running water never grows stale. So I have to move on to other things since the pandemic has ravaged and torn all asunder. No matter how passionate you are about anything, you will find that after an absence for sometime, the engine gets cold and you find it harder to start.  Just too darned busy and being too busy with one thing means one becomes lazy with the others. The law of compensation. A hiatus if you must.  Covid made it worse as there was no more travelling since borders were closed and eating locally and overseas were curtailed. So I could not write about these things. In fact, I laid out my travel luggage, sat down and spoke to them - "We are not gonna travel for a few years". They have since be
Read more

The Kallang Roar! (Part Three)

Image
Back in the good old days, we have four other national teams. Besides the National Team (The Lions), we also have a B team (The Cubs). Then we also competed in the Sultan's Gold Cup fielding a team called Singapore Malays. We have the Singapore Indians playing in the Bardhan Cup and the other being the Singapore Chinese team also competing aga inst Malaysian state teams in the same format and also the Ho Ho Cup triangular among Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. In 1976, Englishman Trevor Hartley became responsible for the Singapore team at age 28. I can't remember which year Singapore beat Malacca 6-2 and Lee Bee Seng was sent off for punching an opponent who must have trampled on him. Here is Bee Seng with Brian Rozario. In the same match Quah Kim Song was sent off too for fighting. And I said wow! Malaysia Cup is like that? I like! (Pix - Lee Bee Seng with Brian Rozario). And can you believe this? Before all these we have Mike Walker who played Kim Song a
Read more

The Hainanese

The Hainanese are people from Hainan who originated from Hainan Island - the smallest province of China at the Southern most tip. They were originally fishermen from Fujian and Guandong and later settled over there. The Hainanese, part of the Chinese dispora migrated to different South East Asian countries including late comers to Singapore worked in ships as sailors, opened their own coffee shops or restaurants, bakeries or bars and worked as cooks and chefs and others at local hotels.  Hainanese in Singapore made up 7% of the Chinese population. The Hainanese came to Singapore much later than the Hokkiens and Teochews who are already well entrenched in trade and commerce. Originally they also have problems communicating with other dialect groups as their language seems unintelligible to the others but they began to carve out a name for themselves working for wealthy Europeans including as canteen operators for military bases.  Hainanese are especially with food and beverage.
Read more