The Quest For Briyani Part 6: Saffrons Cafeteria

Here we at at stop number 6 in our Quest for Briyani series and this time we are visiting a place that we normally visit for something else (not the Briyani) but quite a few readers have been egging us to try the Briyani here. WE HEARD YOU!!! :)

Mutton Briyani Dum ($6.00)

When someone says Saffrons to me, the first things that comes to my mind are Mee Goreng and Prata because that's basically what I almost always have when I go there. I've always seen lots of people ordering the Briyani there but never really thought much about it. Well it seems that a lot of people knew something I dind't and I'm here to find out what it is.

The first thing that hit us as soon as they brought the Briyani to the table was the aroma. Now here was a plate of Briyani which had the strong aroma you'd expect from a power serving of Briyani! We've had Briyani where there was surprisingly no smell at all but this was definitely something else!

Maybe it had something to do with the banana leaf? Well I'm not sure about if it made a difference but it definitely made a good impression.

At first I thought the rice looked kinda dry but boy was I wrong.
The rice was nice and fluffy and full of flavour. The rice was so tasty that I could have gone on eating it without any meat or anything else.

But thankfully, I remembered the meat!

The mutton was absolutely the bomb! The masala gives you a nice strong kick but it doesn't overwhelm you so when you have it with the rice, you can still taste the rice and the masala compliments it. The mutton was tender and easily torn apart with just my fork. Add all that into one satisfying mouthful.

I'm quite confident in saying that this is one place that calls it 'Briyani Dum' and really means it!

The acar and the dalcha only add to a dish that is already delicious on its own.

The acar has a nice tang and spice to it. Don't be afraid of those chillies you see, it's not that spicy.
And the dalcha was simply sublime. I guess one of the reasons it was so good was that they add in some of the lamb fat (tetelan) when they cook it (similar to some of the other places we reviewed) and it seems to make a world of difference. You don't have to eat the fats though! It's already done its job :)

As you can see, I really enjoyed my meal!!!

And of course, finish off with a nice cup of Teh Tarik!

Adam's Verdict:
Mutton Briyani Dum 4.5/5

I know I still have hundreds more places to have Briyani. Half of which have been recommended by you - our beloved readers. Don't worry, I'll try my best to cover as many as I can. But for now, Saffron's is one of the best Briyani's I've had so far.

Just an extra note, we normally eat at the Tampines Saffrons because it's so close but they also have a new outlet at Swan Lake in Opera Estate. And so far, the high standards are upheld at both venues!

Saffrons Cafeteria

23 Swan Lake Avenue

Tel: 9185 0954
www.facebook.com/SaffronsCafeteria

Operating Hours:
8.00am til 10.00pm Daily

The Quest For Briyani Part 5: Afghanistan

So it took us awhile but we're back on the trail and The Quest For Briyani continues!
(You can read the rest of the series by clicking HERE if you're just joining us)

For the longest time, even before I started this blog by the way, people have been telling me about how great the Nasi Briyani at Afghanistan in Tampines was. In fact, I've been hearing about its 'legendary' status since I was in my teens.

It's actually quite surprising that this would actually be the first time I was going to try it especially since it was so accessible to me in the first place.

Mutton Briyani ($5.00)

Let me start of by saying that they're quite generous with the serving.
Definitely enough to fill you up if you're hungry or just right to share between 2 people.

The one thing that I noticed when I sat down with the Briyani was that something was missing.
You know how you get the aroma you get when you just sit down with a nice hot place of Nasi Briyani still steaming from the freshly served rice? Well, that was missing.

The rice was fluffy and no doubt the traditional Basmati but that's about all I have to report.
There was no fragrant aroma and the rice was severely lacking taste. Very surprising for a plate of Briyani which I've been hearing about for years.

I will not claim to be an expert on Briyani and I know there are plenty more Nasi Briyani places for me to visit but I think I know what I'd expect from a decent plate of Briyani and something is quite wrong if that distinct aroma is missing.

The meat wasn't exactly super tender but I guess it was okay. You could still tear it apart without much effort.
Unfortunately the masala was quite bland as well. Again, another shocker.

The acar gave some life to the dish I guess. Nothing spectacular but at least there was some flavour to it.

Actually, I realized something about halfway through my dish.
The individual parts of the dish on their own were severely lacking. The rice was tasteless on its own. The meat was not that enjoyable on its own. And there's no point just eating the acar on its own. The only way I could get though it was to eat every single spoonful with a bit of everything. There was simply no chance of enjoying my meal by eating the rice or the meat on its own.

Adam's Verdict:
Mutton Briyani 1.5/5

Who knows. Maybe I'm just being fussy? Maybe the Chicken Briyani is better?
Well, whatever the case may be, I was actually really disappointed. Has the standard of Afghanistan really dropped?

Perhaps I'll try it again some time and hopefully then I might be able to relive the high standards that everyone seems to remember so fondly.

Afghanistan Family Restaurant

201E Tampines Street 23
Briyani / Murtabak Stall

Tel: 6783 7746

Operating Hours:
7.30am til 11.30pm Daily
(Opens at 3.00pm on Friday afternoons)

Ramadhan Special 2013: Nasi Tomato

Hey everyone! Just a quickie here for you.
We received an email from Lynn a few days ago to recommend some Nasi Tomato!

Apparently there's a stall in Bedok that is selling Nasi Tomato that Lynn says is "uber delicious" (aka The Bomb in my language) but it's only going to be offered during this fasting month period. Since there was only like about a week to go, I figured I'd better make my way down ASAP!

Nasi Tomato with Daging Rendang ($5.00)

Now that's a pretty picture isn't it?

So anyways this is a special set-up in front of an actual stall called Nur Indah's Kitchen/Abang Wan's Roti John at the market in Bedok North (across the road from the Bedok Stadium) and it's only going to be around until this weekend (4th August) before they pack it up.

They have quite a number of special dishes on offer including Briyani, Ayam Penyet and even Mee Bakso but I was there to sample Lynn's recommendation - Nasi Tomato!

The picture above was taken just after I got the food which was freshly packed after I ordered.

You actually have a choice of what you'd like to go with your Nasi Tomato, Firstly it's either beef or chicken and then you decide which style of meat you'd like.

For example, you have Rendang or Briyani style for the beef and you have briyani or masak merah style for the chicken.

 On top of the rice and meat, you'll also get some dalcha and some acar as well. Two types of acar for you to choose from. It's either the Acar Timun you get with Briyani or the Acar Tomato seen in the picture above.

A word of advice though - remind them to separate the meat and acar from the rice since you'll need to keep it for quite awhile before iftar time.

The beef and chicken were actually pretty nice! Well cooked and tasty. The chicken in particular was very flavourful and not over-cooked. The beef was good but the portion was a little small (for a meat lover like myself of course). The dalcha went well with the dish and definitely packed a punch in terms of flavour.

The tomato rice itself was a little hard though. This might be due to the fact that we had to keep it and then eat it later maybe? I bought it at around 1pm and kept it in the fridge before heating it up via 'kukus' method just before iftar time. Not sure if that was the cause of it?

Anyways if you're not fussy like me then you will have no problems. The rice was tasty and definitely worthy of a recommendation (unless you don't like hard rice of course).

Adam's Verdict:
Nasi Tomato Daging Rendang 2.5/5 -- Nasi Tomato Daging Rendang 3/5

I've actually only had Nasi Tomato one other time which is when my Dad cooked it at home.
I hear it's really actually quite troublesome to make for some reason so if you can find a good one, you should definitely try it.

But just remember - you only have 3 more days til the stall closes on 4 August!
Thanks to Lynn for the recommendation! Keep them coming in guys!

Nur Indah's Kitchen/Abang Wan's Roti John

Blk 59 New Upper Changi Road
Marketplace@59 #01-187

Operating Hours:
12.00pm til 7.00pm (until 4 August only)

The Quest For Briyani Part 4: Blue Diamond Restaurant

 

So I mentioned my quest for Briyani to my Mum and she says "Wah you have to try Blue Diamond Briyani!".
Normally when my Mum makes a claim that something is nice means she really really likes it.
So I made it a point to pay Blue Diamond a visit.

Tucked along the row of shophouses along Buffalo Road, I almost missed it.
The restaurant looks so well-blended in that I actually had to look for a sign before I knew exactly where it was. And since this restaurant was actually pretty famous, I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

My Dad and Brother were along for the adventure but my Mum couldn't make it out for lunch...
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.............................

Well my Dad and I had different types of Dum Briyani and my Brother had the Naan which I actually reviewed earlier. (See that review HERE)

Now it's interesting to note that they are listing this as "Dum Briyani" which means they cooked it in the 'Dum' style of cooking the meat and rice together. There are a lot of places that claim to serve 'Dum Briyani' but actually don't. How would Blue Diamond fare?

So the guy brings out our Briyani in these small little pots.
He lays the banana leaf out for you and then proceeds to flip the rice and meat out on to your plate.

But does this small pot mean that it's not authentic 'Dum'?
Not at all. I can confirm that Blue Diamond serves authentic Dum Briyani because we saw the guy scoop the rice and the meat out from a much larger pot where the Briyani was cooked.

Apparently they pack it into these pots to keep the dish warm and this means they can serve it to you steaming and piping hot.

Dum Mutton Biryani ($7.00)

Dum Chicken Biryani ($6.50)

As you can see, the servings are very very generous!!

The mutton version comes with 2 pretty big pieces of mutton and a whole quarter of chicken for the chicken version. Plus a hard-boiled egg atop a nice big fluffy bed of rice.

The Basmati rice used was very fluffy and very delicious. I have to say it was actually very tasty even if you were to eat the rice on its own without any curry.

But let me explain that this is because this Biryani is heavy on the spices.
That's a fierce colour for a Biryani to have and it's because of the masala spices they use and boy do they use it generously here. It's not over-powering but I can foresee some people may not fancy it too much.

Some people like their Briyani to be relaxed and not too strong while some like it spicy and packing a punch.
If you are the 2nd type, then you'll probably enjoy this because this is definitely a dish that emphasizes the powerful flavour of biryani spices.

The mutton itself was very tender and tore apart relatively easily. This is what you at least expect as a minimum for Dum Biyani am I right? Unfortunately with my luck, I got a nice big joint bone which means less meat for me. Yeah sure I love the bones but I prefer meat with my biryani.

The chicken version however didn't fare so well.
The meat was definitely tender but when you have to cook chicken meat that long to get it to that state, you sacrifice a lot of the moisture in the meat so it turned out to be very very dry. The chicken version also appeared to have less masala spices compared to the mutton version.

Cucumber Raita

Curry

You also get the usual extras with your plate of biryani.
Cucumber Raita was a welcome change as it definitely cooled of the spice of the biryani.
I thought that the curry was actually Rasem or something because it looked so watery but don't let looks deceive you - that's one tasty and spicy curry! But with the biryani already being heavy on the masala spice, I didn't really need the extra curry.

In fact, to be honest, I actually liked it best when I had the biryani rice with the Butter Chicken which came with my brother's Naan!

Adam's Verdict:
Dum Mutton Biryani 3.5/5

Azlan's Verdict:
Dum Mutton & Chicken Biryani 3.5/5

Zain's Verdict:
Dum Chicken Biryani 3/5

A close friend and fellow foodie says that Blue Diamond was indeed a top name when it came to Briyani back in the day but he also mentioned that the old and original chef passed away a few years ago.
No doubt the recipe may be the same but we all know what they say about the people cooking the dish being just as, if not more, important than the recipe itself. Well, this is still a pretty tasty biryani nontheless.

The Quest For Briyani continues!!

Blue Diamond Restaurant

24 Buffalo Road
(Across from Tekka Market)

Operating Hours: 9.30am til 10.00pm Daily