(Halal) Briyani

Nasi Briyani is an Indian Muslim dish, usually served with either curry chicken or mutton, with some cabbage and an egg. Briyani is long grained Bismati rice cooked with saffron, very similar to paella, except the rice is not cooked with the meat, there are some that are, and they are called dom/dum briyani.

Koothurar

Aminah's Prata

Al Falal

Halal, Nasi Briyani

Jun 2022

Briyani that whets your appetite, choice of chicken, lamb or fisg, with excellent meat that fall of the bone lamb briyani.

Visit this area around lunch time and you will notice a long q of people lining up for this briyani stall. You will definitely not the first to take a picture of the Q, and won’t be the last. I rushed in here one day when I saw there was not much of a Q. 4th in line, only for the first person to order 50 packets……! Since the opening up of covid restrictions, Qs are less daunting.

12 mims later, I ordered a chicken briyani, and a mutton takeaway for later. Only to see someone who asked to share my table ordering a portion with both! Keep that idea!

The first spoonful and I get why the Q. The briyani’s fragrance hit my senses just as the steam coming off the rice hitting the roof of my mouth. Every rice grain was a delicious bite like long grained briyanis should, I could eat just the rice and nothing else. I did just that when I finished the chicken, couldn’t resist.

The chicken was nice and tender but I had seen the mutton on the way to my table, and up front from my table mate… it looked much better. When I tried it at home later, it was pretty good, regretted not having the mutton fresh.

Another day, I came back to try it fresh… The mutton briyani here was as impressive as it looked! Meat came from the leg of a lamb, plenty meat with each order. It was so tender it fell off the bone without effort, so tender I barely needed to bite, it pretty much melted in my mouth. I was tempted to bring my mom who lost all her teeth here to enjoy the mutton! Tasted heavenly, not spicy at all, and texture heavenly! The mutton combined very well with the briyani too, a mouthful of mutton plus briyani a mix of wonderful taste and fragrance.

Came late another day and there was only curry fish left, didn't know they had fish so gave it a try. It was pretty good, solid but tender meat with a good bite; taste wise it was more than good. Obviously fish was not the top option for their customers, including this one, but it was definitely not a bad one!

Can’t think of many, if any, places with nicer briyani than here. Fragrant rice, and tasty and tender chicken and mutton. The better choice would be the mutton but the chicken is more than decent too, likewise the fish!

Koothurar Nasi Briyani

17 Beach Road, #01-4705, s190017

11am – 2pm (til they finish, which is around 145-2pm), closed on Tues

Aminah

Roti Prata, Nasi Briyani

Dec 2023

Prata’s top shop, served with undoubtedly the most delicious and thickest curry

This is the first prata stall I know where I liked the curry more than the prata, for someone who could go through a prata meal without touching the curry, this really says a lot.

The prata here was top notch too, they may sell quite a few items here, but sitting in front of the stall enjoying my prata, I noticed every single one ordered prata. The Q moves quite quickly at times, as they would go down the Q to take orders and start preparing and frying. I was this far away once 👇, but took only 7 minutes for my one kosong one egg to be in front of me!

Once I tried their mutton roti John. It was actually quite good, freshly cooked, fresh loaf, tasty mutton on egg on the loaf. They did have to double check they had a loaf to serve me, my bet is that I was the first and likely the last customer to order a Roti John for the month, maybe the year!

Now the prata. Each prata freshly made no matter what you order, they came nice and warm. Sit nearby and the person taking your order would deliver it.

The prata was the sticky chewy rather than the crispy. It had a very delicious fragrance of coconut oil and ghee to it, every mouthful was a joy.

The plain onion was delicious as the original prata taste could be tasted, with the crunch of freshly cooked onions providing good texture and sweetness.

The cheese prata was a bit of a mistake, usually I love a cheese prata, but it felt like the cheese took away the original taste of the prata here, I love the taste of cheese, but the cheese they use here, plus the delicious prata, makes Aminah a place to avoid ordering a cheese prata.

I didn’t dip into their curry until I notice they paid particular attention to it, asking each customer if they prefer mutton, chicken or fish curry. Every customer. So I had a good look at my mutton curry and realised it was thick, had a spoonful and it was yummy! Thereafter, I just had to dip my prata into the curry, not a usual practice as I prefer it without.

I don’t have a preference for crispy prata, I think both the crispy and this chewy type have their own beauty and flavour that I can enjoy.

The kosong here was quite crispy, thick too, but I felt that the flour was not so suited for it to be crispy so they probably should do the same. The egg prata was nice. Anyway, whatever, dip into the curry and everything will be extra delicious! Dip dip dip…

Before I left, I almost tried to finish off the left over curry. The curry made me think that their briyani should be special too, would return after 1030am (when the Briyani is ready) one day to give that a try, can’t wait!

Before too long, I tried their chicken briyani, asked if I wanted a hard-boiled egg with it, yes, do have it. The softest hard boil I’ve eaten! The briyani rice was not the best I’ve tasted, just about having the fragrance and suitable colours, it was quite a popular item here too. The chicken, however, was fabulous. Tender and very delicious, curry was suitable and decent too. Very good! I think I will be ordering my pratas here with a chicken in future! Note, I have yet to try their mutton, whose curry that went with the pratas were simply the best… better than all the rest…

After a long wait, I finally got to try the mutton briyani. The curry was its usual brilliance, strong, thick and tasty to the max, the mutton was extremely tender, the spoon cutting through it like it was butter. The mutton was top quality, however, the whole briyani was not as exciting as I expected it to be. Was it the high expectation? The more mediocre briyani rice? Probably both.

Another mutton product here was very good too. The mutton murtabak. Delicious mutton mince in a big prata, accompanied by the excellent mutton curry. The murtabak was fantastic, thick and layered, each bite would be into a double layer of minced mutton, within four layers of the sticky chewy prata. The minced mutton were also tenderlicious, and of course prata had the same chewy joy, wonderful! With the mutton curry, this was quite orgasmic!

Looks like this will remain a prata joint, highly recommend to add a curry chicken or mutton to your prata, have it with egg or onion. That would be the top choice, not just at this food centre, probably the whole Singapore!

Aminah’s Prata

117 Aljunied Ave 2, #01-44, Singapore 380117

Daily 7am – 2pm