Perhaps some of the appeal of this delicious biryani lies in how rare and challenging it is to get.
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This humble, hole-in-the-wall joint is owned by Chef Hassan Abdul Majeed, whose grandfather founded the legendary Islamic Restaurant at North Bridge Road, a place reowned for their biryani.
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Chef makes nearly everything from scratch, and his labour-intensive 3-stage cooking process means each dish is top notch, though it also limits his menu to only 5 items; all a variation of either biryani or mandi rice.
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His belief that saffron is key, means the dish is generously and luxuriously flavoured, and along with other spices, impart a rich grainy spice sweet savoury flavour to the loose and fluffy basmati rice.
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The large and generous mutton is fall-apart tender, with meaty savoury spice flavour, complimenting the rice. Was so large that chef handed me an additional empty plate for portioning it out.
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Completed with an intensely sour spicy pickles, and a side of curry (although the biryani is good enough on its own).
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Chef only opens for a mere 4-hours for lunch each day, and often sells out before closing. This, along with the limited 12 - 14 seats at the stall, means careful advance planning is needed to dine.
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Still, this biryani is the gold medal standard for me.
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Biryani
Cafe Mariam
@ WIS @ Changi, 116 Changi Road #01-02
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More details:
https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2022/04/best-of-singapore-hawkers-biryani.html