Back to my nasi briyani for brunch. There's this stall located at a corner coffee shop in Commonwealth (near the Commonwealth Tanglin Halt market) which sells prata everyday during breakfast and for Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, they sell nasi briyani starting from around 11am. The queue is usually very long and I've always passed it by without an extra thought.
The initial plan was for me to wake up at 8am to have roti prata at the same stall with my Dear before he headed to work. Well, that obviously did not happen.
So when I was awake and finally out of bed, my mind was on the briyani as I have yet to eat a plate of briyani for a very long time. Armed with just my wallet, I walked out in the sun and braved the blazing sun.
When I got there, as expected the line was long. I stood patiently in line, looking at what they were doing serving up the briyani. I could see that they were very efficient and prompt in wrapping up packets and packets of briyani for the long queue of people. There were some customers who left with a huge bulging plastic bag which contained at least 5 packets of nasi briyani in it.
However prompt I saw their movement were, I seemed to notice that I was still standing at the same spot as when I just joined the queue. After 5 minutes, I shuffled along in line with the rest of the customers in line. More people were joining the queue behind of me. After 5 minutes, the sun was shining so brightly and I felt that my feet was burning as I was wearing those strappy sandals to get my much needed brunch.
I was getting hungrier and hungrier during the wait and with the queue getting longer and longer, I was hoping that it would be worth the wait. I didn't bring my Hp or my watch with me, but it felt like it was way more than 30 minutes in line just waiting for one packet of nasi briyani.
After a long wait, it was finally my turn! I made an order of nasi briyani mutton and looking excitedly at the stall owner packing it up, with a huge piece of mutton, heaping lots of nasi briyani on it, with a good scoop of vegetables which I know I won't eat. I waited for him to pack it up, along with a packet of papadum. Wait a minute. Something was missing. Every single customer in front of me got a packet of curry along with their nasi briyani. Where was mine? Well, I didn't think too much of it, as the people in front of me basically asked for chicken and fish. I didn't see anyone order mutton so I guess mutton don't get a serving of curry to go along with the nasi briyani?
When I opened up my packet of nasi briyani after reaching home, I brought out my spoon and fork while readying myself to dig in.
After my first spoon of the rice, I was disappointed. I felt as if I wasted that 30 minutes waiting in line. The rice was tasteless. I drank a sip of water and ate a second mouthful of rice. It tasted the same. When I added pappadum to the rice, I got a bit of taste, which was from the pappadum. When I bit into the mutton, there was some taste, but it tasted better when I broke the pappadum into smaller pieces to be eaten together with the whole serving of rice and mutton.
Overall, I didn't like this long awaited nasi briyani. I think I made a mistake on my part to not request for a packet of curry, which according to Dear who had eaten there before, was given to him upon his request of this and this and that. Being shut mouthed about requests are not a good thing I guess.
It's a shame though that nasi briyani doesn't have taste by itself, and might need to be drowned in curry to have some taste in it.
Pocket damage: S$4.00
Time wasted: At least 30 minutes in line (in the sun)
I won't go back there to get in line for another packet of nasi briyani unless I'm craving so badly for nasi briyani.
It's located at the corner of Block 46, Commonwealth Drive.
Posts
