Of Nasi Biriyani and Iced Tea

Tried Chicken biryani for dinner tonight at an Indian joint in the Orchard Area. ok experience...Got very frustrated when the restaurant guy nonchalantly mentioned that they did not serve water with food and that you have to buy it separately :-(( (sadly not having water is a difficult option when you are having spicy biriyani)

I have been here only 4-5 days but even in such a short duration, have some interesting observations to share. In Singapore, a vast majority of the population does not cook at home but prefers to eat outside...daily!!! One of the effects of this behaviour is that there is an awesome variety of food available (esp South-East Asian) at almost every nook and corner of the city at very very affordable prices...sheer bliss for a foreigner like me. So, in the 5 days I have been here, I have now had Thai, Indian, Malay and Chinese food. Obviously, I haven't had enough body of experience to decide which one do I like most but would like to make a special mention of the Nasi Biriyani, a malaysian dish which tastes very similar to the Indian biriyani. It is available in almost all malaysian joints and therefore a life saver at dinner time. The taste is so similar to the Indian biriyani that I actually googled about its history...it comes out that when the British colonized Malaysia in the 18th century, they brought a lot of immigrant Indian laborers to work on the rubber plantations who brought with them their own food and cooking styles. While most of these Indian origin people returned to India when Malaysia
got independence some 50 years back, they left back their influence on the local cuisine and dishes like Nasi Biriyani are now an integral part of Malay cuisine.

Another interesting thing which was pointed out to me and I keep noticing it everywhere anyway is that the local people here have an interesting habit of necessarily having a drink with all the meals that they eat. So, whether it be the lunch or the dinner, they would definitely have something like an Iced Tea or a coke to go with the food. Seems strange to me since in India, drinking water while having food is something which is discouraged in many parts of the country !!!

Let me finish this post with this shloka (hymn) which was taught to me in my childhood as the prayer to be said before every meal...it goes like this...

brahmarpanam brahmahavi brahmaagnom brahmana hutam
brahmaiva tena gantavyam brahma karma samaadhina

The shloka is from Bhagwad Gita and as far as I remember, it means ...

The process of offering is brahman, what is offerred is brahman, it is offerred by Brahman to the fire which is Brahman. Those who are thus able to see Brahman everywhere, only are able to attain Brahman...

Food for thought!!!