Saturday, August 25, 2007

Nasi Bungkus (Takeaway) From House Of Biryani & Rumah Makan Minang

It's a working weekend for me and lunch was driving out to Kandahar Street for takeaway. I went to Sabar Menanti II and peeked at their food selection and they had limited choices. I ended up going to House of Biryani to order a packet of Turkish biryani with chicken and two colorful plastic boxes on the counter caught my eye while I was waiting. I asked the server who kind of food was in the box and he said fruit achar and went on to say that it's normally prepared for weddings. The box was made up of dried fruits that have been cooked in a sweet and sour sambal.
He said it wasn't cheap and rather sheepishly told me the little container cost $4.50 but what the heck. Something new that I hadn't tried before so I added it to my order. The total bill was $10.40 for the Turkish biryani and the fruit achar.I then walked further up the street to Rumah Makan Minang, they had a wider choice of dishes and I was pleased with what they had. Told them that I wanted 1 packet nasi padang bungkus and selected my dishes. In total, I selected four different dishes as the packet of rice is usually enough to feed two people. In went fish, egg plant, beef and tapioca leaves. Total $6.00.This is how your triangle shaped packet of rice will look when you first open it. The dishes are all neatly piled on top of each other and tightly wrapped together. You need to loosen it up and dig out the various morsels buried in the packet. Spread them out if you like.This is how the Turkish biryani looked.Sorry, in my haste to feed my growling stomach, I forgot to photograph the chicken and the gravy that went with the rice. The Turkish biryani is quite different from the Indian dum biryani and is cleaner on the palate. The fruit achar needed a little getting use to but it went well with the biryani as the flavors all meld together in your mouth. Overall, it was a very satisfying meal.

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