Something many people don't know, that Briyani is actually spelled as Biryani. So many times I didn't bother to correct my friends but yet they decided to correct me and tried to teach me how to spell it wrongly. Well the truth is only in Singapore and Malaysia we got it wrong and the rest of the world had got it right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biryani


When I was staying in London, it was a weekly affair for me to visit this little East London town called East Ham for my curry fix. The thing about London is that it is so cosmopolitan that it doesn't really looked like a place that belong to the West. If anyone were to blindfold me and put me in London for the first time, I would undoubtedly mistaken it for a place in India or Pakistan.


Imagine this, every 100 metres, you would see a Indian takeaway or convenience store by the roadside. Every 50 people you see on the street, at least half of them are Indians or Pakistanis. But of course there are good reasons for that. India were once colonized by the British and hence many of them took that opportunity to go to the West and make there their home instead.


Of course if you are in UK, then you're going to try reside in London simply because that's where all the actions are. When that happens in a large scale, then London became transformed. Though there are many Indian takeaways and restaurants along the streets, the place to go for good Indian food is still the East Ham area.


When I was there, one of the things I learnt is that there are actually 2 types of Mutton Biryani. I would call the first type the Singapore version while the other the original Indian version which is also called Mutton Dum Biryani. The main difference between the 2 is that in the Singapore version, the mutton curry is cooked separately and poured over the rice when it is being served while the original version is to actually cook the mutton together with the rice.


Of course you can call the Singapore version the lazy man method as it requires a lot more skill and labour to cook rice and mutton in the same pot to perfection. When I returned to Singapore, I went on a hunt for this Dum Biryani and found that, there is very very few outlet that sells them. I'm afraid to say that if you are keen to try out this dish, you have to head out to Little India in Serangoon and embrace the India culture. You can have it there in the famous Tekka Market(which has been shifted to a temporary spot due to upgrading) or if you're willing to pay a tad more for better quality, there are many restaurants along the roadsides that can fulfill your Biryani dream.


But for those who stays in the east, the good news is that I have found an Indian food stall that whips out this dish 2 times a week in the Simpang Bedok area. For $4.50, you get a meal of the original biryani flavour which otherwise would had taken you more if you were to travel to Little India because there is the transport cost, petrol, parking blah blah.


The only thing I have to warn about this dish is that the spiciness is x2 compared to the usual biryani. So do you have a favourite biryani place? If you do and especially so if it is in the east, please let me know so I can give it a go and see how far more in this area, the biryani potential can be reached.