Chicken Biryani at Ramiza's

Went out to Geylang Serai Market and Food Center for lunch on a Saturday after the month of Ramadan only to see crazy long queues at many stalls. Waaaaah. We were crushed that our first choice of Geylang Biryani House sold out its food by 11.50am. Seriously?!! They opened at 10.30am!!! Never mind, we went to Ramiza Dam Biryani instead.

Some guy in front of us bought like 10 packets and after that, the stall ran out of mutton biryani, offering only chicken to the rest of the queue. Okaaaay. Chicken biryani then. Apparently Ramiza Dam Biryani opens till 5pm, but that afternoon, they sold out by 2pm. It's my first visit to this stall, and I was wondering why it looked so familiar, and it was only much later then I realized that there is a branch at Changi Village (which I've not eaten at), and that stall has been around for much longer.

I wasn't that interested in the meat. It was the rice I wanted. Ate them all and gave away most of the meat. No egg in this chicken biryani. The hard-boiled egg only comes with its prawn and fish options. We get achar and fairly delicious dalcha. I was pretty glad that my portion of pukka style Gujerati chicken biryani didn't hold too greasy basmati rice. Hurhurhur. I kinda like my biryani to come pale and delicate instead of a shiny yellow and bright orange. Otherwise I prefer them super-spicy in Memoni style or Murgh.

I've not going to dissect what and how good biryani should be. It's too controversial. LOLOLOL. Even with our chat group titled 'Biryani Biradari', people go red-faced debating over the finer points of why one stall's offering at that point in time is better than another. I know what I like in a biryani- layers of flavors resulting from the proportionate use of spices and aromatics, and long-grain rice that doesn't necessarily need to be basmati. For example, the rice grains can be of the jeerakasala variety from Kerala mainly used in Malabar biryani, of which I like very much. Sindhi dum biryani and Hyderabadi kacchi style work for me too.

Ramiza Dam Biryani
Geylang Serai Market, 1 Geylang Serai
#02-158 Singapore 402001
Hours: Tuesdays to Sundays 10am to 5pm. Closed on Mondays.