Arguable Healthiest Biryani - Bismillah Biryani

I already plan to cook Hyderbadi Chicken Biryani on Sunday to celebrate Deepavali long weekend holiday. I'm no stranger to Dum Biryani. I had tried Biryani Xpress's Dum Chicken Biryani (which uses rose water to cook their biryani) at Geylang Serai Market. After reading ieatshootipost post on Bismillah Dum Biryani, I gather my 2 food kakis and decide to give it a go this Saturday and hopefully Bismillah Biryani can titillate our tastebuds.  

Boarding the MRT with my kakis, we start to worry if Bismillah will be open on Deepavali and whether it will be packed with customers. Thanks our lucky star, Bismillah Biryani is open for business.Contrary to what we believed, business was pretty brisk at Bismillah with just a tourist couple chowing down mutton biryani at one corner. Bismillah is a biryani shop without frills, so don't complain the sweltering afternoon heat if you cannot stand dining without air conditioning.

We proceeded to order 3 Dum Mutton Biryani since it is highly recomended by ieatishootipost. It took a while before the mutton biryanis were served to us. The mutton biryani served to us totally differ from the ieatishootipost's post (link). We are slightly disappointed as Bismillah serving is not consistent to what ieatishootipost post on their blog. The photos were taken with a PSP camera, therefore it might not be able to reflect Bismallah Biryani in it's full glory since ieatishootipost uses professional DSLR camera. However, I believe it is adequate for me since all my blog photos were taken with PSP camera.

Currently, there are 2 types of Biryani cooking style Pukka & Kaccha (link). For Pukka cooking style, the rice and meat is cook separately and layer during serving. It is predominantly popular in Muslim style biryani in Geylang Serai Market. As for Kaccha cooking style, the rice and meat is cook together which is predominate in Indian Biryani. Bismillah Biryani cooking style falls under Kaccha. Therefore, their basmati rice have a very strong infusion spices as it is cook on top of the marinated mutton. My first impression of Bismillah Biryani, it is the most healthiest biryani I ever eaten as you don't feel the over-powering ghee or butter that is predominant in Biryani. The mutton is very tender and not oily at all which surprising as it is first time I've eaten a biryani that don't feel jerlat (over-powering).

However the downside of Kaccha style, the basmati rice is drier than Pakka style which is reaffirms further after I tasted Bismillah & Biryani Xpress. For those prefer moisture content higher biryani, you might prefer Pakka style more. The rassa given by Bismillah wasn't enough to moisture the dry basmati rice. Most biryani, the mutton is heavily seasoned which you don't find it at Bismillah. For those who like strongly seasoned meat, you might want to avoid Bismillah as their mutton is lightly season. The tenderness of mutton is actually the saving grace for Bismillah. If the mutton is dry and hard coupled with the their pretty dry basmati rice, I will avoid Bismillah entirely.