Still My Favourite Curry Place

I’ve written about Khansama before, but I was there again last week (I often am) and I have still yet to find anywhere to beat it, so I thought it was time to give it another plug. Located up a narrow staircase in the middle of Serangoon Road, this little gem continually churns out fantastic-tasting, great value curries.



It has the most comprehensive menu I have ever come across, and yet every dish that comes out of that kitchen has its own unique flavour. The starter section is longer than most restaurants entire menus, but we seem to have managed to make our way through most of it now – and perennial favourites include the Mixed Tikka starter – large cubes of succulent chicken which have been marinated in a variety of flavours; the Paneer Pakora – squares of paneer stuffed with a chilli paste and lightly deep-fried; and their oh-so-good Onion Bhajis.



For meat lovers, you can’t go wrong with a Mutton Lababdar with its creamy tomato gravy, or everyone’s favourite – Chicken Tikka Masala. If you’re not so good with spice then order yourself the mild Kashmiri Fish Curry plied with plenty of raisins and dried fruit.





Veggies won’t be disappointed here either – the Gobi Manchurian – cauliflower in a spicy sweet and sour sauce should not be missed, nor should the Bindi Masala – okra cooked with tomatoes and spices.



Oh and while you’re at it, make sure to try out their fantastic Tadka Dal, some Garlic Naan and a side order of Cucumber Raita. Yep – you’ve got yourself a feast!



The prices at Khansama have certainly crept up over the past couple of years – gone are the days when we could order anything we liked and still only spend $20 per head. But having said that, during our latest visit we completely over-ordered (as usual) and managed to sink a fair few jugs of Tiger and it was still under $35 per head, so it’s still offers outstanding value for money.

If you’ve not been – do yourself a favour and get down there now… just save a table for me!

Khansama – 166 Serangoon Road – www.khansama.net

A New Favourite

We once again made our way up to Little India for a mid-week after-work curry, but this time we went armed with the best tool in the box.... a food-lovin' Indian friend. She took us to Khansama on Serangoon Road, and I'm pleased to announce that we have found our new favourite Indian restaurant in Little India.

They had the largest menu I have ever seen in an Indian restaurant - they even had a whole page dedicated to different types of Raita. My friend was wondering why I was spending so long looking through the starters... I didn't realise there was a whole other section of main courses! After much deliberation, we settled on a selection of starters:

Paneer Pakoras

Mix Tikka - five different types of Chicken Tikka

Gobi Manchurian - a spicy, sweet-and-sour cauliflower dish.

That's the great thing about going to restaurants with other people, we would never have chosen this dish had it been just the two of us, but this is our friend's favourite dish, and one mouthful and we could see why - I am sure a Manchurian dish will be up there in our dishes of choice in the future.

We then added on some main courses:
Mutton Do Piazza


Kadahi Paneer


and accompanied with some Handkerchief Rotis


Every dish was completely delicious - sometimes when you order a selection of dishes from an Indian restaurant it can be hard to distinguish between the sauces, but here I'm happy to report that each dish had a very distinctive flavour, and they were all fantastic... in fact I'm hungry again just writing this.

When we went to Muthu's, we thought we'd found a winner... but I have to say for us now it will be Khansama all the way... and with the size of their menu, we could come back every week for years and not have the same meal twice... just imagine... mmmmm...


Khansama - http://www.khansama.net/

Curry Time

Saturday night and we were trying to stay out of the pub, so we hopped on the MRT and made our way up to Little India, to try out Muthu's Curry, which we had heard many good reports about.

With the exception of Banana Leaf Apolo, this was by far the most popular restaurant on Race Course Road, and also the most 'upmarket'-looking, with its mood-lighting, shiny surfaces and uniformed staff. Our table even had in-laid spices as a design feature, and the banana leaves are secured in trays. The open kitchen in the middle of the restaurant allows you to watch the chefs in action as they knead, toss and cook the variety of breads, and prepare the kebabs for the Tandoor. The pre-prepared Southern Indian curries are also on display in this area.

Their menu was divided into Southern Indian and Northern Indian specialities. We decided to mix it up a bit, choosing the Mutton Curry from the South Indian menu (very spicy and very tasty),

and the Murgh Pudina Kebab (this was Ok, but probably the weakest dish on the table) and

Palak Paneer (proclaimed to be Mr Greedy Glutton's best Palak Panneer ever) from the North Indian menu.

Thrown in were some Tandoori Roti and Rice, and we had ourselves a feast. On a whim I also added a late addition to our order - the fish cutlets.

Well, what an inspired addition it turned out to be - like curried fish cakes, with fish meat, potatoes and spices mixed together and deep-fried in a light crispy coating, and were really delicious and are a definite must for next time.

All in all, we hugely enjoyed our first visit to Muthu's and without a doubt we will be back... and yes, it did keep us out the pub, as we were too full for any beer after we'd finished in here...

Muthu's Curry - www.muthuscurry.com

A Mound of Curry on a Banana Leaf

Last night we finally made our way to the famous Banana Leaf Apolo, having read so much about it but never made it there. I met Mr Greedy Glutton from his office in the CBD and headed up to Little India – I love that about Singapore, that just a few stops on the MRT and you could be in a totally different country altogether. We past lots of very tempting smells from the various restaurants on Race Course Road, but we had our sights set on one place and one place only – The Banana Leaf Apolo.

I’m afraid to say we shied away from the dish that made this restaurant famous – the Fish Head Curry – better to try it when we are with someone experienced at digging out the flesh from the cheeks and eyes (or at least that’s how we justified our cowardice!). Instead we opted for Chicken Masala (very tender chicken on the bone in a masala sauce), Mutton Mysore (a dry lamb curry riddled with chillies) and a Prawn Masala (an enormous prawn in a spicy masala sauce).

Our banana leaves were duly delivered to the table (no plates here) and a man appeared with buckets of vegetable curries which were sploshed on top of our banana leaves – you don’t order vegetables here, they just bring you their selection of the day. Today’s selection was a cabbage dish and an okra dish, awash with fresh spices. Another man appeared and piled up our banana leaves with a mound of vegetable rice, again full of fresh spices.

Altogether a delicious and hearty meal – and we were certainly grateful for the large glasses of lime juice to take the edge off the spiciness of the dishes. We left there having totally overeaten (no surprises there!) and waddled our way back to the MRT.

And this morning… my hands are still stained yellow from digging into the curry with my fingers…

(no photo to accompany, my camera chose last night to run out of batteries)

Banana Leaf Apolo – www.thebananaleafapolo.com