Komala's - Indian Vegetarian Restaurant

Komala's Restaurants are Singapore based restaurants-chain serving Indian vegetarian cuisine for its low priced and high quality of Indian food. There have different branches all over Singapore with stalls located in either Coffee Shop or Shopping Mall Food Courts. There is a Komala's vegetarian stall located at the basement food court of North Point Shopping Center just beside another famous Indian Banana Leaf Biryani Rice.

Till now we have only tried their Poori Set and Masala Tea which is quite suitable for our taste buds. Poori is a unleavened Indian bread that is served with Potato Masala or Chana Masala(chickpeas in it).

Before the main course, let starts off with some Indian finger food such as “Vadai” and “Samosa”. While queuing up for my orders, I saw these piping hot snacks coming out from the kitchen stoves so without hesitate, I also ordered one each to try out their varieties. Personally I prefer the Samosa more than the Vadai which is sort of like a deep-fried donut. We love the crispy outer skin of the samosa which is made from crust pastry instead of spring roll wrapper or flaky pastry.

All along mum and aunt were curious about the taste of Dosai which we always saw a lot of customers ordering it. In short Dosai is actually a crepe made from rice and black lentils which is a typical dish in South Indian cuisine that is rich in carbohydrates and protein. Here we ordered the “Paper Masala Dosai” that is filled with mashed potato and other vegetables like onion and green peas. This is served with coconut sauce (white in colour), onion (green in colour) and sambar (a kind of vegetable stew). The Dosai itself is really paper thin which is crispy on the outside and yet moist and soft when eaten. Overall it taste ok with all the different type of dipping sauce except we find it rather a bit salty towards our taste.

But accordingly to some of my friends, Dosai is not supposed to taste very salty when eaten. So I guess either the chef has added too much salt for my order or basically I am not those who can take savoury food :)

Curry On @ Toh Yi Drive

There are so many different stalls and restaurants selling their own version of "Indian Curry" around Singapore range from Hawker Center, CoffeeShop, Food Mall to well-known Restaurants at "Little Indian" near Serangoon area. But no matter which place you like to patronize, there must be something interesting that caught your attention. Today, we are going to try this newly open stall called "CURRY ON!" which is located in a Coffee Shop at Toh Yi Drive. (about 5 - 8 minutes walks from Bukit Timah Community Club)

This is a very special food sampling outing that I have done so far. It starts about two weeks ago when I received an email from the stall owner, Mr Anil who personally invite me to go for a food sampling at his newly set up stall. I was overwhelming by his invitation and at the same time very excited in doing my very first food sampling through an invitation. Furthermore, I have being in love with Mutton Curry since young under my dad influences. So this invitation is indeed a "Bonus Treat" for me to eat my favourite food and do a write up to share our view on the food sampling.

"CURRY ON!" is located in one of the stall in 7th Miles Coffeeshop at Block 18, Toh Yi Drive. Kiren(Anil's sister) together with her mum(the chef of the stall) and her aunty will usually get all the dishes ready by 10.30 am. Anil starts this stall with the intention to feature his mum's SPECIAL RECIPES in making her very own 3 unique curry dishes which are prepared traditionally from scratch. So come, let me share with you what are the dishes that they have in their menu ..........

After having a short conversation with Kiren, she asked us to take a seat while she get ready the food for us. The first dish that is being serve on the table is their special "Briyani"that comes with a portion of their homemade salad and papadum. Kiren share with us that the Briyani are made using host of spices, Pandan leaves, Rose water and Ghee . The moment I saw the Briyani, I knew that I would love it because of it's vibrant colour combination. The rice itself is very fragrant, my mum and I both agreed that it taste sort of like the Hainanese chicken rice due to the ingredients like Pandan Leave, Ginger and Garlic. This Briyani is very different from the usual type that we had from other stalls, which you usually will find some trace of nuts, raisin, cloves and etc. But the one here that serves at Curry On! is definitely something worth to try and you will be surprised by it. The small setback that my mum feels is that if the rice can be a bit less greasy it will be Great to go along with the curry sauce.........

After the rice, let's proceed to the STARS of the menu. First to be on the list will be their Chicken Curry, you might be shock or backoff by the colour of the gravy which is very "RED" at first sight. Upon seeing this I check with Kiren will the taste of the curry be "VERY SPICY" because I am afraid that we might not be able to take the SPICY level :) She explained to us that it all depend on individual, some of her customers feel that the spicy level is just to their liking while others might have range it as too hot. So we take our courage to try and to our surprised, even though the colour might look "fiery" the taste was great, the spicy level is just nice for us, overall the chicken and gravy are very fragrant due to the "Spring Onion Paste".

We were all so curious to learn more from Kiren on using Spring Onion paste to whip up this special Chicken Curry. As you can see from the photo, there is still traces of chopped Spring Onion in the curry sauce. So if you like chicken + spicy curry, then don't hesitate, come and try this Chicken Curry which goes well with the Briyani rice or some French Baguette.

Next is my favourite Mutton Chop Curry which is the "Signature Dish"of the stall. According to Kiren, the mutton chops are marinated with spices before cooking. The curry is infuse with great aroma that serves with generous pieces of Mutton Chops and potato chunks. I love the consistency of the gravy which is just nice to act as a dipping sauce for bread such as French Baguette or even Roti Prata. This dish is very well mask-up with the use of spices that even my mum who don't take Mutton because of it "smells" takes her courage to try and give thumb up for this dish.

Lastly comes the Mutton Rib Dalcha (Lamb in Lentil Sauce) which is more diluted for its' gravy. This curry is cooked using very little of coconut milk, assam and lentils. To me, this curry is taste sort of like spicy, tangy and you can even drink it like one of those "Tom Yam Soup". Although Mum and D comments that the ribs are rather a bit tough for their liking compare to the Mutton Chop and Chicken. I was not in line with them, I find that the ribs is great because of the chewing texture maybe it is due to my liking for ribs.

Afterall, this is really a very great experience of food sampling for curry lover like us. So if you are staying around Bukit Timah or Toh Yi Drive area, maybe you would like to pop by one of these day any try out their very own Homemade Curry Delights that will spice up your tastebuds. We really thanks and appreciate Anil for his compliment of the above dishes and Kiren for her warm serving and sharing with us on the preparation of kitchen tales.

Note:
~ The operating hours are:-
Monday to Sunday from 10.30am - 8.30pm
(Rest on Alternate Monday)

~ Recommending Dish:-
According to Anil, their Chicken Curry is very popular with customers who don't take mutton. And I must comment that their Chicken Curry gravy is very special with the refreshing aroma from the Spring Onion Paste.

The Prata Place

The Prata Place located at the end of a stretch of shophouses at Thong Soon Avenue near Thomson. This shop is also Halal certified and they make the prata only after you place your order so the prata will remains hot and crispy when served at your table.

We arrived at the venue around 6.30pm on a Saturday evening and there are already a lot of people dinning inside the shop. So in order not to wait for seats inside, we choose a table outside the shop and starts looking at the menu on what we want.

Teh Tarik is always one of the drink that I would order when patronize any of the prata shop. I love the taste of that milk tea with that extra bubbles on top. The temperature of the tea is just nice, not too hot and it's very smooth and I just like that taste of it.

I guess no one can resists their wide variety of prata and their thin and crispy prata! We ordered their "Paper thin prata" and "Strawberry Prata" which is very crispy and fragrance. As you can see from the photo the strawberry prata is drizzle with some strawberry sauce and sprinkler with colourful bits and the texture of the prata are just as thin as a piece of crispy cracker.

After waiting for about 10 minutes, here comes our Chicken Murtabak which we ordered the small size serving that they cut into 6 portions. Their murtabak comes in different sizes like S, M, L, XL. We will kind of disappointed with their chicken murtabak which appears to be like some chopped chicken minced stir-fry with chopped onion and spices that wrapped between a layer of the prata skin.

Overall we still prefer the Egg and Cheese Prata which serves with a plate of their dipping curry sauce. The combination of egg and prata is so fragrance especially with the extra curry and you just can't seems to get enough of eating it.

Banana Leaf Delights - Chicken Briyani

This is one of the famous Indian cuisine store located in the North area, inside Northpoint Shopping Center. It had being there for about almost 10 years I guess, I have started eating their Chicken Briyani since my secondary school day and only until today then I realise that they have actually changed their store name. I wonder is it still under the same management as before.........

They have a lot of variety choices such as mutton, chicken, fish, big tiger prawns and etc at a affordable price range from $5.50 to $8.00. And if you are a vegetarians, don't worry they cater for vegetarian sets too! So far, I still prefer their Chicken Briyani set and it's really a huge serving which you can't probably finished it alone.

For us, usually we will order 1 set and add one some side dishes like fishcake, potato cake, sambal egg or extra vegetables so that we can share between two person.

Personally I loved their Briyani chicken which is tender, juice and the gravy is full of fragrant and brusting favour. It goes really well with their Briyani rice which is cook to the right texture. So if you are staying in the North area, do give this stall a try. You will sure come back for more....... but you have to beware of the long queue during lunch and dinner hours.