Street View

I went to Liberty Coffee today to see their cafe and to meet Pauline and Terance (who are lovely people) and since it is close to Little India, I walked over to the Tekka Market for lunch and so far, this is my favorite hawker market.

On the streets of Little India, it seems you can find a shop for nearly anything. I walked along Serangoon Road and all of the side streets that feed into Serangoon Road are lined with shops that open up onto the sidewalks. I can imagine it’s a zoo at night!

Not only does Tekka have your typical hawker stands, but they also have dry and wet market stalls in the same market! Once you walk in past the food stalls, you’ll see several rows of stalls with fish, fruits and vegetables, meats and spices.

I had a plate of briyani from a stall that only serves briyani; Yakader, #259. Your choices are fish, chicken or mutton. I got mutton and had an egg added.

I normally see it spelled “biryani” but the stall owner spells it “briyani.” From wiki:

The name is derived from the Persian word beryā(n) (بریان), meaning "fried, roasted". It originated in Turkey or Persia and brought to South Asia by the Muslim travellers and merchants to the Mughal Empire.

This stall specializes in Dum Briyani.

Again from wiki:

Dum pukht (Persian: دم‌پخت‎) or slow oven cooking is a cooking technique associated with the Awadh region of India, in which meat and vegetables are cooked over a very low flame, generally in sealed containers. The technique may be based on earlier Persian cooking methods introduced to India, but tradition assigns its origin in India to the reign of Nawab Asaf-ud-daulah in the late 19th century.

With so many choices at the markets, how do I find the good food? I look for the stall with the longest queue and just get in line and figure it out when I get to the front…

Most stalls have a guy out front who takes your order; “ya boss?”, helps you get your plate and takes your money and another guy inside the stall is preparing the food.

Right next to the briyani stall is a drink stall serving delicious hot tea, which helps settle your stomach after eating spicy food and believe it or not, hot drinks help cool you when it’s hot outside, which is every day in Singapore.