The Song of India - 2nd March 2012

Despite the non-discriminatory, democratic, and open minded nature of our club, amazingly for all of its history, this is only the second time we have picked an Indian restaurant for a BML! (first time was at Vansh) Nope, we are not racists; it’s just that some amongst us are slightly allergic to Indian food. But since the reign of the dictatorial regime of Jon “TKY” Choo, all pleas such as “huh Indian food for BML?” or “Can try something else or not” have been broadly swept aside, and his democratic offer for those dissenting is simply “it’s ok, don’t force yourself to come if you don’t like!” (done grinning and laughing with pleasure …..just like the devil)

On some level, I had to agree with Jon on his choice this week as well as his offer to those not wanting to come. I personally like Indian food quite a fair bit, and just like some who practice being vegetarian once in a while, or fasting once in a while, for me it’s Biryani more than every once in a while.

As with tradition (being the poor planner that he is) Dann could not make it back in time (despite knowing – in advance for the rest of the year - that he is the designated driver 4 outta 6 weeks almost every Friday!) and we thus had no choice but to flag a cab to the venue.  The restaurant is wonderfully set in what I suppose you can consider as period housing. Dann was already seated as the 4 of us entered the restaurant. Shortly after, businessman arrived and complained about the shitty state of parking affairs for this establishment as he had no place to park his beautiful brand new charcoal grey 4.7l/434hp monster of a Maserati GranTurismo S, but to go valet at Sheraton hotel just down the road.

We proceeded to order for starters the Murg Paprika Tikka and Adraki Chaapen, which is the chicken pieces, marinated in yogurt and grilled lamb chops infused in a mixture of spices.

Both were excellent, with the chicken remaining succulent, juicy and tender with a mild yogurt flavour, and the lamb being a real treat with a robust but not overpowering lamb flavour, which went very well with the spices infused in the meat. Despite the somewhat dry look of the lamb chops when presented, the meat was actually very tender, although some bits of meat was difficult to reach or was stuck to the bone.

And just like a party of Mughal princes, for the main dishes and dessert, we ordered the following –

(Please note that the sumptuous orders was more a symptom of the fear of under-spending by Jon Choo due to a 25% discount available on the Amex card, rather then any special generosity on his part)

Seafood:

Malabar Fish Curry

Chettinad Prawn Curry

Lobster Moily

Meat:

Chicken Tikka Masala

Nalli Ghosht

Vegetables:

Baingan Bharta

Paleek Paneer

Starch:

Plain Naan + Garlic Naan + Mushroom & Truffle Oil Naan

2 x Saffron Rice

Dessert:

2 x Malai Kulfi

1 x Alphonso Mango Kulfi

For the seafood, the Prawn Curry was a total waste of our order. For this, we have none other than Dann to blame as he was looking forward to ordering something that someone else does not eat so that he could fulfill his dream of feeling what it felt when we ordered beef.

The Malabar fish curry was however quite decent, with the fish pieces being chunky but not dry. The curry was also creamy with a little bit of spice. The lobster moily was again another order which we could have done without. (Again Dann’s fault as he wanted to make sure Jon’s wallet takes a heavy blow) There was nothing wrong with it, except that it was a tad over-cooked and whilst the accompanying creamy sauce was tasty, the whole dish was just not worth the S$50+ price tag.

For the meat dishes, the Nalli Ghosht was wonderful. Our party was unanimous is agreeing that the lamb/mutton dishes were the specialty of this establishment. The meat was tender and fell off the bone, and the gravy was rich and tasty. The chicken tikka masala (apparently a british favourite when I was still in London) was also well cooked with a mix of chopped vegetables. The meat was well marinated, tasty and very tender.

For the vegetables, the eggplant (Baingan Bharta) was so-so. The eggplant was finely chopped, but lacked texture. I suppose such dishes were invented also because they were a good complement to naan.

As for the palak paneer, this dish was well made, with fresh cottage cheese and lots of ground spinach. You could taste the richness of the spinach, which is sometimes lacking in other palak paneers I’ve had where there is too much ghee and other additives added, which gets in the way of the spinach. The only criticism I have is that it could have done with a tad more salt. 

The naan breads were oven toasted to perfection. Thoroughly cooked with none of the doughy bits you sometimes have in undercooked areas, and despite this, it did not suffer from over burnt corners. The quality of the flour was also good as the taste of the naan did not give off any of that starchy powdery/floury taste, which I dislike.

The saffron rice was also fantastic. Grainy and fragrant, it was rice at its best. The unfortunate thing however was that our main dishes would have gone well, or maybe even better had we opted for plain rice rather than saffron rice as the combination of the main dishes with the saffron rice was almost too rich. My advice would be to stick to plain/garlic naan and plain rice if you are likely to have many gravy based dishes. We actually ended up wasting a fair bit of the gravy, for which I believe a lot of cooking effort had gone into, because the flavourful rice and naan’s we had reduced the need for much gravy.

Coming to dessert, we ordered only 2 portions of their house kulfi and 1 portion of a mango kulfi to share. Kulfi is a bit like Indian style ice cream, and The Song of India’s version is definitely one of the better kulfi’s I’ve tasted. Very creamy and tasty yet not overly sweet. The mango version resembles a hybrid between a popsicle and ice cream, and is apparently made with Alphonso mangoes (which are one of the favourite mango varietals amongst Indians). A real treat, especially in our hot/humid weather.

Our bellies were at the point of bursting by the time we called for the bill. Total damage was a mere S$353, which was a steal considering the copious amount we ordered and ate. Of course this was thanks to businessman’s 25% discount card courtesy of Amex, which saved Jon a massive S$105 if I remember.

Upon leaving the restaurant, Jon (high on curry and spice) decided to attempt at replicating a Hindi movie “dance around a tree” move with one of the pillar’s at the front entrance. He obviously failed badly as his moves looked more like an old uncoordinated pole dancer in Patpong.

Whilst Collin was busily filming Jon’s less than elegant dance moves, Dann was faced with a small predicament as there were 5 of us that needed to be ferried back. Hoping for lady luck to be on his side, he asked businessman if he would be so kind as to ferry the club president back to the office, since as president he should have the opportunity to ride in the new maserati. Unfortunately for him, businessman was not going back to One Shenton, and so Dann had to live with the consequences of his poor planning and pay for 2 cabs back to the office. The result of his poor planning led to a total damage of S$30+ for Dann, and lots of time wasted waiting for cabs for the rest of us.

I dare say I was full right till dinner and even then I could not stomach my customary portions during dinner. The Song of India is definitely one of the better Indian restaurants in Singapore, although there is much more Indian cuisine that the BMC must explore before we can conclude on the best.

By Club Scribe