PETALING JAYA, May 8 -- Phew! We made it through another week under the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).
It's strange how even the body clock can differentiate that it's the weekend, despite all that work from home.
The weekends are perfect to just chill and eat your favourite meal. In my case, I've been looking for a good biryani I can get delivered to my doorstep.
Since the lockdown started, I've been cracking my head over which Indian restaurant to order from. Sure, I live next to a handful of popular Northern Indian restaurants but I just wanted something simpler like banana leaf rice or biryani rice.
I did try one popular place in Petaling Jaya. Sadly, the food was dismal, despite all the online raves. It was probably living off its past glory.
I asked around for recommendations and settled for Masala Wheels. The eatery is a social enterprise set up to help marginalised communities.
They also allow you to sponsor suspended meals for the needy, which is delivered via their volunteers. If you prefer, you can also sponsor provisions that are packed in a bundle which will be delivered to those in need.
I have eaten there once before... fond memories of the fragrant biryani rice served only on Sundays. It was my only visit there as when I returned a few times, I would face a long queue of customers trying to get their biryani rice fix too.
Well, the good thing about the lockdown is I can get my meal delivered!
You can find the restaurant on Oddle. Their page shows the suspended meals, sponsored provision packs and a rather limited menu.
You can have their vegetarian banana leaf rice for RM10 on a daily basis. There's also add-ons for mutton or chicken, with a choice of peratal or varuval cooking styles.
Sadly, there's no way to indicate which style you want so it's up to the restaurant to decide. The focus is really on their signature Chatti biryani rice, served only on Sundays.
There's a vegetable biryani for RM11, chicken biryani for RM14 and mutton biryani for RM17.
The biryani rice is on a pre-order basis. I managed to place my order on Saturday night and it was delivered on Sunday morning, about 11.30am, as requested.
Since it was my first time ordering via Oddle, I was happy to get an email confirmation for my order the night before. You also receive an email from the restaurant to confirm they got your order.
The next day, the restaurant will email you again to inform you that the food is being delivered to you.
My chicken biryani arrived in a plastic box with compartments. There was a mountain of rice with a piece of chicken, one whole hard boiled egg, a fragrant curry and chopped cucumber with yoghurt.
While the rice isn't the long, fluffy Basmati type, what made this incredibly great was the aroma from the spices. I like how it arrived still hot so it is best to eat it as soon as possible.
The portion was huge so I ended up splitting it into two meals. While the chicken wasn't very flavourful probably because its essence had been absorbed by the rice, the curry gave it flavour.
I also had a chicken peratal and mutton varuval as add-ons. The chicken dish is RM7 while the mutton dish is RM10. Both were good stuff.
Each piece of the chicken with the curry gravy was flavourful. The mutton may look dry and unappetising but it was tender. There's a mild flavour of spices too as you chew on the meat.
Masala Wheels, 2, Jalan 1/3, Section 1, Petaling Jaya. Order through https://masalawheels.oddle.me/en_MY/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masalawheels/
