SQ HNML High on Biryani on High Altitude

I didn’t expect much from my SQ HNML (Hindu Non-Vegetarian Meal) inflight dining meal (Jakarta to Singapore) after a meh meal on ANA the day before and two servings of my Amma’s cooking only hours before.

I even tried to cancel my HNML meal earlier in the day so I could skip the meal session, as my in-flight dining experiences have been pretty disappointing lately.

Also, after flying back from Tokyo less than 24 hours before, I prefer to sleep, but then, as luck may have it, the internet connection at my parents has been pretty temperamental. Even when I tried multiple times, I couldn’t cancel it, so I let it be as it was time to pack my bag and leave for the airport five hours prior to the take-off time, my parent’s style.

When the friendly SIA stewardess came to confirm my meal, I nodded mindlessly as I was in the middle of Mindcage victim no two. Minutes later, my SQ HNML inflight dining came, served on a plastic tray, economy class style.

SQ HNML

It has two tiny cardboard boxes. I lifted the lid of the smaller box. Dessert. A cake, to be exact. Carrot cake? Mango cake? I took a bite. It was not nice.

I moved on to the slightly bigger box with the writing “Lamb B”. Lamb Biryani. For a tiny, teeny second, I thought of skipping it. I wasn’t hungry yet, and biryani has never been my fave. Still, it smelt so aromatic, inviting me to try it even though I was also slightly worried the smell would be too strong for the guy who sat on 42C, whose meal hadn’t been given yet (a tip: if you like to eat early and get it done with on a long flight, set a specific dietary requirement on your account).

Eventually, I lifted the box. Rice soaked in curry with bits of meat staring at me. I took a spoon – a disposable wooden spoon (airlines, can we do better with these sustainability initiatives?!!! There is a reason why they taste so horrid; we’re not supposed to put them in our mouths).

Back to the spoonful of moist Lamb Biryani, oh my sky God, it tasted absolutely delicious. The meat was well cooked, and the curry was generous, packed with flavours and spicy. It could just be the best South Indian-style biryani I have eaten for years (dare I admit here, it was better than my Amma’s biryani).

After the biryani, I moved on to some tortilla chips on the side. Only after I finished the chips did I realise they provided vegetable pickle dipping-like sauce that was supposed to be eaten with the scraps I missed. Still, I was high on the biryani at a high altitude and wasn’t even mad at my blindness.

I finished my inflight dining with a few drops of Meiji milk and a sigh of gratitude. I was so happy with my SQ HNML that I willed to forgive all the hit-and-miss food and service SQ has provided over the past few years.

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