Biryani or banana leaf rice? Still licking her fingers clean, Tan Bee Hong suggests you have both
WHEN a friend emailed to say: “Let’s go for bir-nana”, I was like “What???” Curiosity piqued, I immediately set a date for dinner.
At Fierce Curry House, we spot a banner that reads: Banana leaf + Biryani = Bir-nana. Reminds me of the song Apple+Pen and I burst out laughing.
But restaurateur Herukh Jethwani is all seriousness when it comes to food. His customers love banana leaf rice and they love his biryani, cooked according to an old aunt’s recipe.
So he thought, why not offer customers the best of both worlds.
LUNCH OR DINNER
Herukh says the dinner menu is mainly north Indian specialties while lunch focuses on south Indian cuisine.
The south Indian thali lunch (RM10) is popular. It has a choice of white rice, parboiled rice or chapati with sides of five vegetables (including pavakkai or deepfried bittergourd), sambar, chapati, vegetable curry, rasam (spiced soup), salted fried chili, papadum and kesari (sweet semolina dessert).
Non-vegetarian additions (from RM8) include chicken, fish and other seafood. Or they can pick from the selection of dum biryani (from RM14) such as vegetable, chicken, mutton and fish (Friday only).
Now, here’s the interesting twist to the banana leaf scenario. Herukh has combined biryani and banana leaf rice and come up with Bir-nana (from RM20-RM26). The yummy biryani is served with five vegetable dishes, rasam, chicken or vegetable curry, raita, achar, papadum and kesari.
Each pot of biryani is cooked individually and are sealed with pastry dough to lock in the aroma.
Just a whiff when the seal is broken and I start to salivate. Buried in the rice, the chunks of flavoursome mutton are temptingly tender.
SPICY SELECTIONS
Thali sets and biryani are not the only items that draw customers. After 4pm, when the north Indian menu rules, equally enticing are the breads and tandoor meats.
A basket of naan (RM12) comprises, plain naan, garlic naan, butter naan and coriander naan. With this, we have Onion Pakora (RM8), Butter Chicken (RM22), Palak Paneer (RM20) and Orange Chicken (RM30) which has all the flavours of citrus in a zesty, creamy sauce.
I thought the palak paneer a tad on the pale side though it’s so tasty and goes well with naan. Herukh explains that this is because they don’t add green colouring to the dish, a practice in most restaurants to make the dish look more appetising.
We couldn’t decide on the tandoori (choice of chicken, fish, prawn or paneer) so we end up with a plate (RM22) of chicken breast in tandoori, malai (cheese-yoghurt), haryali (mint) and kalmi (ginger-garlic) style as well as lamb seekh kebab (RM26). Personally, I prefer the chicken leg tandoori (RM14) which is succulent and well marinated.
To balance all this meat, we have bindi aloo. The combination of lady finger and potato makes a great accompaniment to any Indian meal.
Fierce Curry House
WHERE:
16 Jalan Kemuja, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.
TEL: 03-2202 3456
OPENING HOURS: Daily, 10.30am to 10pm
GETTING THERE: Behind Bangsar LRT station
WHAT’S COOKING:
South Indian cuisine for lunch
North Indian cuisine for dinner
MUST TRY: Mutton bir-nana
YOU’LL PAY: From RM10 for thali set. Prices are nett.
ATMOSPHERE: Casual diner
SERVICE: OK
OVERALL VERDICT: Go give it a try