KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 — “Our motto is: if you like our curries, tell your friends it's fierce,” says Herukh Jethwani, the owner of Fierce Curry House. Beyond the gimmicky name, the three-month-old restaurant is fast gaining a reputation for good food, especially when it comes to its biryani rice.  

The Hyderabad Biryani Dhum served here was once at Bangles, a long-standing Indian restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, which was taken over by Herukh's family in the '80s, and which Herukh himself ran from 2004 to 2009.

“We went to Hyderabad and we sat with an auntie of ours and watched her make it,” says Herukh of the family recipe. “When it was served at Bangles, we made it that way for the longest time. At Fierce, however, we did some R&D on it, tweaked the recipe and added on a few things like the spices and changed the rice we used,” he says.  

Although Malaysians know biryani rice in various forms – including Biryani Gam Johor and the biryani rice at the mamaks – they are all variations and interpretations of the original Hyderabadi Biryani, which was created in the kitchens of the Nizams, who ruled the Hyderabad state.  

The cooking process of the Hyderabadi Biryani is a multi-step one that begins the night before. “We get the meats delivered at about 7pm, which then goes through the marination process and is kept in chiller. 

“The next morning, we tenderise the meat, cook it, and then assemble it with the rice half-cooked in a metal pot, which is then steamed to finish the cooking process,” he says, adding that the whole cooking process takes about four hours before it's served for lunch.  

The metal pot in which the rice is steamed is sealed with dough, which leaves many wondering why it's there, or if they can eat it. “No, you don't eat it,” he says.  

You could if you wanted, though. “It's just chapati flour, which is used to seal all the holes of the pot to avoid moisture going into the biryani during the steaming process. And because it's chapati flour, we know it's done when the flour is hard, and that's when we serve it to you,” he says.  

The restaurant typically makes 40 to 50 servings of biryani daily, which is always sold out, so Herukh says it's best that customers call in to reserve theirs.   

Precious rice 

At the heart of the biryani dish is the rice, which Herukh decided should be Pusa Basmati for his. “It's 15 times the price of regular white rice, but it's just fantastic; you'll get grains that are 12mm long,” he says.  

“It's the reason why our biryanis are not cheap at RM18 for the mutton biryani; we have those who say we're bonkers for charging that, but when you eat it, you'll know why it's justified,” he says.  

There are more than 20 spices in the mix including cardamom and star anise (the whole list a family secret, of course), and it's all cooked with ghee, which he says brings out the best in the spices. It's a calorie-bomb, but if you're going the biryani way, why pull the punches?  

The innovation doesn't stop at Herukh's variety of mutton, chicken, fish, and vegetarian (the latter two served only on Fridays); there are experiments afoot with scallops, prawns, venison and even lobster. 

When it comes to unique varieties like scallop and lobster biryani, he says, there's no benchmark to test it against, so there's a constant process of tweaking the formula of spices and flavours.  

Besides that, Fierce is planning to expand its presence in KL through its Fierce Curry House Biryani Meals on Wheels van, which would be parked at various locations in the Klang Valley selling the biryani dish. “If the driver of the van agrees, we're going to dress him up as a monster, so he's going to be standing there in a really fierce outfit, selling biryani,” he says.  

Now that's a fierce way of doing business.   

Fierce Curry House is located at 16 Jalan Kemuja, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur. Tel: +603-2203 3456 / 019 - 383 0945.