Curry & Co. Indian restaurant is the latest entrant at the Nagore Square dining precinct. Its signature offering is the range of biryanis (choice of chicken, mutton, fish, prawn and vegetarian) steamed in bamboo tubes.
The biryani was slow-cooked in bamboo tubes upon order. When serving, the waiter tilted out the steaming-hot contents of the bamboo onto a banana leaf-lined platter table-side.
The chicken biryani comes with the standard accompaniments of a hard-boiled egg, raita and extra spicy sauce on the side. The chicken-leg was fall-off-the-bone tender and very well spiced through. The biryani rice was fluffy and subtly-scented - one of the best in George Town that I’ve tried.
The spiced mutton biryani had a more robust, assertive scent & flavour, which blended better with the bland-ish biryani rice. I think this version tasted better.
Crab curry
Our waiter recommended the spicy curried crab, which he said was made available only on weekends. Eventhough we felt curried crab wouldn’t blend well with our meat biryanis (steamed plain, white rice would have been perfect), we decided to give the curry a try. Turned out, the curry was very tasty, even if the flower crab used for this dish wasn’t exactly the freshest, nor the meatiest around.
More often than not I will always go for the mutton biryani over any other kind. Good to see that the biryanis come with a boiled egg. During my time in India it was only in Kerala that you were guaranteed an egg with your biryani.
I remembered that in Bangalore, too - each individual biryani pot came with a hard-boiled egg on top.
That said, although the Tamils are an overwhelming majority among the Indian populace of Penang, there are also sizeable communities of Malayalees (from Kerala), Telugus (Andhra Pradesh), Punjabis and Bengalis, all with a significant presence historically in Penang.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
4
Mutton would be my way to go also. Never seen one served with an egg - great idea.
The style of biryani we tend to get in good places in northwest England is Hydrabadi. Not sure how that differs from other styles though - must remember to ask next time. I presume there must be a difference otherwise it wouldnt be mentioned.
Yes, there are distinctive differences between biryanis from different regions in India. The Hyderabadi biryanis I’ve had tend to use long-grained basmati rice (those from Tamil Nadu or Kerala don’t use long-grained rice), with its own distinctive blend of spices (less spicy than Tamilian ones) and is cooked in sealed pots (“dum” process, where the lids are sealed to the pots using a flour-water dough paste). Hyderabadi biryani’s marinated meats are also very tender as yoghurt was used as a marinade, which has a tenderising effect.
That said, I’d sure love to hear from Indian food experts on what sets Hyderabadi biryani apart from other versions.
