KLANG, May 28 — In recent months, I find myself gravitating towards Klang. Every time I think I’ve exhausted my list of hidden spots to discover there, I stumble upon another gem like Bamboo Biryani.
Relatively unknown to KL folks, this eatery has garnered a faithful following of diners who don’t mind travelling from as far as Singapore, Johor Baru, Seremban and Pahang. The attraction is their fluffy and fragrant biryani cooked in bamboo tubes.
Stellamary a/p Mariapragasam is the person behind this unusual biryani. From the tender age of 12, she learnt to cook from her mother who used to run a small food stall business.
Opening an eatery selling biryani was never on the cards for this mother of three teenagers: Hazel Anne, Maximus Anthonia Raj and Princess Anne. She tells us her original intent was to just make and sell the biryani spice paste.
It took her around six to eight months of testing and trying it out on her family members before she was fully satisfied with its taste. Using just the spice paste or what she calls her “super recipe”, it is easy to cook up a biryani that is tasty and fuss-free.
She has three different spice pastes for chicken, mutton and fish, as she believes that people want a different flavour with their choice of protein. But even though she knew it was a winning spice paste, the response was rather lukewarm.
That less than stellar reception pushed her to go back to the drawing board. After two months of research, she came up with cooking the biryani in bamboo tubes. She was attracted to cooking her dish in bamboo since it’ll give a natural taste to her biryani.
Moreover, she tells us that it’s a tried and tested cooking method, as seen in the cooking of lemang with the bamboo tubes. The bamboo tubes can also be washed and sanitised, making them reusable for a few months.
That dash of creativity ups the taste of her biryani tremendously as the flavours of the meat or fish and rice come together during the steaming process.
Since its launch last October, Bamboo Biryani has attracted a lot of attention. On its first day of business as a roadside stall next to the 99 Speedmart in Taman Andalas, it sold out 180 portions within one hour!
According to Stellamary, this was fuelled via Facebook. As their popularity grew, she took up their current premises this February. Since she has a full-time job as an administrator in an international school, the eatery is only open on weekends.
It’s a comeback of sorts for Stellamary. About 10 years ago, she owned two restaurants with her husband William Karnan. Unfortunately they had to close the restaurants down.
This she admits was partly due to a lack of attention since she wasn’t hands-on enough as she was busy looking after her children. That management style also meant she had to depend a lot on other people.
That failure has moulded her into a different person as she is completely involved with the cooking of the food herself at Bamboo Biryani. When she is not in the kitchen, she will often approach diners to get their feedback.
She also ensures that each feedback on Facebook is attended to since maintaining the quality of her food is of the utmost importance to her. She adds, “This is my passion and when I get complaints, I have sleepless nights over it.” There is also an emphasis on good quality ingredients. For instance, sunflower oil is preferred. Even the fish for her biryani is the pricier ikan senangin as she prefers the softer texture.
Assisting Stellamary is her supportive family. Expect to see her parents, children, husband, her two brothers and young nephews, all pitching in at the eatery. She has also roped in a few of her church friends to assist.
Work at the eatery starts as early as 5am for Stellamary. She prefers to cut the meat at home since she is incredibly particular about hygiene. Once she reaches the eatery around 7am, she’ll cook the meats and fish with their spices.
The chicken needs to be cooked up to 80 per cent as it’ll be finished off in the bamboo tube. For the fish and mutton, it is cooked completely ahead. The rice is also cooked ahead where the soaked grains are mixed together with the spice paste, water and their homemade yoghurt.
The eatery uses high quality Pusa 1121 Basmati rice for the biryani. The food is cooked in batches. If it runs out mid-way through the day, Stellamary will be in the kitchen to cook up more for customers.
It’s important that the bamboo tubes are packed properly. First it is layered with a piece of banana leaf. The next layer is a bowl of biryani rice followed by the meat, fish or vegetables. Another layer of rice is added on top. For the chicken biryani, they add a whole hard-boiled egg on top. Finally it is covered with another piece of banana leaf. This we understand helps prevent extra moisture entering the tube and ruining the texture of the rice. The leaf also acts as a useful indicator on whether the biryani is ready to be served; when it is wilted by the heat, it is time to remove it.
Once it is all packed, it is taken outside to the steamers — huge aluminium pots filled with water and placed on top of the gas stoves. We take a peek in the steamer and discover that the bamboo tubes are steamed on top of a metal grill.
Pandan leaves in the water infuses the biryani with an additional fragrance. That hot and steamy job to monitor the bamboo tubes is a task for Stellamary’s eldest brother Valbert James who runs a tour agency a few doors away.
The menu has a plain biryani for RM7. There is chicken biryani (RM11), mutton biryani (RM13) and fish biryani (RM15). A vegetarian option is also available that uses a mix of carrots, cauliflower and mushrooms.
Each type of biryani has its fans. Most tables go for the chicken variant, the mildest on the menu. It has definitely won diners over as we notice how little girls squat on the chairs to slowly savour the fluffy rice grains mixed the chicken pieces.
All of the biryanis are accompanied by onion raita and lady’s fingers. Here the raita is a pungent one that is made with chopped onions and their homemade yoghurt. You can also add chicken curry to your biryani for extra flavour.
For a flavour-packed biryani, go for the mutton version with tender mutton meat. Unlike the other biryani, it uses a different spice paste that tinges the rice grains a greenish colour and gives it a stronger aroma.
The fish biryani is also excellent. Just before the deep fried fish is layered with the biryani rice, it is dipped in a fish curry. That curry gives it an incredible oomph that makes every spoonful of the rice absolutely delicious.
We totally recommend you bulk up your meal with their side dishes. It’s a small selection but from what we sampled, their chicken peratal (RM6) and mutton peratal (RM8) are simply amazing.
The flavours are punchy and not overly spicy. In fact, there’s an unmistakable home-cooked taste here. Other goodies in the selection include a fish head curry that ranges from RM15 to RM20, extra vegetables and fried chicken. Occasionally, they also serve the ubiquitous chicken 65.
The eatery has hit on a winning formula of delicious food and reasonable prices to cater to families. “Like AirAsia, where everyone can fly, here everybody can eat.” Every weekend, the eatery is a flurry of activity.
They have also expanded the upstairs area into a hall for bigger groups. It can roughly sit up to 30-40 people making it ideal for functions.
Stellamary hopes to introduce two more dishes using the bamboo tubes. Since it’s still in the testing stage, she’s secretive about what they are but we’re looking forward in anticipation.
Also in the pipeline is her bamboo nasi lemak — rice with their homemade sambal and chicken — all steamed in the bamboo tube. So far, that dish has been well received during two catering sessions.
So make a beeline for Klang and “taste and see” their bamboo biryani as per their tagline. As Stellamary says, “You have to taste the food and it is important to also see it. If the taste is not there, it is a failure for me.”
Bamboo Biryani
No. 16, Jalan Sri Damak 18
Taman Sri Andalas
(Taman Rakyat)
Klang, Selangor
Tel: 012-3830024 / 012-6840922
Open only on Saturdays and Sundays: 12pm to 6pm
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bamboobiryanitastensee/
