Originally from Persia and introduced to India and now across the world, there are hundreds if not thousands of varieties of biryani.
But basically, biryani is a rice dish that is layered with aromatic spices and herbs, and has an incredible burst of flavours.
For a taste of one of the finest version of this dish, Biryaniwala - founded in 2020 - is where you’d want to go.
Biryaniwala, which now has three outlets across Auckland, is known for it’s Hyderabadi-style dum biryani.
One fo the founders Sreeman Myadam said: “We offer authentic Hyderabdi cuisine, and our menu and flavours are different to other Indian restaurants.”
Hyderabadi biryani comes from the city of Hyderabad in South India. It is cooked using a regional cooking method of slow-cooking spiced meats for the flavours to meld together.
The dish is believed to have originated in the kitchens of the Nizam of Hyderabad as a blend of Mughlai and Iranian cuisine.
The main ingredients are basmati rice, meat, dahi, onions, cinnamon, cloves, cardamon, bay leaves, nutmeg, cumin, mace flower, star anise, lemon and saffron, with coriander and onions being used as garnish.
“It takes about three hours to cook a pot of dum biryani and maybe twice as long to prepare all the ingredients,” Myadam said.
“We normally have to start cooking early in the morning in order to serve our biryani fresh and hot from the pot.”
On weekends, Biryaniwals offers a special treat of its flavour-packed goat biryani.
Besides biryani, other signature dishes at Biryaniwala include dosas, street-style Indo-Chinese dishes, fried maggi noodles and Irani chai.
“Our dosa is special in the sense that we have a lot of non-vegetarian offerings, like one that is filled with Chicken 65,” he said.
Myadam moved to New Zealand from India in 2008 and started making his first business Paanwala in 2018 - making and supplying paan, an Indian after-dinner treat wrapped in betel leaf, to restaurants and Indian grocery stores.
“We looked at over 50 locations to start Biryaniwala, and in 2020 found a spot to open our first restaurant in Papatoetoe,” he said.
Myadam has since opened two more Biryaniwala outlets, one in Henderson and more recently, on Dominion Road.
The Papatoetoe restaurant will celebrate its 4th anniversary on 25 October this year.
“When we started our first business, we called it Paanwala, meaning the guy who makes paan, and so we decided to call our restaurant Biryaniwala, meaning the guy who cooks biryani,” Myadam said.
The plan is to eventually have a South Indian buffet restaurant, Myadam said, but it is being delayed due to difficulty in finding quality staff and people.
“We are currently working six to seven days in the business for the past two years to fill the gap,” Myadam said.
“Immigration NZ has been the biggest issue for us in getting our south Indian chefs from overseas as there are not many here.”
