Tulsa Food

Many cultures prize rice, and many of those have elaborate dishes in which rice is the star of the show. Spain has paella and Italy has risotto. In India it’s biryani. It’s not easy to make a biryani. You saute meat in a mix of fresh-ground spices. Meanwhile you cook rice in another spice mix. When the rice is half-cooked, you put layers of meat and rice in a casserole and bake this until the rice is done. The idea originated in Iran and was brought to India by Persian travelers (and later the Moguls). Thus the oldest and most authentic biryanis come from Pakistan, which is closest to Persia. Now Tulsa has a place to try them.

“We only offer three or four dishes a day,” said the owner of the brand-new Pakistani restaurant, Biryani House. “That way we can be sure that they’re the best.” He’s a friendly guy, smartly dressed in a sparkling white shalwar-kameez, a long-tailed shirt and trouser ensemble that’s pretty much Pakistan’s national dress. He looked more like a scholar than a restaurateur. You can see him wearing a black apron in the back of this photo of the restaurant’s interior, somewhat remodeled from its Cedar’s Deli days.

The interior’s spartan, so focus on the food. We ordered one of each of the three dishes and shared them. Of course the star was the biryani.

Today it was chicken biryani ($7). The lovely long-grained basmati rice had a gentle yet complex flavor thanks to the spices. All the curry sauce from the sauteed meat had been absorbed by the rice. On top were a few caramelized onions. It was a wonderful biryani. What could top that? Perhaps this.

Beef Pilaf ($9). It’s like a biryani, but it’s somewhat simpler to prepare since the rice and beef are cooked together. The spicing was different to the biryani, and more assertive. I liked it. I could see little pieces of cloves and cinnamon and other spices in the rice. We also ordered a curry dish, butter chicken ($9).

I didn’t like it as much. It looked like tikka masala, but it was more like tikka boti, which is a Pakistani meat marinade, heavy on garlic without much of the other spices that make curry shine. I should have known that a restaurant named Biryani House focuses on biryani.

Biryani House
2606 S. Sheridan Road
836-7727
Open 11 AM to 6 PM (to 8 PM Friday and Saturday) but closed Monday
all food is halal (the Muslim equivalent of Kosher)

Brian Schwartz:

Born in NYC, age 0, on my birthday. College in Oxford at age 16. Law School in New Haven, Conn. 6 years travel in Africa and Asia. Haven’t done much lately. Still, I’m the only Tulsa member of the little-known Omega Society.  www.theomegasociety.com

I speak enough Chinese to order food not on any English menu. Spanish French Italian too (not fluently but food-ently) My favorite restaurant is Jean-Georges in New York. But those NYC chefs would sell their soul to get the produce available from the farms around Inola.

“A writer writes alone. His words tumble forth from a magical inner void that is mysterious even to himself, and that no one else can enter.” And yet, the most important thing to me the writer is YOU. Without you to hear them, my words are worth less than silence.