Spell it wrong, cook it right: Meet the smiling owner of Happy Briyani

New Paper

23-05-2025

Mr Shaun Ho happily runs Happy Briyani in Holland Village, never mind if biryani is wrongly spelt on his signboard.
"My business partner called it Happy Briyani because I'm always smiling," Mr Ho said.
As for the misspelling of biryani on the signboard? "It was a typo," he admitted shyly. "But it was already printed, so we kept it."
Tucked away in Holland Village Market & Food Centre, Mr Ho's hawker stall stands out - it sells chicken biryani on one side and oriental-style dough fritters on the other.
Though Singapore is known for its culinary diversity, it's rare to find a hawker stall that offers such an unexpected combination, but the choice to do so was a practical one.
"We needed only half the stall to prepare the biryani, so we thought why not use the rest of the space to sell something else?" Mr Ho, 33, explained.
The original plan was to sell Indian rojak and snacks like onion bhaji and samosas but, without a supplier, he and his business partner had to pivot.
So they settled on chicken biryani - which Mr Ho learnt to make from watching YouTube videos - and dough fritters sourced from local supplier Deli Snacks.
The fritters was a smart move given their popularity as a breakfast staple among the older Singaporean Chinese, but why chicken biryani?
Said Mr Ho: "It was all my business partner's idea. A month before we opened, he surprised me by telling me that he had placed a bid for an Indian food stall."
Certain stalls in each hawker centre are designated for Indian cuisine and are usually located within the halal food area.
The National Environment Agency provides a list of Indian dishes that can be sold in such stalls.
Said Mr Ho: "The examples were vadai, roti prata, thosai, nasi biryani, putu mayam and tandoori chicken. Out of these, I chose biryani."
While the fritters attract the morning crowd, the giant pot of simmering chicken curry on the biryani side of the stall, catches their attention.
A win-win situation.
Located a short walk from Holland Village MRT station, Happy Briyani opened on March 4 this year.
Mr Ho, who had never cooked Indian food before, developed his chicken biryani recipe simply by watching many YouTube videos.
"I anyhow whack one," he said - a Singaporean way of saying he winged it.
Still, he's no amateur. With years of hawker experience and an International Diploma in Culinary Arts from SHATEC in Bukit Batok, Mr Ho certainly knows his way around a kitchen.
As a teen, he worked at a western food stall, followed by a stint at the locally well-known Jin Jin dessert stall in ABC Brickworks Market & Food Centre in Bukit Merah.
After SHATEC, he worked in sales and as a Grab driver before returning to the hawker industry, starting his own stall at Toa Payoh Industrial Park selling satay and chicken wings during the Covid pandemic.
His passion for cooking was born out of necessity. After his parents divorced when he was one, he moved in with his father.
"He didn't know how to cook, so in order to survive I learnt how to cook for the both of us," he said.
He experimented with cooking Chinese dishes like roast pork and Singaporean western food classics like chicken chop, fish and chips, all based on YouTube tutorials.
"Everything I learned is from YouTube," Mr Ho said.
For just $5 a plate, Mr Ho offers a generous portion of fragrant biryani rice and a large chicken leg served with a boiled egg and achar (Peranakan-style pickled vegetables). To top it off, a hefty ladle of curry is poured over the chicken and rice.
A fusion of Indian and Chinese flavours, the chicken curry features a coconut cream base that gives it a rich creamy texture that coats each grain of biryani rice. Yet the spices like garam masala, cardamom and chilli aren't toned down, delivering a satisfying kick with each mouthful.
The price is a steal, especially in swanky Holland Village where other biryanis can easily cost $20 a plate.
It's no surprise that Happy Briyani is able to sell around 60 plates a day.
Most of the stall's customers are Chinese and tend to be retail workers from the many high-end restaurants and shops that surround the food centre.
However, Mr Ho hopes to attract more Indian customers.
A Malaysian Indian customer once told him that his biryani was "power" and reminded him of the chicken biryani back home.
Needless to say, it made Mr Ho...happy.