“What
does the word ‘biryani’ conjure up in your mind?” I asked my group of friends
one fine day. And here are the responses I got, in their own words.
“Chicken
biryani!”
“Nah,
mutton… Biryani is more synonymous with mutton, that’s how you get the actual
flavours…”
“Eid
at Fatima’s place every year.”
“Spicy
Hyderabadi dum biryani… Mmmmm, can’t have enough of it! Can we go have it
someplace now?”
“The
latest I heard is they’re making prawns biryani… I mean, just imagine,
prawns... Seafood biryani in the offing, eh??”
“Wish
my mum knew how to make it. She’s tried umpteen times and all it turns out to
be is simple chicken rice, sans any biryani taste!”
Just
one person in our circle had remained silent till now. Upon prodding, she
meekly replied: “I know it’s a delicacy made of rice and all. But I’m a
vegetarian so don’t know much.”
Overall,
I concluded, a large majority of the people loved the dish. As for myself, I
simply adore it and grab any and every chance I can get to sample lip-smacking
biryanis!
They
say the recipe has come down from the erstwhile kings in India who popularized
the dish in their own times, especially the Mughal rulers. Though we can only
conjecture how the earliest biryanis might have been (probably like some bland
rice one of my friends talked about earlier!), the biryanis of today surely
cater to a wide variety of tastes. What’s more, on some restaurant menus, you
can even find what is known as a ‘vegetable biryani’ – a probable substitute
for the extremely popular non-vegetarian delicacy!
Not
everyone is endowed with the gift of knowing how to prepare an authentic
biryani at home, so therein the question arises: Which city serves the best
biryanis? Here let me tell you a fact: There is no particular city which serves
the best biryanis – every city has a biryani speciality exclusively for itself,
be it the Hyderabadi mutton biryani served with raita and brinjal curry or the
yellow-grained Lucknowi biryani with its generously spiced mutton pieces. Hence,
to help you take your pick from all the popular biryani restaurants in your
area, be it Bangalore, Delhi or Mumbai, we have nearly all of them listed here
in one place, from where you can OrderBiryani Online.
However, let me warn you that it can get
a bit unsettling at times, what with such a great number of biryani outlets
listed together but then each is special in its own way, so order away and find
out which suits your taste buds the best. For instance, Biriyani Zone in
Bangalore is well-known for the most flavourful Hyderabadi chicken biryani,
which is a speciality of the place.
The
chefs claim that preparing a biryani is no child’s play. To get that authentic
biryani complete with the aromas wafting from it can take anything from two to
four hours or more, with the lid of the biryani ‘handi’ as it is called, sealed
with dough. But it is well worth the wait.
Contrary
to popular belief, biryanis are not entirely non-vegetarian; a hint of potatoes
or even a boiled egg lends a very special taste to it. And if you have those
simple onion slivers dipped in vinegar plus a refreshing raita to go with it,
nothing can be better than a wholesome biryani meal. However, if you’re somehow
not one of those die-hard biryani fans (like me), no issues – simply log on to JustEat.in and
choose whatever would best satisfy your palate!
