Biryani, a flavourful and aromatic rice dish usually cooked with chicken, mutton, etc, could as well be called the comfort food of the country. Found on most restaurant menus across India, it’s a popular choice of meal by Indians of all ethnicities. It’s no wonder then that Bengaluru-based online food ordering and delivery service Swiggy saw a whopping 681% increase in biryani orders last year. Chicken biryani, especially, remains extremely popular in India. As per Swiggy, the delectable dish was the most ordered food item all year round, as well as a favourite during festivals, lunches, dinners and even for late-night cravings.
Chicken biryani is also the most ordered item on Zomato, a restaurant search and discovery service that also delivers food. “Chicken biryani has been the most ordered dish on our platform for two straight years now. It was also the most picked item in our self-pickup service used by consumers,” says Sandeep Anand, chief marketing officer, food delivery, Zomato. As per Anand, Hyderabad leads the chart as the city binging the most on biryani (both vegetarian and non-vegetarian), closely followed by Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune. For Foodpanda, too, chicken biryani emerged as the most ordered food item in Hyderabad last year. As per the food delivery app, Visakhapatnam, too, couldn’t get enough of the dish.
There are differing views on the origins of biryani, with the most common being that it originated some time in the 16th century in Persia. The word ‘biryani’, in fact, is Hindustani, derived from the Persian language. One theory is that it originates from ‘birinj’, the Persian word for rice, while another is that it derives from ‘biryan’ or ‘beriyan’, which is to fry or to roast. In India, the versatile dish has, over the years, lent itself to many popular iterations, satiating the tastebuds of foodies across the country.
Wholesome meal
The classic Hyderabadi biryani is made with basmati rice, goat meat and spices. It is usually called kachchi yakhni or kachche gosht ki biryani. Raw rice is mixed with mint, chillies, fried onions and cooked with marinated meat. Saffron and some drops of kewra are mixed with it. You will often find a boiled egg and raita alongside. “The biryani capital of India is the city of Hyderabad,” says a Swiggy spokesperson. This seems to be true because on every Sunday afternoon, you will see hundreds of biryani lovers lining up for a minimum of 40 minutes in front of Andhra Bhawan in the national capital for the quintessential Hyderabadi chicken biryani. The biryani here is served with half a boiled egg and chicken with separate gravy, and is a favourite of many. “I don’t know how they do it, but every single grain of rice in their biryani is flavourful. Nowhere else does one get a generously-laden plate of biryani that is so cheap and fingerlicking good,” says New Delhi-based media professional Radhika Shinde.
If Shinde is ordering in, however, she either goes for Biryani by Kilo (a restaurant that delivers freshly-made Hyderabadi, Lucknowi and Kolkata biryani) or Biryani Blues (which specialises in Hyderabadi dishes), as both deliver biryani in a handi, which, according to her, keeps the dish fresh.
Biryani by Kilo co-founder Vishal Jindal vouches for both the quality of rice and meat that they use. Most biryani places use rice, which comes for `60-70 per kg, but Biryani by Kilo—which was founded in 2015 as an online food service operating through aggregators and its own website—ensures that their rice is of high quality, using two-year-old, naturally-edged rice, which is one of the most expensive variants, costing `200 per kg. Biryani by Kilo, which is present in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Mohali, offers biryani priced at `325-R650. “Every handi is cooked on order and that’s why the delivery time is 90 minutes. Only after receiving an order, does the handi go into the stove,” Jindal says. The food service, which plans to expand to Mumbai this year and Bengaluru and Hyderabad next year, also has plans to venture abroad in a year’s time. In a major development, they recently launched their first dining outlet in Connaught Place in New Delhi.
Lovers of Hyderabadi biryani can also try Biryani Blues, which offers both Hyderabadi dum biryani and handi biryanis. The meat is marinated with yoghurt and spices for hours after which it is cooked with long-grained basmati rice. Founded in 2013, Biryani Blues is currently operational in Delhi-NCR, with biryanis priced at `275-R695.
Recipe for success
Lesley Esteeves, a 43-year-old home chef from Delhi, swears by the Kolkata mutton biryani from Kolkata Biryani House, which is served with a boiled egg and potato—a speciality of Kolkata biryani. People who love this variant of biryani and crave for that piece of aloo, in fact, frequently order from here. If she is going out, she prefers Al Jawahar in Old Delhi outside Jama Masjid, as each “grain of rice coated with oil” is gratifying for her tastebuds, says Esteeves, who also has a soft spot for Kozhikodan Mappila prawn biryani (from the north Kerala town of Kozhikode) with date pickle. “A mouthful of the spicy prawns with rice and the tangy, sweet date pickle is just heavenly,” she says.
Another favourite, especially if she is in a hurry or there are hungry guests waiting at home, is Behrouz Biryani, a home delivery service that specialises in Mughlai food. It serves over 12 variants of biryanis (such as Dum Gosht Biryani, Lazeez Bhuna Murgh Biryani, etc) in three serving sizes—Shahi Biryani (serves one), King-size Biryani (serves two) and Kilo Biryani (serves four-five people). “We see a huge demand for Shahi Biryanis on weekdays and Kilo Biryanis over weekends. During special occasions/celebrations such as New Year, Christmas, etc, we see a 10X growth in our Kilo Biryani consumption,” says Sagar Kochhar, chief marketing officer, Rebel Foods, the parent company of Behrouz Biryani. Founded in 2016, it offers biryani priced at `250-`1,000 and is currently operational in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai, among other cities.
In terms of flavour profile, Lazeez Bhuna Murgh Biryani and Dum Gosht Biryani are the top picks among non-vegetarians and Falafel-E-Khas (shallow-fried chickpea balls with a blend of aromatic spices) is a vegetarian all-time favourite, says Kochhar.
Experience on the plate
Apart from the flavour and aroma, there’s also the experience that the dish offers that foodies swear by. Hyderabad-based instructional designer Koyel Roy, whose hometown is Kolkata, recounts fond memories of Kolkata biryani during childhood and Durga Puja outings. “As a kid, there were these family lunches I went to in cute little coupés in the New Market branch of the restaurant Aminia during Durga Puja shopping. The Aminia-special biryani and phirni at the end make for sweet memories still,” recalls 27-year-old Roy. The first outlet of Aminia started operations in 1929 in Kolkata, selling the famous Awadhi cuisine of Lucknow. It has since begun operating in various parts of Kolkata, from New Market to Rajarhat. When in Kolkata, Roy orders biryani from either Aminia or Arsalan, a restaurant popular for its mutton and chicken biryani. And if going out, Roy chooses Dada Boudir Biryani in Barrackpore, which is famous for its prompt service and mouthwatering chicken and mutton biryani.
Roy also doesn’t leave Kolkata for Hyderabad without getting at least two packets of Kolkata biryani to take along.
In Hyderabad, she visits the hotel Shadab on weekends for its Hyderabadi biryani and if she is in the mood for ordering in, she goes for Shah Ghouse restaurant. Interestingly, both Shadab and Shah Ghouse were featured in The Wall Street Journal in January last year among places where you can find the tastiest biryanis in India.
For Bengaluru-based freelance writer and editor Hari Menon, too, the best biryani experience is tied with his childhood and growing up years in Kochi. “The most unusual biryani I’ve had is pork biryani from a small restaurant in Cochin,” says Menon, who finds Hyderabadi biryani “overrated”.
Menon also rubbishes the myth that one can get good biryani only at sophisticated dine-out restaurants. In the early 1990s, Menon says, he used to frequent a small restaurant in Kochi called Gramam (meaning ‘village’) that used to serve the most delicious beef biryani for just `15 a plate. “Even a perpetually broke student could afford it. There was no compromise on taste either. It shut shop over a decade ago, but I still have fond memories of the place… never managed to find another biryani joint that was so value-for-money,” says Menon, whose favourite choice of meat in his biryani is beef or goat (most restaurants call the latter ‘mutton’, which it seldom is). “Chicken is just about okay and vegetarian biryani isn’t even an option for me,” the 48-year-old says.
As far as the style of preparation goes, Menon has a soft spot for Thalassery biryani from Malabar region. “Technically, it’s often a pulao and uses the short-grained ‘kaima’ rice rather than basmati, but I’m not fastidious about nomenclature,” says Menon.
Home chef Esteeves, too, considers biryani not just a delicious meal, but a wholesome experience. Interestingly, her most memorable biryani experience is from her childhood. Her father was posted for two months in Australia and it was while the family was returning to India via Singapore that she had the best biryani. “I can never forget the chicken biryani I had at Serangoon road in Singapore. It felt like the most delicious biryani ever after two months of bland food,” she says.
Steady growth
The convenience added by food ordering and delivery apps has been instrumental in the evolution of biryani from being an extremely complex dish to almost a fast food item today, believes Zomato’s Anand. “The growth in the ordering trend for biryani on our platform is testament to the popularity of the dish. It’s not surprising that biryani orders increased more than 10X on our platform in 2018. We believe this strong growth trend will continue over the next few years, with the help of prominent eateries like Biryani by Kilo, Behrouz Biryani, Paradise Biryani, Bikkgane Biryani, Mani’s Dum Biryani, Ammi’s Biryani, etc,” he says.
Clearly, India’s everlasting affair with biryani is set to continue for many more years to come.
