My usual Sundays have three things in common. Waking up late, watching tv till midnight and having home made Chicken Biryani for lunch. Without any one of these, it would never feel like a Sunday for me. Chicken Biryani ! The most colorful and delicious food item I have ever eaten ! It has all the spices I know. The foreigners who came to India (long before the British and the other Europeans, like Mughals, Turks,etc ) left us many important things which nearly became an identity for us now. Few examples can be Architecture, Literature, Food,etc.,. Even though I studied that all the spices were imported from ancient India to other countries, I don't know how we didn't come up with this delicious spicy food item and Muslims in middle east found it. Initially I wanted to write this blog post about Biryani in general. But after I started my research for this blog post in net, I realized that I will need more than a blog post to cover all of it. May be a separate blog will be sufficient for that !
So I take my most favorite dish from this Biryani category and will share some interesting things I came across my reading. When I say Chicken Biryani, one particular variety of this dish will come to most of the people's mind. That is 'Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani'. But do you know that there are two kind of Chicken Biryani in Hyderabad ? They are called 'Kachchi Biryani' and 'Pakki Biryani'. In the first type, the meat is marinated with the spices overnight and in the latter one it's marinated for only a short time. There are also other kinds of Chicken Biryani available all around the world. Few of those are,
Iraniyan Biryani called 'Biryani Pilaf'
Iraqi Biryani called 'Al Biryani'
Bhatkali Biryani (from Coastal Karantaka)
Kachchi Biryani (from Kutch region)
Lucknowi Biryani called Awadhi or Pukka
Calcutta Biryani
Sindhi Biryani (from Pakistan)
Memoni Biryani (from Karachi)
Kozhikode Biryani (from Kerala)
Danbauk Biryani (from Myanmar)
Thai Biryani (from Thailand)
Srilankan Biryani (from Sri Lanka)
Nari Berinani (from Malaysia)
Filiphino Berinani (from Philippine)
The list doesn't stop here. It is said, that during the Nawab period in Hyderabad, the cooks used to make 49 different kinds of Biryani. Till my school days, I knew only two kind. One is 'home made' and another one is 'hotel made' ! And the difference between those is 'home made' is unlimited; and 'hotel made' is limited to a small plate with only one leg piece and an boiled egg.
But after I came to Mysore for my internship, my knowledge about Chicken Biryani has increased more. And now I can slightly differentiate the different Biryani kinds also. For sample, If you take the Magna food court here, It has two Chicken Biryani providers. 'Madhuram' in one side and 'Pathankot' on the another side. As the names suggest, you can get southern style Biryani in the first one and northern style in the second one. Both are my favorite and each has its plus points. Madhuram's plus point would be, you can get two leg pieces per plate. And whenever I get the Biryani here, my mind will automatically go to a calculation of how many plates of Biryani they would sell each day and how many chickens would have used that day.( I have also wondered how they are getting the chicken every day, because I have never seen a meat van inside the campus during my whole stay of three months.) And the plus point of Pathankot would be it's gravy and the breast piece you get with the Biryani.
But my most favorite place for Chicken Biryani is Amoeba food court. Here the Biryani has rich masala which makes it more spicy and yummy. Also this place have introduced me to more varieties of Chicken Biryani than I have ever came across outside. The few of the Chicken Biryani available here are Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani, Chicken Dum Biryani, Chicken Palak Biryani, Chicken Onion Biryani and Sindi Biryani. Even though I could find only minor differences in these dishes, all of these are my favorite and each of it has its own taste which I won't forget for the rest of my life.
And when I think of Chicken Biryani, my thoughts are not only about the taste, but it's also about few of my favorite movie scenes. The first one would be from 'Cheeni Kum' where Amitabh Bachchan praises Tabu's Hyderabadi Zafrani Pulav thinking that it's from his hotel's kitchen. The argument would be about a small thing that the sweetness in the Biryani is less. But as a food lover and movie lover I could feel both the sweetness in this scene.
The next one would be from 'Rab ne Bandi Jodi' where Shahrukh Khan comes home after a successful Golgappa competition with Anushka Sharma and finds out that she also cooked Chicken Biryani for him to celebrate her success in dance competition. He will try to eat all of the Chicken Biryani by himself so that Anushka won't feel bad and also not find out that he's her dance companion. This was one of my favorite scenes in this film since it has both my favorite Chicken Biryani and Sharukh Khan in it. 'A One Ji !'.
Last but not least, this dish also reminds me of Altimate Star Ajith Kumar ! Yes, from the tweets of Venkat Prabhu , I came to know that during the shooting of 'Mankatha' they used to have 'Thala Biryani' which was cooked by Ajith himself ! And one of the co actor in this film, Vybhav said in an interview that when he refused to have Biryani since he was on a diet, Ajith took him inside his caravan and made some other dishes for him which has less oil. This shows his humility and also his passion in cooking and sharing that with others.
So, when I eat Chicken Biryani, I don't feel only the spices in that plate but also all these spicy thoughts inside my head. It improves my mood and makes me feel light and happy. Hope you also have a favorite dish like this and have some interesting history and lovely thoughts behind it just like mine.
Post Script: When I went to home last week, I had a unique Biryani from my mom. I named it as 'Beans Chicken Biryani' since it had more beans than chicken in it. Even though my mom argued that she mistakenly put the beans in Biryani, I still don't understand how she mistook Biryani for Sambhar !
So I take my most favorite dish from this Biryani category and will share some interesting things I came across my reading. When I say Chicken Biryani, one particular variety of this dish will come to most of the people's mind. That is 'Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani'. But do you know that there are two kind of Chicken Biryani in Hyderabad ? They are called 'Kachchi Biryani' and 'Pakki Biryani'. In the first type, the meat is marinated with the spices overnight and in the latter one it's marinated for only a short time. There are also other kinds of Chicken Biryani available all around the world. Few of those are,
Iraniyan Biryani called 'Biryani Pilaf'
Iraqi Biryani called 'Al Biryani'
Bhatkali Biryani (from Coastal Karantaka)
Kachchi Biryani (from Kutch region)
Lucknowi Biryani called Awadhi or Pukka
Calcutta Biryani
Sindhi Biryani (from Pakistan)
Memoni Biryani (from Karachi)
Kozhikode Biryani (from Kerala)
Danbauk Biryani (from Myanmar)
Thai Biryani (from Thailand)
Srilankan Biryani (from Sri Lanka)
Nari Berinani (from Malaysia)
Filiphino Berinani (from Philippine)
The list doesn't stop here. It is said, that during the Nawab period in Hyderabad, the cooks used to make 49 different kinds of Biryani. Till my school days, I knew only two kind. One is 'home made' and another one is 'hotel made' ! And the difference between those is 'home made' is unlimited; and 'hotel made' is limited to a small plate with only one leg piece and an boiled egg.
But after I came to Mysore for my internship, my knowledge about Chicken Biryani has increased more. And now I can slightly differentiate the different Biryani kinds also. For sample, If you take the Magna food court here, It has two Chicken Biryani providers. 'Madhuram' in one side and 'Pathankot' on the another side. As the names suggest, you can get southern style Biryani in the first one and northern style in the second one. Both are my favorite and each has its plus points. Madhuram's plus point would be, you can get two leg pieces per plate. And whenever I get the Biryani here, my mind will automatically go to a calculation of how many plates of Biryani they would sell each day and how many chickens would have used that day.( I have also wondered how they are getting the chicken every day, because I have never seen a meat van inside the campus during my whole stay of three months.) And the plus point of Pathankot would be it's gravy and the breast piece you get with the Biryani.
But my most favorite place for Chicken Biryani is Amoeba food court. Here the Biryani has rich masala which makes it more spicy and yummy. Also this place have introduced me to more varieties of Chicken Biryani than I have ever came across outside. The few of the Chicken Biryani available here are Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani, Chicken Dum Biryani, Chicken Palak Biryani, Chicken Onion Biryani and Sindi Biryani. Even though I could find only minor differences in these dishes, all of these are my favorite and each of it has its own taste which I won't forget for the rest of my life.
And when I think of Chicken Biryani, my thoughts are not only about the taste, but it's also about few of my favorite movie scenes. The first one would be from 'Cheeni Kum' where Amitabh Bachchan praises Tabu's Hyderabadi Zafrani Pulav thinking that it's from his hotel's kitchen. The argument would be about a small thing that the sweetness in the Biryani is less. But as a food lover and movie lover I could feel both the sweetness in this scene.
The next one would be from 'Rab ne Bandi Jodi' where Shahrukh Khan comes home after a successful Golgappa competition with Anushka Sharma and finds out that she also cooked Chicken Biryani for him to celebrate her success in dance competition. He will try to eat all of the Chicken Biryani by himself so that Anushka won't feel bad and also not find out that he's her dance companion. This was one of my favorite scenes in this film since it has both my favorite Chicken Biryani and Sharukh Khan in it. 'A One Ji !'.
Last but not least, this dish also reminds me of Altimate Star Ajith Kumar ! Yes, from the tweets of Venkat Prabhu , I came to know that during the shooting of 'Mankatha' they used to have 'Thala Biryani' which was cooked by Ajith himself ! And one of the co actor in this film, Vybhav said in an interview that when he refused to have Biryani since he was on a diet, Ajith took him inside his caravan and made some other dishes for him which has less oil. This shows his humility and also his passion in cooking and sharing that with others.
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| Thala Biryani |
So, when I eat Chicken Biryani, I don't feel only the spices in that plate but also all these spicy thoughts inside my head. It improves my mood and makes me feel light and happy. Hope you also have a favorite dish like this and have some interesting history and lovely thoughts behind it just like mine.
Post Script: When I went to home last week, I had a unique Biryani from my mom. I named it as 'Beans Chicken Biryani' since it had more beans than chicken in it. Even though my mom argued that she mistakenly put the beans in Biryani, I still don't understand how she mistook Biryani for Sambhar !
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