BIRIYANI

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Biriyani can safely be called the ultimate salvation food.This lip-smacking dish typically made of rice, meat, vegetables and spices is stuff that everybody's food dreams are made of.  

Invented in Persia, meaning "to roast before cooking", legend holds that the dish was introduced to India by Taimor Lang from Kazakhstan. But India is probably one of the gastronomical super powers of the world! 

The subcontinent took the dish introduced by Mughals to feed the army and made it into a delicacy that no one can resist. 

Of the many types present, the most popular perhaps are the Hyderabadi and Awadhi types. The former is cooked typically with marinated meat and rice spiked with spices, placed together in a handi to completely blend in all the various flavours. 

The Awadhi type, the original form of the dish, is cooked differently, with the meat and rice cooked separately and then added together. These two types left significant mark on India's palate and ever since, variations have sprung up. 

 Sindhi Biriyani, influenced by the Pakistani version and found commonly in Punjab, includes a hint of yoghurt with the other ingredients as does the Memoni Biriyani which adds no artificial colours or flavours to the preparation. Kashmir and Kolkata have their own inspired versions. 

Kashmiris influenced by the Persians, Afghans and Central Asians, came up with the delicious Kashmiri Bhuna Gosht Biriyani, while the Kolkata version influenced by Nawabs, serves rice with meat, potatoes and sometimes, eggs. Bhatkali Biriyani is interesting. 

Originating in coastal Karnataka, this type is cooked in onion sauce and is quite distinct.  Other variations are the Malabari Biriyani, a wedding of Arab and Kerala cuisines and the Tahari Biriyani which is a Vegetarian variant.  

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Be it of vegetarian or non-vegetarian variety, it is impossible to fight the charms of a Biriyani!

Mumbai: I love and miss you!

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Mumbai is vast. When you think of the city you cannot narrow it down to one specific feeling. It is a gamut of them catching you by your throat. But one thing I can guarantee you is that you will fall in love with it. There have been generations trying to define love with myriad expressions, yet they keep changing. It’s anger, hate, adoration, adulation, overwhelming, unfathomable and yes vast. Just like Mumbai.

When you land here you find a purpose. You want to be better: maybe richer or faster or kinder or greater. But you always strive to be better. The city tests your mettle but at the end of the gruel you feel nothing but proud. Maybe the whole sentiment is Romantic in a vicious way but you will end up admitting even that bit of Romanticism gives your life a purpose of its own.

Visit Mumbai during the pleasant months of Kalaghoda festival and soak in the art, culture, tradition and well-dressed ‘Sobo’ people.  Visit it during the tumultuous monsoons, wade through the murky water, catch a local train, reach Worli sea face and get splashed. Visit it during the Ganpati season and go for ‘Visarjan’ on the 3^rd, 5^th, 7^th and 10^th day. Visit it during the summers, choose a café in bandra and sit sipping the coolest drink possible wearing shorts and let the world pass you by.

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The city makes you do everything. It makes you climb a skyscraper and lets you scrounge for the best leather boots in Dharabi. Lets you sashay through the high end retail brands in a luxury mall and makes you sweat it out for lovely floral motifs on linking road. Even though the contrast, neither the high nor the low ever rejects you. Eat panipuri from the local shop on a Saturday night while waiting in queue for entry into the recently opened gourmet restaurant. It is but natural.

Even though the brooding heat will make you swoon, you cannot resist falling in love with this enormous, difficult city. But hey doesn’t everyone love a bad boy?  And like true love, you cannot let it go. It sings in your blood and every time you close your eyes, just like that, you are back in your favourite ‘tapri’, holding a broken umbrella, waiting out a sudden September rain with your friend, sipping cutting chai and breathing into your soul Mumbai.




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