Biriyani can be the national food of India! It truly unites us. Everyone loves it and has their own beloved version of it across the length and breadth of this great nation. But not much has been done to celebrate the regional variations of this timeless spice, meat and rice melange.
Until now.
Chennai Food Guide is organizing a unique festival with the aim of showcasing the quintessential biriyani from all the corners of India. Starting off this celebration is the first of the series: Three States, the Biriyani fest is planned to showcase biriyani from the 3 major culinary influences of South India: namely Tamil Muslim biriyani, Malabar of the Thalassery variety and Hyderabadi biriyani from Andhra pradesh! The event is planned to be held from July 15 - 17. The link to the event page is here.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of tasting the Hyderabadi biriyani for a tasting session held at Food Consulate, velachery and it was a lovely experience indeed. In the blazing heat I had the chance to try some piping hot biriyani! This was a food tasting event to which I was invited.
To start off, I haven't really had authentic Hyderbadi style mutton dum biriyani from Chennai or anywhere else for that matter so I was eager to try it. Only other time I had it was at the much hyped Charminar Llyods rd for a bday party but that didn't really impress me at all. Probably it was their bad day.
We were shown around the cooking area and I could see the chef who was brought in from Hyderabad busy with the dishes. Specialist chefs are being brought in to cook each variant of biriyani and the end result can be tasted easily. The Hyderabadi biriyani was pretty damn great. Well separated long grained rice teamed with tender and spice coated pieces of mutton, it was just great. This is the primary difference between tamil muslim style of biriyani and Hyderabadi style. In the latter, the marinated meat is layered with semi cooked rice and not disturbed during dum so you get a lot more masala on the meat!
The end result is a strongly flavorsome biriyani that is perfect when combined with the in house preparation of Mirchi ka saalan that is customarily served with this biriyani. The saalan had quite a masala kick and was a dish by itself. Since this was a richly prepared dish with lots of desi ghee and saffron added during the marinade stages, even a small amount of biriyani was enough to satiate my usually heavy appetite. The thought of desserts also made me eager to not eat too much.
We also had an great surprise in the form of Haleem which was served to us as well. Haleem is slow cooked meat with lentils cooked over a charcoal flame for hours together. The final result is an incredibly rich porridge like meat dish that is a feast by itself. It was superb with the fried onions and a squeeze of lemon juice. This was just a sampling and won't be available for the fest. However they are planning to serve it during the Ramadan month to break the fast along with other items.
The #3states biriyani fest will have a limited serving of each variant of biriyani which can be savored. So get ready to taste the best that each state has to offer. This is not an eat as much as you can contest! grin emoticon
Next, the desserts had a few surprises. There was the amazing Khubani ka meetha that wowed us with the soft fresh apricots entrenched in a sweet sugary base with lots of saffron seen. An ideal almost healthy dessert option after the sinful lunch. The seeds of the apricots added a good crunch to the dish. There was also a litchi based ice cream dessert that was good as well. We gave feedback for all these dishes as we felt.
All in all it was a nice meet up of like minds with biriyani as the central focus. Stay tuned for the next part of this biriyani adventure where Thalaserry biriyani will be explored next as part of the menu for the 3states event.
Adios until then!
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