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Rice and shine! It's a biryani fest

The Taj Manjarun is hosting a Colours of Biryani food fest till tomorrow

VERSATILE The biryani is an all-time favourite

Is there anyone who does not like biryani? There are number of eateries here which offer biryani in their basic avatars. But speciality fare only comes once in a while like the one that the Taj Manjarun is offering till December 3.

Taj Manjarun is celebrating the Colours of Biryani at Port Café and its chefs are dishing out different popular styles of biryani such as Awadhi, Hyderabadi, Calicut, Malabari, Kashmiri and more. Every evening the Biryani Buffet at Port Café offers non-vegetarian and vegetarian biryani with an array of salads, choice of shorbas and desserts. The aroma of the saffron and spices in biryani make the experience all the more exotic.

Chef Praveen takes a great pleasure in introducing the guests to the wonderful world of biryani. The name is derived from the Farsi word birian. Based on the name, and the cooking style (dum), one can conclude that the dish originated in Persia and/or Arabia. It could have come from Persia via Afghanistan to north India. It could have also been brought by the Arab traders via the Arabian Sea to Calicut, which had maritime trade with West Asia.

Besides the historical facts, the biryani's story gets a bit spiced up with legends. One has it that Timor the Lame broughti t down from Kazakhstan via Afghanistan to north India. According to another fable, Mumtaz Mahal created this dish as a complete meal to feed the army.

However, it was during the 19th Century that this fabulous and versatile dish came to its own. During Mogul rule, Lucknow was known as Awadh, and this nomenclature lent itself to the Awadhi biryani. In 1856, Calcutta also churned out its own biryana. And when Aurangzeb installed Nizam-ul-Mulk as the Asfa Jahi ruler of Hyderabad as well as the Nawab of Arcot to oversee Aaru Kaadu region (Six Forests) south of Hyderabad, he unwittingly led to the creation of the Hyderabadi biryani and Arcot biryani.

In due course, the secret of the royal kitchens in turning out biryanis was available to the common man. The biryani spread to Mysore thanks to Tipu Sultan. Needless to say it was a royal dish of the nawabs and nizams. These worthies hired vegetarian Hindus as bookkeepers, which necessitated the creation of the tahiri biryani (vegetarian version).

Mangalore has got its own biryani legend. Not far from the Modern Port Café, the old port used to receive Arabian merchants in 12th Century. The Arabian merchants took handpicked condiments from Mangalore back home to spice up their food. Even today the Gulf countries import spices from Mangalore Port. Enough history and back to the Taj. The Colours of Biryani is priced at Rs.250 per head, unlimited. Call 2420420.

M. RAGHURAM

Ambience: Classy
Service: Good
Specialty: Biryanis, of course
Wallet factor: Rs.250 per head, unlimited

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