Bon appétit! Hyderabad a gastronomy city

Hyderabad: Hyderabad was honoured with the title, ‘Creative City for Gastronomy’ on Thursday by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

Hyderabad, which has a sobriquet of ‘City of Pearls’ or “land of Kohinoor”, owes its elaborate culture of design and gastronomy to its historical roots linked to the Qutb Shahi Dynasty, followed by the Asaf Jahi Nizams, and more recently, the peasants of Telangana state.

The Unesco honour brings to the fore the debate around what is the real food identity and pride of Hyderabad. The city, also referred to colloquially as city of biryani, which several expert chefs believe is a reductionist misnomer, because they argue Hyderabad is much more than just biryani and haleem.

Elaborating on the types of dishes, Puneet Mehta, noted chef and a finalist of Masterchef, said the city’s most creative dishes include pathar ka ghost, motia pulao and marag.

These royal associations of the past, along with access to spices of the Deccan, have led to the evolution of the city’s exceptional gastronomical culture. The cuisine as enjoyed today was born and perfected in royal kitchens. Yet, they also had a strong subaltern story.

The strength of Hydera-badi cuisine lies in adaptation to local context, which led to evolution of dishes like the kalyani biryani, the beef-based affordable form of royal mutton biryani   cooked with a different animal protein.

“Motiya pulao is one of the most creative dishes from here, where egg whites are wrapped in intestines of a goat and are cooked with rice to make pulao. The white meat balls look like pearls,” he said. Chefs explain that people of the city came up with dishes depending on situation.

“We had a dish called anokhi kheer, which was made of onion petals and garlic, during summer and winter respectively, a dish and recipe known only to a handful of people. Chefs during the Nizam’s era mastered the art of merging flavours like tamarind with chillies to create contrast,” Chef Mehta told Deccan Chronicle.

When it comes to sweets, the city has been extremely creative with ingredients, methods of cooking and shapes of sweets.

“Over a century ago, the Nizam used to stop by our shop to eat sweets. He used to enjoy eating jauzi halwa and badam ki jaali,” said Anees Hameedi, proprietor, Hameedi Confectioners.

Additionally, the city is renowned for dishes like kaddu ka kheer, qubaani ka meetha, shahi tukda, double ka meetha. Cafes and tea stalls serving Irani chai, pauna (three quarters of tea mixed with two spoons of full-cream milk and sugar), khade chammach ki chai, (variant of Irani chai, cup half-filled with sugar), Osmania biscuits, tie biscuit, dilkhush, dil-pasand, bun maska and bun malai have become popular spots.

In recent past, there has been an advent of fast food and hotel chains, food trucks and street food, demand for foods originating from Turkey, Kabul and Arabia like mandi or shwarma have also taken the city by storm.

Standing the test of time, Hyderabadi cuisine played an integral role in establishing a cosmopolitan culture in the region. Attracting people from distant lands for trade, tourism and employment, it helped build a cohesive society, transcending traditional boundaries and paving way for a common future.

Gastronomy as an economic catalyst provides direct and indirect livelihood to about 12 per cent of the city's huge working population. It further creates strong cohesive networks between people from different religions, regions, castes, classes and genders. The accessibility and inclusivity of the food industry has been extremely instrumental in achieving socio-economic equality.