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In quest of India's national dish.... what is it?


Nova

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I meant it's not something that can exclusively be identified as a southie dish.
+1. Hyderabadi Biryani was brought to south India by the Muslim traders, but originally it was from north India. When the army used to go fight under the hot/ humid summer, they wanted a meal having all the nutrients/ spices/ meat together without the hassle of separate breads/ rice/ curry. Hence Biryani was invented. Infact, Lucknow Biryani is older than Hyderabadi Biryani, though the latter is more famous.
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Never had or even saw biryani once in 17 years I spent in Chandigarh. Things maybe changing now' date= but the only southie food (if you can call Biryani that) that has nationwide presence is dosa and to some extent, idli.
PK, I iz disappoint regarding Biryani, you would be surprised how it varies every few hundred miles down south. Biryani ftw :two_thumbs_up:
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+1. Hyderabadi Biryani was brought to south India by the Muslim traders' date= but originally it was from north India. When the army used to go fight under the hot/ humid summer, they wanted a meal having all the nutrients/ spices/ meat together without the hassle of separate breads/ rice/ curry. Hence Biryani was invented. Infact, Lucknow Biryani is older than Hyderabadi Biryani, though the latter is more famous.
-1 Biryani not Hyderabadi biryani was brought to south india. Many varieties were invented from the kitchens of the Nizams.
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PK, I iz disappoint regarding Biryani, you would be surprised how it varies every few hundred miles down south. Biryani ftw :two_thumbs_up:
I mean when I was in chandigarh, though my uncle ran a semi-southie restaurant for 10 years (he had an excellent dosa). After moving out, I have had more than enough of my fair share. Spent 4 months in Chennai, then 2 years with a gult roomie in US who would bribe me with biryani if I spent my friday evening watching telugu movies with his gang (with subtitles ofcourse)..:two_thumbs_up:
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I mean when I was in chandigarh, though my uncle ran a semi-southie restaurant for 10 years (he had an excellent dosa). After moving out, I have had more than enough of my fair share. Spent 4 months in Chennai, then 2 years with a gult roomie in US who would bribe me with biryani if I spent my friday evening watching telugu movies with his gang (with subtitles ofcourse)..:two_thumbs_up:
I wouldnt watch that crap for all the biryani in the world and am part gult.
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Is there any proof that Biryani originated in North India?
The word Biryani itself is derived from the Persian word "Birian". In Farsi, Birian means fried before cooking, as the rice used to be sauted in ghee. What can you conclude from this? Again debatable and there is no definitive answer. But let me add more: Food historian Salma Husain lets us in on the secret of a delicious korma biryani: “When Babar came to India in the 1500s, he brought along cooks and cooking styles of Uzbekistan. For the first time, the natives here were introduced to pulao,” says food historian and author of The Emperor’s Table: The Art of Mughal Cuisine Salma Husain. The pulao, a dish with rice and large chunks of goat meat, was perfect for the travelling kitchens of his armies. In India, when pulao was cooked with local spices, it became biryani. This dish of golden rice, fried onion and chunks of cooked lamb is a testament to the virtues of slow cooking. “It originated in the kitchens of central Asia but it was in India that the dish found its true lovers,” says Husain as she readies to prepare the delicacy in her kitchen in Delhi. “If you walk into the food bazaars of Tashkent and Samarkhand, you will come across an impressive variety of this dish. However, Mughal cooks added a personal touch to it and layered the rice and mutton. In pulao, usually all ingredients are cooked together which is not so in biryani,” she says. The Hyderabadi cooking style has a strong Iranian influence, Husain says. The dishes are robustly spiced and when the Portuguese arrived in India, they brought sacks of chillies, which was added to the dish. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/spice-route/518713/2
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