‘Bite On This’ Episode 2: Is Biryani India’s National Dish?

Food blogger Kalyan Karmakar says, “Biryani is always Hyderabadi biryani."

By Shruti Singhal

September 18, 2019

Wedding, festivals, celebrations of any kind, or even sombre events, if there’s one Indian dish for gatherings of any number, it’s the biryani!

According to the order analysis from food delivery platform, Swiggy, biryani was the most ordered food item in 2017!

That same year, the Department of Post issued a stamp to biryani, well, Hyderabadi biryani to be precise!

The dish even got an anthem by Bengaluru-based comedians Ahmed Shariff, Praveen Kumar and Sanjay Manaktala. They were inspired by Ed Sheeran’s song, ‘Shape Of You’. The parody song captures all the sentiments that Indians feel about their biryani.

And that’s not all!

Paradise Biryani made its entry into the Limca Book of Records by serving 70 lakh servings of the dish in 2017! That number increased to 90 lakh in 2018!

It seems like 2017 was quite the year of the biryani!

Food blogger Kalyan Karmakar says, “Biryani is always Hyderabadi biryani. It’s the association in India and the world,” but his favourite remains the Kolkata-Awadhi variety.

Check out episode 2 of Bite On This, where Ali Hemati, the current Chairman of Paradise Biryani, talks about the growth of the brand, from a humble cafe in Secunderabad. You’ll also hear from Ganesh Bagler, professor and scientist at the Centre for Computational Biology, IIIT Delhi.

And whether you like meat in your biryani or potatoes, you’ll agree that biryani is a sentiment you grew up with, and that’s the rendition of the dish that you will enjoy most!

Where’s my plate of veg biryani?

Check out the full episode.

(Edited by Vinayak Hegde)

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