It is a symbol of a country that takes differences and merges them into one India
It is found nearly everywhere. Biryani is a symbol of a country that takes differences and divergences and then merges them into one India
EVERY INDIAN knows that dal is not a single dish. Yes, it is always made from lentils but that is about all the various dals of India have in common. A person with no experience of Indian cuisine would, if he was simultaneously served the black dal of the Punjab, the sambhar of Udupi and the cholar dal of Bengal, not immediately realise that all three were lentil preparations of the same general category.But, even though we accept that dal is the name we give to a family of dishes, rather than a single dish, we have difficulty in arriving at the same conclusion when it comes to biryani. In our minds, we still think of biryani as being a single dish.
Few Indian menus would ever describe a dish as “dal“. We would usually feel the need to add a descriptor of some sort: “Ma ki dal“ or “Cholar dal“ or of course, sambhar, because we know that these are entirely different dishes. (And rajma would not even be described as a dal.) Even when two dals are made from the same lentil say sambhar and the classic Gujarati dal both of which use tuvar we recognise that they are different dishes and describe them as such.
In the case of biryani, however, no such distinctions are made.
The most you'll get is a description of the meat used for the dish (“Chicken Biryani“ or “Mutton Biryani“ etc.) and just perhaps, some meaningless descriptor (“Nawabi Biryani“).
And yet, as most of us intuitively recognise, biryani is as much a family of dishes as dal. Yes, all biryani should have rice (just as dals use lentils) but once you get beyond that basic criterion, the situation becomes immensely complicated. Even in North India, the biryani of Delhi is totally different from the biryani of Bhopal which is different from the biryani of UP (assuming that there is such a thing the biryanis of Lucknow and Rampur are different styles).
Outside of North India, the divergences increase. Of the famous restaurant biryanis, the Hyderabad version (especially the Kacha biryani) is the South Indian version that usually makes it to the menus in the rest of India. But even within Hyderabad, you will find an Andhra-style biryani which is a spicy, more robust, food-of-thecommon-people dish than the courtly and elegant Hyderabadi biryani.
There are many other classic South Indian biryanis, some made with local varieties of rice, not the long-grained basmati-style rice of court biryanis. The delicious biryani of Calicut has as much in common with a Lucknawi biryani as an appam has with a butter SOMEWHAT SIMILAR You can see some traces vulgarised and mutated, admittedly of the Gujarati biryani in popular Bombay biryani restaurants (Delhi Darbar, Jaffer Bhai etc.) LOCAL FARE Some classic South Indian biryanis are made with local varieties of rice, not the long-grained basmati-style rice
It is found nearly everywhere. Biryani is a symbol of a country that takes differences and divergences and then merges them into one India
EVERY INDIAN knows that dal is not a single dish. Yes, it is always made from lentils but that is about all the various dals of India have in common. A person with no experience of Indian cuisine would, if he was simultaneously served the black dal of the Punjab, the sambhar of Udupi and the cholar dal of Bengal, not immediately realise that all three were lentil preparations of the same general category.But, even though we accept that dal is the name we give to a family of dishes, rather than a single dish, we have difficulty in arriving at the same conclusion when it comes to biryani. In our minds, we still think of biryani as being a single dish.
Few Indian menus would ever describe a dish as “dal“. We would usually feel the need to add a descriptor of some sort: “Ma ki dal“ or “Cholar dal“ or of course, sambhar, because we know that these are entirely different dishes. (And rajma would not even be described as a dal.) Even when two dals are made from the same lentil say sambhar and the classic Gujarati dal both of which use tuvar we recognise that they are different dishes and describe them as such.
In the case of biryani, however, no such distinctions are made.
The most you'll get is a description of the meat used for the dish (“Chicken Biryani“ or “Mutton Biryani“ etc.) and just perhaps, some meaningless descriptor (“Nawabi Biryani“).
And yet, as most of us intuitively recognise, biryani is as much a family of dishes as dal. Yes, all biryani should have rice (just as dals use lentils) but once you get beyond that basic criterion, the situation becomes immensely complicated. Even in North India, the biryani of Delhi is totally different from the biryani of Bhopal which is different from the biryani of UP (assuming that there is such a thing the biryanis of Lucknow and Rampur are different styles).
Outside of North India, the divergences increase. Of the famous restaurant biryanis, the Hyderabad version (especially the Kacha biryani) is the South Indian version that usually makes it to the menus in the rest of India. But even within Hyderabad, you will find an Andhra-style biryani which is a spicy, more robust, food-of-thecommon-people dish than the courtly and elegant Hyderabadi biryani.
There are many other classic South Indian biryanis, some made with local varieties of rice, not the long-grained basmati-style rice of court biryanis. The delicious biryani of Calicut has as much in common with a Lucknawi biryani as an appam has with a butter SOMEWHAT SIMILAR You can see some traces vulgarised and mutated, admittedly of the Gujarati biryani in popular Bombay biryani restaurants (Delhi Darbar, Jaffer Bhai etc.) LOCAL FARE Some classic South Indian biryanis are made with local varieties of rice, not the long-grained basmati-style rice
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