Hyderabad: The One With All The Food
Hyderabad is one of those cities that’s easily stereotyped. I only have to mention to anyone that I’ve moved to the city, and their first reaction will always be to — I kid you not, always — ask me, “So you’re going to eat biryani all the time, aren’t you?”
Even though I detest the trope, Hyderabad does have some amazing biryani to offer. However, that’s not all Hyderabad has to offer, I wish everyone would quickly learn.
In the five months, I’ve been here, I’ve managed to explore the city passive-aggressively, not letting many opportunities pass me by.
I learned my lesson when I let life just pass by a long time ago, and discovering only much later that even tourists had covered a lot more ground in Dubai in six days than I had in six years.
Of course, being tourists, it seemed that covering ground was pretty much their only occupation at that time. However, that is no excuse for not having seen even the most well-known attractions of a place, I had told myself a long time ago.
So, when the opportunity arose to do a recce of the Old City of Hyderabad and taste some of the famed dishes served during Ramadan, I jumped on the wagon quicker than you could say, Jack Robinson.
Along with my husband and our friends, and a bunch of people we got along with well, we embarked on our Food Walk.
As it turned out, the first day of monsoons in Hyderabad decided to declare itself in the precise minute our Walk was to begin.
However, amidst the pouring — and I do mean, pouring; it was like some floodgates upstairs had been opened — rain, and a never-say-never crowd, we began our Walk with a trip to Hotel Nayaab for a taste of Paya Masala and Biryani.
We were received by a back-door kitchen, done the old-fashioned way, where the Biryani was being cooked in a “pure” way and the Paya Masala was being prepared for us. Large pots were set upon a wood-burning fire, and the smell of deliciousness wafted through the kitchen to our hungry senses.
We were invited to inspect the preparation methods, after being briefed on why they were considered “pure” and better than modern-day methods. It really is a long story, and I suggest trying out the Walk to go with it.
As we settled ourselves at tables set aside for us, the intensified rains wreaked havoc on the electricity at the restaurant.
We wondered how we’d ever make it to the rest of the food joints we were to visit, and promptly, our gracious host Arunima popped out to get umbrellas for each of us.
Our choice of Paya Masala or Biryani (for the vegetarians) soon came to us in specially requested eco-friendly plates. Our hungry tummies couldn’t contain it any longer, and we dug in.
And by God, it was the best dish we had tasted in ages.
Delighted with the start to our food adventure, all of us were looking forward to whatever nature threw our way.
We then trekked through the flooding roads, water gushing past in strong currents downhill, and made our way to the next pit stop, where we were greeted with Shami Kebab and Parathas that melted in our mouths, and mildly flavored Dahi Vadas.
Arunima regaled us with stories of local history and architecture, while we ate contently on the yumminess that came our way.
Making our way from pitstop to pitstop, we sampled Irani Chai and Osmania Biscuits from Nimrah Bakery, Cookies from Mughal Bakery, Avocado Juice from Milan Juice Centre, Raspberry ice-cream with malai, and Haleem and Khubani Ka Meetha from Pista House.
Along the way we swapped stories, laughed, and clicked photos galore of the markets, the people, and of course, the conspicuous Charminar.
The juice-wala posed with the tray of Avocado Juice to help us document (read: incessantly photograph) our healthy choice for the night.
A local boy, Imran, even tagged along and made himself available for further storytelling and mild entertainment with his cheeky grin and quick wit.
As it ended, the feeling of accomplishment rose high.
Perhaps, our next adventure would be to tackle another piece of Hyderabad history, or even get a taste of modern art and world cuisine available at several places across this wonderful, relatively untouched city.
After all the journey, as they say, has only just begun.
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