BREAKING NEWS!
- Boiled egg is not mandatory to the Kolkata biryani.
- Kolkata is not the only city in India to have potatoes in its biryani.
Read on …
- The Golden Egg
Traditional Kolkata biryani restaurant menus offer two options. Regular and special. Be it mutton, chicken or beef.
Regular has a lot of rice. A potato. And a small piece of meat.
If you are lucky, or flash a charming smile at the waiter, the meat is edible. Else you ditch the piece of titanium and finish the rice with the potato instead.
The SPECIAL biryani has lots of rice, a potato, TWO pieces of meat and a boiled egg! On request, you can get an extra alu.
#notallbiryanis Drill this into your head.
- Whose alu is it after all?
It’s not just Kolkata, but MUMBAI has potatoes in its biryani too. Be it in legendary Muslim (Irani or otherwise) biryani restaurants such as Jaffer Bhai or Lucky, or in the Bohri biryani. The latter, till recently, was available to non Bohris only if invited to Bohri catered weddings or at takeaway joints such as Jeff’s, Bandra.
Unlike in Kolkata, where the biryani absorbs all the flavours and plays a central role, in Mumbai it is like the 12th man. Meat is key here. And the masala. The potatoes are cut into smaller pieces, often lined at the bottom of the deg while cooking to avoid charring.
The potato in the Mumbai biryani leaves no impression. But is definitely present!
Ps: Sorry if you thought this would be another Wajid Ali Shah story but I think we have had enough of those!
A more detailed post on alu in biryani beyond Kolkata: https://www.finelychopped.net/2019/10/kolkata-is-not-only-city-to-have-alu-in.html?m=1
