In the movie Thattathin Mariyathil, a not so important character mentions "biriyani should be declared as our national food". It will be an understatement to say "I love biriyani". That does not mean I eat it for every meal or for that matter every day. But if I don't eat it for a week, I start having withdrawal symptoms. Over the years I have realized there are many sub-species of biriyani. On the streets of Chennai, there are many stalls that provide the Dang-dang biriyani. This dish gets its name from the fact that the person who serves the food, beats the side of the big vessel every time he brings out a ladle of biriyani. This is not done to enhance the taste of the dish but more to announce that they serve Dang-dang biriyani. The biriyani itself is usually soaked in spices and oil. I consume this version only under desperate conditions. Once consumed my stomach spends the remaining part of the day informing me that a spurious combination of spices and oil have been non-nonchalantly thrown into it. This is especially a problem if I consume the said dish for dinner.
Though I have consumed biriyani for many years, my first remembrance of a biriyani based incident is from 2002. We were at Hyderabad and for many of us it is a crime to separate the two words Hyderabad and biriyani. We requested the driver to take us to the best biriyani place at 12:30 pm. The man drove maniacally through the city streets and stopped the car by an old building a few hundred metres from Charminar. He said something like yaeech (which roughly translates to "this it it"). We looked up at the building with trepidation. I decided to check the restaurant prior to all of us getting into it. As I walked up the stairs and into the restaurant, I realized that the building seemed good enough to take our burden but I was not sure if our stomachs were strong enough to accept the burden of the food served in this restaurant. So I shook my head and informed the driver that the place was unacceptable. He let out a hanging "but" out of his mouth (you know the one that goes "but...") and went back to driving.
He took us two more unappealing restaurants that we promptly turned down. At 1:45pm, he stopped in front of a restaurant and informed us that he can no longer drive. "Don't worry about how it looks. It serves one of the best biriyani in town" he said. We got down and looked at a restaurant that was called Cafe Bahar. The name did not sound very welcoming. We walked tentatively into the non-A/C hall and looked around for a moment. A waiter came along and ushered us into the dark A/C room, which was like a typical A/C room in a restaurant from the past. Apparently, the owners of the restaurants in the 80s and 90s had strong foundation in Physics and hence they understood that light energy and heat energy went hand-in-hand. They probably hummed the famous song by the then-famous 80s group Density Mode all the time. I especially love the line which goes
We parked ourselves in the seats and asked the waiter for the items available. The advantage of a dark room in a restaurant is that one does not have to go through the pain of reading menu cards. You ask "What is there?" and prompt came the response "Egg biriyani, Special Egg biriyani, Bahar Egg biriyani, Cafe Bahar Egg biriyani, Special Bahar Egg biriyani, Mughlai Egg biriyani, Special Mughlai Egg biriyani, Special Cafe Bahar Mughlai Egg biriyani, Chicken biriyani, Special Chicken biriyani, Bahar Chicken biriyani, Cafe Bahar Chicken biriyani, Special Bahar Chicken biriyani , Mughlai Chicken biriyani, Special Mughlai Chicken biriyani, Special Cafe Bahar Mughlai Chicken biriyani, Mutton biriyani, Special Mutton biriyani, Bahar Mutton biriyani, Cafe Bahar Mutton biriyani, Special Bahar Mutton biriyani, Mughlai Mutton biriyani, Special Mughlai Mutton biriyani, Special Cafe Bahar Mughlai Mutton biriyani". The advantage of placing the dish with the maximum number of prefixes at the end of the list is that the customers usually only remembers the last dish which started with special and had other adjective (or whatever grammar construct Mughlai is). We should also remember that the customer is a person with a large ego and so he/she will not say "I don't remember a word of what you said. So please repeat". Instead he will act intelligent and say "Give me that last special dish". The waiter then moves in for the kill and ask "You want the Special Cafe Bahar Hyderabadi biriyani is it?" The egoist would promptly agree by saying "Yes, yes! That one!"
Something similar happened to us too. The waiter asked the follow-up question - "How many?" Though we were hungry we decided not to take too many biriyani. So we said decided to take three plates for the four of us. He looked at each of us for a moment and said "take two". We protested by saying "we are famished". He compromised by saying "take two and if you want more, order later". That seemed like a sensible option and we agreed instantly. When the plates of biriyani arrived we wondered why he had not forced us to take one plate. Each plate could have fed each one of us for a week. Twenty minutes later, we were shoving the plates at each other's face. The biriyani was delicious. It was the best biriyani we had had in our lives. It taught us the meaning of the word flavour. It only had the flavour of spice and was not really spicy. Since then Cafe Bahar was high on our recommendation list for biriyani in Hyderabad, not that I am aware of anyone who heeded to our advice. Whenever I travel to Hyderabad, I ensure I had additional time to go till Cafe Bahar and parcel a family pack of biriyani. I would shove the pack into my laptop bag. At the airport, when I opened the bag at the security check point to take out my laptop, the fragrance of biriyani would spread through the airport. People would look at me with a mixture of anger, contempt and envy. Once a security guard asked with an inquiring look "biriyani?". I responded "biriyani!" Needless to say, my laptop smelt of biriyani for more than a week and HR at the office would walk around the office trying to find the person eating biriyani inside the office during office hours. The fools never realized that my laptop loved biriyani .
One time, I did not have the time to go till Cafe Bahar. I compromised and bought the biriyani from another restaurant that is believed to have existed since the time discovery of biriyani was being discussed. As famous as the restaurant was, we did not like the biriyani. It was greasy and the flavour of the spices were lost in its excess. We shared the biriyani with the person working at our house. She and her family were down with food poisoning for the next three days. I avoided going anywhere near that restaurant since. I am not interested in visiting paradise yet.
In old Delhi, there is a famous restaurant that serves authentic Mughlai Biriyani. It is said that the chefs in the restaurant's traced their lineage to the cooks in the last Mughal emperor's kitchen. We were curious to find the biriyani consumed by Bahadur Shah Zafar and so went in search of the restaurant. After a number of lefts and rights, we reached the small restaurant and seated ourselves in its crowded interiors. The biriyani did not look like the biriyani we were used to. I had a small voice in my head say "ithena manja sora?" It tasted like manja soru too. I can't say I liked the taste of the biriyani. What would Bahadur Shah Zafar's reaction have been had tasted the dang-dang biriyani. I have a feeling he would have order either of the chefs to be executed. A couple of hours after lunch, we reached the famed parattewale galli. The lunch still slumbered in our stomachs and we really did not have the space inside to fit anything else. But the paratte in this galli were popular and we had to try these. So we got into the small and heated interior of a restaurant. The paratte, which were fried in desi ghee arrived dripping in ghee. At the sight of the dish our insides started churning. Our brains sent a polite and yet firm message to our stomachs, which read "I understand your situation but this is once in a lifetime opportunity. I would appreciate your cooperation". The message was effective and we were able to taste the paratte without throwing up. I did not enjoy the parattes; maybe due to my full stomach. I have never thought of visiting that place again and even as I write these words on an empty stomach I can feel something churn inside me.
For seven years, Hotel Crescent acted as an extended kitchen and at times dining hall for us. At most times we satiated our irresistible urge for non-Sattvic food at Crescent. I believe that the concept of Sattvic is overrated. Two Sattvics have been a part of my life for the past two years and I don't find anything Sattvic about them. While consuming Sattvic food might help, the consumption of this kind of food alone cannot make one calm. I guess the fame that its consumption brings removes any benefit that this food can bring in. I digress. I don't care about consuming Sattvic food and so love the food served Crescent. The Malabar Porotta, Kerala Mutton Curry, Aiyla fry and Kerala Fish Curry can only be referred to in the proper noun case. They are that good. But our favourite dish at Crescent is the MALABAR MUTTON BIRIYANI. Yeah! It deserves all caps. The dish is flavourful and visually appealing. As one consumes the biriyani one is only aware of its presence but not overpowered by it. You will not remember for the next four hours that you consumed biriyani. That is an important quality for a food item. One should be aware of the food's presence from a few minutes before till a few minutes after eating it. After three hours, if your fingers still smell like the dish then you shouldn't be consuming that food.
One day, out of blue, Lucknow entered my life. The Government showed us a carrot and we started chasing it. Ultimately, we did not even get the rope holding the carrot. But I got the opportunity to travel to Lucknow and experience its sights, sounds and more importantly fragrance and taste. Lucknowi Biriyanis are the best. They are even better than Hyderabadi biriyani. The first time I had not done my research well. I picked a pack of biriyani from one of the branches of a famous chain called Dasterkhwan. The biriyani tasted like a good North Indian biriyani, which was simply not good enough for us. Subsequently I learned about Tunday Kababi and its Galuti Kebab. One time, I stayed in a hotel opposite to a mall. The mall had an outlet of Tunday Kababi. One evening, I picked some of the kababs and biriyani for dinner. It seemed to me that my biriyani experience had reached its peak. Since then I packed biriyani and Galuti Kabab from the original Tunday Kababi, which is situated in a place that can only be reached through twisting and turning roads filled to the brim with traffic. But it was worth the effort for in our opinion Tunday Kababi's biriyanis are the best.
One time, I packed the biriyani at Tundays and reached the airport. I was in a convenient flight from Lucknow for it reached Chennai by 8:30 pm. So all of us could have the biriyani for dinner at 9:30 pm. The flight took off well and it proceeded well too. In fact everything went well till it reached the Chennai airspace. It could not land in Chennai. The captain came over the PA system and said that the runway was relaid that morning but it was not done properly. Gravel from the freshly laid runway was flying around during landing and it was considered too dangerous to attempt landing in Chennai. As the plane was running out of fuel, it had to be rerouted to Bangalore for refueling. The plane reached Bangalore at 9:30 pm (our planned dinner time) where a further complication was revealed to us. Apparently, the pilot had already completed the stipulated flying time for the day. He would lose his license if he attempted to fly us to Chennai. So the airlines was trying to get a pilot to fly us back to Chennai at 10 pm. I lost hope of getting back home that night. The biriyani sat in my laptop bag and was busy sharing its fragrance with the other contents of my bag, which, obviously, included my laptop. I called up home and informed them the situation. It seemed this would turn out to be a thayir saadam night for them.
At around 11 pm, a pilot arrived and the plane took off from Bangalore. Miraculously, the runways at Chennai had cleared by this time and the plane landed at Chennai without causing any commotion. I was home at 1 pm. We eagerly opened the laptop bag; the whiff of biriyani hit us. We took out the pack, opened it and tasted it. To our relief, it was not spoiled. We could not contain ourselves with one mouthful of dish. So we helped ourselves to another mouthful, which led to another mouthful, which in turn led to another mouthful. This process went on till the pack of biriyani became just a pack. That night, we became aware of a question and its inevitable response. What is the right time to eat biriyani? Anytime.
I can't keep count of the number of times I have traveled between Chennai and Bangalore by road. At some point, we heard that Ambur was famous for its leather footwear and Biriyanis. Till date I have not tried either at Ambur. Our learning got fine tuned when we were informed that Five Star Biriyani is the best Biriyani available at Ambur. On my next journey, I kept an eye out for Five Star Biriyani but I only found hundreds of Star Biriyanis and not one Five Star Biriyani. I called up the informer and shouted
"Hey, there's no Five Star Biriyani at Ambur."
"Five Star Biriyani! I did not say anything about Five Star Biriyani"."
"Nonsense! You were gushing about the biriyanis at Five Star Biriyani in Ambur."
"That was Star Biriyani and not Five Star Biriyani."
"No! You said Five Star."
"Stop talking rot! I know what I said. I said Star and not Five Star."
"Hmm Ok! Maybe I misunderstood. But that does not solve the problem I have. There are hundreds of Star Biriyanis here."
"It's the one which says 'original' and that it was founded in eighteen hundred and something."
"Thanks! That narrows it down to 10 shops. Now tell me which of the ten."
"You mean there are ten such restaurants."
"Yes!"
"We went to the one which is next to the leather chappal shop."
"Five such shops."
"The one with the green board."
"Stays at five."
"It has a pan-wallah in front."
"Four"
"Ehhhh! Ummmmm!"
"Oh! Forget it."
A few years ago I got to know that Ambur's famous Five Star Biriyani had opened a branch at Annanagar. I searched for the restaurant in Google map and was stumped when we did not find any information about it . I was sure my Ambur biriyani expert friend would have some information.
"Hey! Have you heard that Ambur's Five Star Biriyani has opened a branch in Chennai?"
"No. I haven't."
"Is that so? I heard its somewhere in Annanagar. Since you are a great lover of biriyani I though you would know its location."
"I have never heard of a Five Star Biriyani in Annanagar."
He slammed the phone on me. Actually, it was a mobile phone and he did not slam it literally. I meant he cut the call on me rudely. But the rudeness made me think. I wondered what had upset him thus and that is when I remembered our conversation from the past. I searched for Star Biriyani and found its location.
The biriyani had a ginger flavour in it and this made its taste unique. Many years ago, a chain of fast food joints called Kabab Magic in Bangalore served similar biriyani. Kabab Magic was a special place for us; it introduced us to Chicken Grill and Chicken Shawarma. We loved the biriyanis too. I wonder how I missed talking about this place at the beginning. We have only been to Star at Annanagar once. Since then Star has opened many branches around the city but the taste of the biriyani is not the same. The dish is too oily and the smell of biriyani stays with you for a long time.
Recently, I picked a pack of Biriyani at the Star outlet in Rajakilpakkam. As I waited for the parcel to arrive, two college kids walked in. One of them ordered two Chicken Biriyanis while the other looked at the menu. He smacked at an item in the menu card and ordered two Prawns Lollipop. The person at the counter asked them to pay Rs. 856. The two of them nearly fell back in shock. They said in unison "How much?" The man responded "Rs. 856". "How much is a plate of Prawn Lollipop?" "Rs 228." "What! Cancel it" said one. "No wait! How much will the amount be if I take one Prawn Lollipop?" said the other. "Rs. 626." "Cancel it!" said the one but the other one hesitated. "We only have Rs. 500 to spend for lunch today. Remember!" reminded the one. "Okay! Two Chicken Biriyanis only." said the other with a sigh.
He took us two more unappealing restaurants that we promptly turned down. At 1:45pm, he stopped in front of a restaurant and informed us that he can no longer drive. "Don't worry about how it looks. It serves one of the best biriyani in town" he said. We got down and looked at a restaurant that was called Cafe Bahar. The name did not sound very welcoming. We walked tentatively into the non-A/C hall and looked around for a moment. A waiter came along and ushered us into the dark A/C room, which was like a typical A/C room in a restaurant from the past. Apparently, the owners of the restaurants in the 80s and 90s had strong foundation in Physics and hence they understood that light energy and heat energy went hand-in-hand. They probably hummed the famous song by the then-famous 80s group Density Mode all the time. I especially love the line which goes
"Energy is energy so why shouldn't it be
Heat and Light should get along so awesomely"
Their strong physics principles ensured that they filled the A/C part of their restaurants with zero watt bulb. Normal human beings of 21st century could not have maneuvered through those dark aisles. But the human beings of 20th century were special. We have built-in night vision features thanks to the people who populated the electricity board. These kind souls ensured that all houses in the city had at least an hour and a half of power shutdown three days a week. People back then knew exactly where the chairs are placed even when they are misplaced. So we maneuvered through the dark A/C hall towards the empty seats. It is interesting to note that we determined that the seats were empty due to it being darker than the dark hall. Life was so interesting then! We did not require Game of Thrones back then; we had our own Game of Thorns.We parked ourselves in the seats and asked the waiter for the items available. The advantage of a dark room in a restaurant is that one does not have to go through the pain of reading menu cards. You ask "What is there?" and prompt came the response "Egg biriyani, Special Egg biriyani, Bahar Egg biriyani, Cafe Bahar Egg biriyani, Special Bahar Egg biriyani, Mughlai Egg biriyani, Special Mughlai Egg biriyani, Special Cafe Bahar Mughlai Egg biriyani, Chicken biriyani, Special Chicken biriyani, Bahar Chicken biriyani, Cafe Bahar Chicken biriyani, Special Bahar Chicken biriyani , Mughlai Chicken biriyani, Special Mughlai Chicken biriyani, Special Cafe Bahar Mughlai Chicken biriyani, Mutton biriyani, Special Mutton biriyani, Bahar Mutton biriyani, Cafe Bahar Mutton biriyani, Special Bahar Mutton biriyani, Mughlai Mutton biriyani, Special Mughlai Mutton biriyani, Special Cafe Bahar Mughlai Mutton biriyani". The advantage of placing the dish with the maximum number of prefixes at the end of the list is that the customers usually only remembers the last dish which started with special and had other adjective (or whatever grammar construct Mughlai is). We should also remember that the customer is a person with a large ego and so he/she will not say "I don't remember a word of what you said. So please repeat". Instead he will act intelligent and say "Give me that last special dish". The waiter then moves in for the kill and ask "You want the Special Cafe Bahar Hyderabadi biriyani is it?" The egoist would promptly agree by saying "Yes, yes! That one!"
Something similar happened to us too. The waiter asked the follow-up question - "How many?" Though we were hungry we decided not to take too many biriyani. So we said decided to take three plates for the four of us. He looked at each of us for a moment and said "take two". We protested by saying "we are famished". He compromised by saying "take two and if you want more, order later". That seemed like a sensible option and we agreed instantly. When the plates of biriyani arrived we wondered why he had not forced us to take one plate. Each plate could have fed each one of us for a week. Twenty minutes later, we were shoving the plates at each other's face. The biriyani was delicious. It was the best biriyani we had had in our lives. It taught us the meaning of the word flavour. It only had the flavour of spice and was not really spicy. Since then Cafe Bahar was high on our recommendation list for biriyani in Hyderabad, not that I am aware of anyone who heeded to our advice. Whenever I travel to Hyderabad, I ensure I had additional time to go till Cafe Bahar and parcel a family pack of biriyani. I would shove the pack into my laptop bag. At the airport, when I opened the bag at the security check point to take out my laptop, the fragrance of biriyani would spread through the airport. People would look at me with a mixture of anger, contempt and envy. Once a security guard asked with an inquiring look "biriyani?". I responded "biriyani!" Needless to say, my laptop smelt of biriyani for more than a week and HR at the office would walk around the office trying to find the person eating biriyani inside the office during office hours. The fools never realized that my laptop loved biriyani .
One time, I did not have the time to go till Cafe Bahar. I compromised and bought the biriyani from another restaurant that is believed to have existed since the time discovery of biriyani was being discussed. As famous as the restaurant was, we did not like the biriyani. It was greasy and the flavour of the spices were lost in its excess. We shared the biriyani with the person working at our house. She and her family were down with food poisoning for the next three days. I avoided going anywhere near that restaurant since. I am not interested in visiting paradise yet.
In old Delhi, there is a famous restaurant that serves authentic Mughlai Biriyani. It is said that the chefs in the restaurant's traced their lineage to the cooks in the last Mughal emperor's kitchen. We were curious to find the biriyani consumed by Bahadur Shah Zafar and so went in search of the restaurant. After a number of lefts and rights, we reached the small restaurant and seated ourselves in its crowded interiors. The biriyani did not look like the biriyani we were used to. I had a small voice in my head say "ithena manja sora?" It tasted like manja soru too. I can't say I liked the taste of the biriyani. What would Bahadur Shah Zafar's reaction have been had tasted the dang-dang biriyani. I have a feeling he would have order either of the chefs to be executed. A couple of hours after lunch, we reached the famed parattewale galli. The lunch still slumbered in our stomachs and we really did not have the space inside to fit anything else. But the paratte in this galli were popular and we had to try these. So we got into the small and heated interior of a restaurant. The paratte, which were fried in desi ghee arrived dripping in ghee. At the sight of the dish our insides started churning. Our brains sent a polite and yet firm message to our stomachs, which read "I understand your situation but this is once in a lifetime opportunity. I would appreciate your cooperation". The message was effective and we were able to taste the paratte without throwing up. I did not enjoy the parattes; maybe due to my full stomach. I have never thought of visiting that place again and even as I write these words on an empty stomach I can feel something churn inside me.
For seven years, Hotel Crescent acted as an extended kitchen and at times dining hall for us. At most times we satiated our irresistible urge for non-Sattvic food at Crescent. I believe that the concept of Sattvic is overrated. Two Sattvics have been a part of my life for the past two years and I don't find anything Sattvic about them. While consuming Sattvic food might help, the consumption of this kind of food alone cannot make one calm. I guess the fame that its consumption brings removes any benefit that this food can bring in. I digress. I don't care about consuming Sattvic food and so love the food served Crescent. The Malabar Porotta, Kerala Mutton Curry, Aiyla fry and Kerala Fish Curry can only be referred to in the proper noun case. They are that good. But our favourite dish at Crescent is the MALABAR MUTTON BIRIYANI. Yeah! It deserves all caps. The dish is flavourful and visually appealing. As one consumes the biriyani one is only aware of its presence but not overpowered by it. You will not remember for the next four hours that you consumed biriyani. That is an important quality for a food item. One should be aware of the food's presence from a few minutes before till a few minutes after eating it. After three hours, if your fingers still smell like the dish then you shouldn't be consuming that food.
One day, out of blue, Lucknow entered my life. The Government showed us a carrot and we started chasing it. Ultimately, we did not even get the rope holding the carrot. But I got the opportunity to travel to Lucknow and experience its sights, sounds and more importantly fragrance and taste. Lucknowi Biriyanis are the best. They are even better than Hyderabadi biriyani. The first time I had not done my research well. I picked a pack of biriyani from one of the branches of a famous chain called Dasterkhwan. The biriyani tasted like a good North Indian biriyani, which was simply not good enough for us. Subsequently I learned about Tunday Kababi and its Galuti Kebab. One time, I stayed in a hotel opposite to a mall. The mall had an outlet of Tunday Kababi. One evening, I picked some of the kababs and biriyani for dinner. It seemed to me that my biriyani experience had reached its peak. Since then I packed biriyani and Galuti Kabab from the original Tunday Kababi, which is situated in a place that can only be reached through twisting and turning roads filled to the brim with traffic. But it was worth the effort for in our opinion Tunday Kababi's biriyanis are the best.
One time, I packed the biriyani at Tundays and reached the airport. I was in a convenient flight from Lucknow for it reached Chennai by 8:30 pm. So all of us could have the biriyani for dinner at 9:30 pm. The flight took off well and it proceeded well too. In fact everything went well till it reached the Chennai airspace. It could not land in Chennai. The captain came over the PA system and said that the runway was relaid that morning but it was not done properly. Gravel from the freshly laid runway was flying around during landing and it was considered too dangerous to attempt landing in Chennai. As the plane was running out of fuel, it had to be rerouted to Bangalore for refueling. The plane reached Bangalore at 9:30 pm (our planned dinner time) where a further complication was revealed to us. Apparently, the pilot had already completed the stipulated flying time for the day. He would lose his license if he attempted to fly us to Chennai. So the airlines was trying to get a pilot to fly us back to Chennai at 10 pm. I lost hope of getting back home that night. The biriyani sat in my laptop bag and was busy sharing its fragrance with the other contents of my bag, which, obviously, included my laptop. I called up home and informed them the situation. It seemed this would turn out to be a thayir saadam night for them.
At around 11 pm, a pilot arrived and the plane took off from Bangalore. Miraculously, the runways at Chennai had cleared by this time and the plane landed at Chennai without causing any commotion. I was home at 1 pm. We eagerly opened the laptop bag; the whiff of biriyani hit us. We took out the pack, opened it and tasted it. To our relief, it was not spoiled. We could not contain ourselves with one mouthful of dish. So we helped ourselves to another mouthful, which led to another mouthful, which in turn led to another mouthful. This process went on till the pack of biriyani became just a pack. That night, we became aware of a question and its inevitable response. What is the right time to eat biriyani? Anytime.
I can't keep count of the number of times I have traveled between Chennai and Bangalore by road. At some point, we heard that Ambur was famous for its leather footwear and Biriyanis. Till date I have not tried either at Ambur. Our learning got fine tuned when we were informed that Five Star Biriyani is the best Biriyani available at Ambur. On my next journey, I kept an eye out for Five Star Biriyani but I only found hundreds of Star Biriyanis and not one Five Star Biriyani. I called up the informer and shouted
"Hey, there's no Five Star Biriyani at Ambur."
"Five Star Biriyani! I did not say anything about Five Star Biriyani"."
"Nonsense! You were gushing about the biriyanis at Five Star Biriyani in Ambur."
"That was Star Biriyani and not Five Star Biriyani."
"No! You said Five Star."
"Stop talking rot! I know what I said. I said Star and not Five Star."
"Hmm Ok! Maybe I misunderstood. But that does not solve the problem I have. There are hundreds of Star Biriyanis here."
"It's the one which says 'original' and that it was founded in eighteen hundred and something."
"Thanks! That narrows it down to 10 shops. Now tell me which of the ten."
"You mean there are ten such restaurants."
"Yes!"
"We went to the one which is next to the leather chappal shop."
"Five such shops."
"The one with the green board."
"Stays at five."
"It has a pan-wallah in front."
"Four"
"Ehhhh! Ummmmm!"
"Oh! Forget it."
A few years ago I got to know that Ambur's famous Five Star Biriyani had opened a branch at Annanagar. I searched for the restaurant in Google map and was stumped when we did not find any information about it . I was sure my Ambur biriyani expert friend would have some information.
"Hey! Have you heard that Ambur's Five Star Biriyani has opened a branch in Chennai?"
"No. I haven't."
"Is that so? I heard its somewhere in Annanagar. Since you are a great lover of biriyani I though you would know its location."
"I have never heard of a Five Star Biriyani in Annanagar."
He slammed the phone on me. Actually, it was a mobile phone and he did not slam it literally. I meant he cut the call on me rudely. But the rudeness made me think. I wondered what had upset him thus and that is when I remembered our conversation from the past. I searched for Star Biriyani and found its location.
The biriyani had a ginger flavour in it and this made its taste unique. Many years ago, a chain of fast food joints called Kabab Magic in Bangalore served similar biriyani. Kabab Magic was a special place for us; it introduced us to Chicken Grill and Chicken Shawarma. We loved the biriyanis too. I wonder how I missed talking about this place at the beginning. We have only been to Star at Annanagar once. Since then Star has opened many branches around the city but the taste of the biriyani is not the same. The dish is too oily and the smell of biriyani stays with you for a long time.
Recently, I picked a pack of Biriyani at the Star outlet in Rajakilpakkam. As I waited for the parcel to arrive, two college kids walked in. One of them ordered two Chicken Biriyanis while the other looked at the menu. He smacked at an item in the menu card and ordered two Prawns Lollipop. The person at the counter asked them to pay Rs. 856. The two of them nearly fell back in shock. They said in unison "How much?" The man responded "Rs. 856". "How much is a plate of Prawn Lollipop?" "Rs 228." "What! Cancel it" said one. "No wait! How much will the amount be if I take one Prawn Lollipop?" said the other. "Rs. 626." "Cancel it!" said the one but the other one hesitated. "We only have Rs. 500 to spend for lunch today. Remember!" reminded the one. "Okay! Two Chicken Biriyanis only." said the other with a sigh.
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