October 17, 2013
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| Image courtesy: wikimedia |
After making plans 1000 times to go to Hyderabad with all of besties together to Sia’s place wasn’t executed. This time all four of us planned to be there since it was going to be Sia’s 30th birthday and we surely have been missing our pal in our hangouts and weekend parties in our daily life. Indeed marriage makes a lot of changes in your lifestyle.
But plan was not to go there and
visit Ramoji film city, Birla temple, Lumbini Park, Hussain sagar,
Salarjung museum and all those heritage places. We decided to enjoy
our get together in our own way with Hyderabad flavor in it. Of
course I am talking about the world famous 'Hyderabad biryani' and
other dishes.
Every place has its own history,
flavor in their local cuisine, peculiarity. We decided to have the
safari of Hyderabad tasting its very famous and well-known dishes
along our get together with long lost best friend Sia. All of us
planned our dates and booked our flight tickets and moved for
Hyderabad. As we had discussed the theme for this get together with
sia she knew we gotta utilize this one weekend as much as we can and
she had made the arrangements so.
To our surprise, a cab was waiting
for us as a pickup service on the Hyderabad airport. Sia had booked the car
online and made the deal for better convenience and time saving sake.
Our cab dropped us to sia’s place where all greetings were there,
gifts sharing and excitement for our plans lead ahead on the way.
Parth, sia’s husband accompanied us for a bit and then went on with
his prior meetings arranged earlier.
Sia told us that she had booked the
car online for our small road trip inside the city and also the cab
was booked to pick us up from the airport. She had booked it from
CCR-clear car rental. We can book a cab in advance and choose our
ride and the option from various options given to us for our travel
plan. Ours had been booked for the one whole day and to our surprise
the car was in very well condition too. Well I am mentioning this
particularly because there are many problems in rented cars in their
attire and all. It was well in condition and the driver was polite
and understanding. Many times staff on the rented car is also an
issue about their arrogance and stubbornness. Here thankfully we were
spared from all that drama, thanks to CCR! Roaming in the whole city
is not that easy as it sounds, you should know the routes and your
car should be in well condition to give you the value for money
service. Since we were 5 people an Innova was booked for us. We had
planned to travel in local markets in Hyderabad and have street
shopping and street food of Hyderabad so booking your ride in advance
was a brilliant choice.
Hyderabad is known as the Deccan
cuisine of India. It has been changed and updated according to the
kingdoms that ruled this city. The cuisine has the mixture of
Mughlai, Turkish and Arabic flavors. Special kinds of herbs, spices
are used to add up that magic x factor in Hyderabadi dishes. Mom has
instructed me to buy those special spices on the street market for
masala rice/pulav to make at home. There are people in the world and
there are Moms, always know the best of everyone and everything.
- Biryani:
Image courtesy: cityhyd.info Who can miss the biryani in Hyderabad which has become the trademark of the city? More than that, to be more specific who can miss the Paradise ki biryani?? Now many outlets of paradise are opened in the city but one near the MG road in Secunderabad railway station beats the list. The rich platter with nicely cooked meat such as chicken, mutton with aromatic flavors of special hyderabadi spices and mixed with rice, served with curd and pickles. It was opened in 1953 and still running and that too in full swing. Biryani is anyway has become the identity of the Hyderabad.
- Irani Chai:
Image courtesy: cxtoday.com Hyderabad serves the so called famous Irani chai generally served with osmania biscuits, again the specialty of hyderabadi bakery. There are various types of tea types again. We have heard about Irani chai of Hyderabad from sia i a lot but never tasted before. These all dishes and beverages should be consumed in street market only because it gives you the feel of that local cuisine and local vendors know the best mixture unlike to prepare the dish or beverage which would just please eyes in many high-end Restro-s and I am a big time street food hogger. We saw the famous ‘khada chammach chai’ this time, which was a tea cup filled with tea and sugar till so much that the spoon was standing still inside the cup and hence the name khada chammach chai. It is too heavy and different for normal tea drinkers. A taste should be developed for this particular type of tea. - Double ka meetha / shahi tukra:It is again the famous delicacy of Hyderabad. It is the dessert which became the specialty of the city. It is the bread pudding made up of bread, milk, sugar syrup and different kind of nuts. It’s very heavy in calories but very rich in taste. It is generally served after heavy lunch and dinner of mouth watering biryani consumptions.
Image courtesy: vahrehwah.com These were my personal favorite picks from various famous dished of Hyderabad. Our journey was followed by old market places, Laad bazaar which is the main market for the bangles and traditional teahouses.Thus the Hyderabad was rediscovered this time we roamed around. I think, if we really want to know any city well in India one can never understand it in just one visit. Each city here in India stands proudly holding back its history, the heritage, the flavors and its cuisine safely within itself to be discovered when you travel the city again with different mindset and true desire to know it better. It welcomes you heartily for sure, again and again because we have been taught and raised up with the upbringing that says “Atithi devo bhava”- guests are like gods, meaning respect the guests.There are lots of other cities lined up in our post list with their famous local cuisine. Surely ‘El vientre funcione la mente” belly runs our mind.
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