Hyderabad's culinary diversity

The city of Hyderabad is home to 6 million people. Exploring the city’s culinary heritage reveals impressive cultural diversity and opens a window onto the values and identities of Hyderabadi folk today.
A typical breakfast comprises idli (steamed rice cakes) vada (fried urid dal donut) and dosai (a pancake prepared from half-fermented urid dal and rice paste). These items are invariably served with coconut chutney, and chilli and ginger chutney. For lunch the number one option is a home cooked meal – ones own mothers cooking is ubiquitously considered purer and healthier to anything available outside. From the high-rise offices of Hi-tech city to the crowded chowks of Charminar, Hyderabadi’s wield stainless steel tiffin boxes carrying all manner of tastes and textures. The staple of rice and a sambar is often served with gently spiced vegetarian accompaniments. In the hot months of summer a simpler mid-day meal of curd rice or lemon rice is a lighter alternative, preferred by many commuters.
The cultural stereotype runs according to a veg/non veg distinction, but closer inspection shows that Muslim communities base their diet on the same staples as their vegetarian Hindu friends, who are equally inclined to share their city’s non vegetarian delicacies such as Paya - mutton bone marrow soup, Haleem - a Ramadan special of slow-roasted, spiced-minced goat and Biriani.
Biriani is a celebratory dish of Persian origin but In Hyderabad, the dish is not only for special occasions and has become an everyday treat. A fine Biriani will consist of long grains of basmati rice (which grow to 24mm when cooked to perfection) layered amongst spiced meat or vegetables, patterned by streaks of saffron infused milk.
At “Joshi’s World Expert Pickle Packers” mothers and sisters have their home cooked pickles packed and sealed to send to sons abroad. Avakai (green mango pickle) is prepared in early summer when unripe green mangoes become available. At vegetable markets across the city young boys go with their fathers before dawn, to count the pieces of cut mango. The postcards on the walls of Joshi’s reveal the gratitude of a generation of migrant software workers and engineering students who write, “Dear Joshi’s World Expert Pickle Packers, Thankyou for your excellent work. My mother’s pickles arrived last week in pristine condition – not a drop had leaked!”