Heading to Chennai? Strive your hand at these seven iconic biryani spots. From concocting secret recipes for biryani of their properties to strolling miles to fetch the right meat, these restaurant house owners do not cease till they’ve the most effective recipe.
If the variety of biryani retailers in a sure metropolis was a yardstick of its obsession with the dish, Chennai could be a prime contender. On second ideas, it’d even take dwelling the prize.
This declare is backed by a dialog that C Y Aasife Ahmed, MD, Aasife Biriyani Pvt Ltd, a non-vegetarian outlet in Chennai synonymous with its lip-smacking biryani had with The New Indian Categorical. “I’m sure that proper now, there are a minimal of 30 small or massive biryani eating places in each pin code in Chennai. Take 130 pin codes and multiply them by 30 and also you get nearly 4,000 biryani retailers working within the metropolis.”
With a maze of Chennai biryani spots to move to, which one are you going to select? That’s the place we step in.
1. Kappa Chakka Kandhari
Naturally, if you happen to aimed to feast on the most effective biryani in Chennai, you’d search for a seasoned professional. Whereas researching for this piece, I went down a rabbit gap and was fascinated to find that the trio behind Kappa Chakka Kandhari (KCK) — Chef Regi Mathew, John Paul and Augustine Kurian — had spoken to over 200 dwelling cooks throughout Kerala and armed themselves with a repository of almost 800 recipes earlier than they finalised those that might make the ultimate minimize to the menu at KCK.
In July 2018, when the trio launched the Chennai department of KCK, their biryanis instantly hit it off with their clients.
Ashwin Rajagopalan, a life-style author shared his love for the biryani right here with Condé Nast.
“Kappa Chakka Kandhari (KCK) serves Kerala’s Thalassery biryani which is true to its fashion. It’s in all probability top-of-the-line biryani in Chennai for me, because it’s devoted to the unique factor that you simply get in Kerala.”
2. Ambur Star Biryani
Whoever has sampled the biryani at this legendary outlet has been smitten.
The story traces again to 1890 when biryani legend Hussain Baig developed a secret recipe in his dwelling and commenced promoting it. Fame adopted and peaked in 1920. In 1927, his son, Khurshid Baig, took the biryanis to the city bazaar to promote them and went on to open a resort. As we speak, the ‘Star Biryani’ outlet on the Chennai-Bengaluru Nationwide Freeway continues to amass an enormous fan following.
The meal at Ambur Star Biryani goes past a easy dinner; it’s a feast for the senses. Alternate pleasantries with the aromatic short-grained rice earlier than you progress on to uncover the meats beneath. The ambur biryani has been hailed for its distinct flavour profile, which owes to the star anise and stone flower components.
3. Buhari
Often called the birthplace of the enduring Hen 65, Buhari on Mount Highway, Chennai, has attracted a broad spectrum of visitors since its inception in 1951. It has carved a distinct segment for itself as a wonderful eating eatery that mixed the eliteness of British eating places with the flavours of Indian dishes.
Began by A M Buhari, a former Sheriff of Madras, Buhari made its mark as the primary restaurant to open in a post-independent Madras. However, as the web site factors out, the vary of meat dishes and the biryani weren’t its sole iconic options. Apparently, Buhari was the primary resort to have a jukebox that regaled visitors with hits corresponding to ‘Dum Maro Dum’ and different widespread numbers.
4. Sukkubhai Biryani
Till 1975, Chennai skilled an inflow of migrants who got here to the town looking for jobs in mineral-based industries. Amongst them was a gentleman named Abdul Khadar. Because the eatery’s web site narrates the story, “He travelled from Nagapattinam to Chennai by foot within the 12 months 1955 searching for work and higher dwelling circumstances to supply for and develop his younger household.” Finally, the household settled in Alandur, Chennai.
What began out as a menu with parottas (layered flatbread), scorching paaya (a dish comprised of the trotters of a cow or goat), and kebabs (meat cooked on skewers) witnessed a brand new addition in 1977 when the meat biryani took centre stage. Hailed as an excellent biryani store in Chennai, the eatery continues to be run by Abdul Khader Ali, Khadar’s son.
5. Dindigul Thalappakatti
Friends who flocked to the restaurant (then Anandha Vilas Biriyani Lodge) in Dindigul round 1957, had been taken up by two issues — the strong flavours right here and the proprietor’s disposition. Nagasamy Naidu, wearing conventional South Indian apparel full with a thalapa (conventional headdress) — which can also be the place the restaurant will get its identify — believed that making Chennai biryani was a sacred course of.
Solely the very best quality components, freshly pounded masalas, and seeraga samba rice (parakkum sittu) had been deemed match to seek out their manner into the dish.
Naidu would additionally go to nice lengths to make sure that the meats had been obtained from cattle markets of Kannivadi and Paramathi, and would put together every batch of biryani himself. As the web site notes, the eatery was usually flocked to by politicians, chief ministers of South India, cinema legends and even legendary Indian actor Sivaji Ganesan.
6. The Marriage ceremony Biryani
An uncommon identify you’d assume at first look. However as founder Nawaz Mohamed factors out, the eatery serves 3,000 clients on daily basis. “That’s like catering to 10 weddings on daily basis,” he writes on the web site. The Marriage ceremony Biryani’s story is rooted in a dialog that Mohammed, a hotelier, had along with his household at dinner sooner or later.
The subject: Why are the biryanis at Tamil Muslim weddings so good?
Some probing and additional dialog led him to find that it was the standard firewood cooking strategies that held the key. So, why anticipate one in every of your Muslim buddies to get married? Mohammed urges. Simply order your self some Chennai biryani from the menu! Add mutton nalli chops and pomfret pozhichadhu (pan-fried fish) to your order.
7. Junior Kupanna
Far off the vacationer path, you’ll come throughout this biryani store in Chennai metropolis that specialises in Kongu regional delicacies. The delicacies is known for its use of conventional cooking strategies and components corresponding to cereals, milk and dry coconut.
Enjoyable truth: The usage of indigenous components and beneficiant helpings of oil differentiate Kongu dishes from Chettinad ones. The latter prides itself on its spice quotient.
Although the eatery was began in 1960 by Thiru Kuppusamy & Thirumati Rukmini Amma the model has travelled far and vast to place Kongu delicacies on the world map.
The web site, narrating the story of the model rising to fame from humble beginnings, says that Kuppusamy was a desk cleaner for a decade at a resort close to Erode earlier than beginning an eatery of his personal in 1958. This stated eatery noticed many South Indian icons and even former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa.
The magic is retained to this point on the place the place you’ll be able to pattern all types of South Indian fare.
Edited by Padmashree Pande.
