Every few months, Delhi falls in love with a dish all over again. Right now, that infatuation is with biryani – and not just any biryani, but hyper-local flavour bombs being served up by Dilli’s latest wave of delivery kitchens and roadside innovators. From Zakir Nagar to Chittaranjan Park and even the lanes of North Campus, aromatic rice is the scent of the season.
At the helm of this craze is the sudden meteoric rise of “biryani reels” on Instagram – fast-paced videos of slow-cooked handi lids being cracked open with steam clouds billowing up, or mutton pieces being dropped into thick, masala-kissed pulao. Somewhere in that swirl of visuals and fragrance, Delhi has rediscovered its biryani love story, but with a modern, streetwise twist.
Interestingly, Delhi has always sat at the biryani crossroads between the Awadhi subtlety of Lucknow and the fiery depth of Hyderabadi versions. What we see now is a happy chaos of influences. A little stall in Jamia Nagar might serve saffron-scented chicken biryani parcelled in newspaper, while an upmarket cloud kitchen in Khan Market will label their special as “Kolkata mutton with potato” and get 500 orders in a day.
There’s something deeply comforting, even democratic, about biryani’s ability to cross class and culture. Whether it’s student hostels pooling money for a midnight chicken dum, or wedding caterers going premium on goat meat, the dish slips easily into all spaces. But what’s touched a nerve recently is the storytelling around biryani – the ways it connects families, memories, and even migration. A trending tweet last week told of a father driving across town just to get the “right biryani” for Eid. Thousands could relate.
Instead of resisting food fads, this is one we might do well to embrace for longer. Here is a dish that brings warmth, history, flavour and festivity in every grain. Maybe the next time we scroll past yet another biryani reel, we can pause, order some for the table, and bask in the joy of shared spice.
#DelhiLovesBiryani
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