A plate of Biryani (2022)Lucknow Bioscope
The hyphenated pulao-zarda, the former a savoury rice and the latter a sweet one, can be a menu in itself and announce a celebratory feast. In a general sense, a pulao is rice cooked in mutton stock and a biryani is boiled rice, layered with cooked meat on low heat, till the meat and rice fuse in a fluffy fragrant offering. The debate continues, and there is no final agreement about the definition of a biryani and a pulao or their cooking process. What goes by the name biryani, and is sold on the streets of Lucknow, is usually a yakhni pulao to which edible yellow colour has been added. Chicken pulao has become popular now, it is cheaper than mutton and within reach of the common man. An accompaniment to the pulao is a typical flowing raita, spiced with salt, ground garlic and red chillies.
1. Shakeel Biryani
“Well, my name is Shakeel Ahmad Khan. I set up this business in 1992. We sell biryani only, which is how we started and which is what we continue to sell, even today. My father cooks too. Only, he makes it out of beef, but I use chicken. My grandfather Majeed Pehelvan set up a shop near the Jhandewala Park, Aminabad.
A Degh of Biryani (2022)Lucknow Bioscope
Our extended family members have shops all over town, at the shrine of Sayyad Baba, the Qaiserbagh fish, meat, and vegetable market, Pulao Wali Gali and Akbari Gate. Some of our relatives run shops in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. All of us serve authentic Awadhi cuisine. When I started work, a plate of biryani sold for Rs. 5. Now it is Rs. 140.
Countless customers come to us every day. We sell 40-45 kilos of chicken biryani in a day.” Shakeel agrees that their signature dish should be called a yakhni pulao rather than biryani. He has a style of serving out biryani in a way that no grain of rice is broken when it is dished out on the plate. He says he has never tasted biryani cooked by anybody else, though he is fond of Wahab’s kulcha-nihari.
2. Lalla Biryani
Vijay Shankar Verma better known by his nickname Lalla, was born in Shahjahanpur, but grew up in Lucknow. His mother died when he was in high school. He dropped out of school so that he could earn money to support himself and his younger sister. He set up a paan shop, followed by a stall selling green peas, but the ventures were not successful.
Board of Lalla Biryani (2022)Lucknow Bioscope
About 35 years ago, he would have been 30 years old then, he went to watch a film at the Sahu Cinema. He noticed a number of hand carts selling biryani near the theater. He doesn’t remember the film he saw, but the sight of the hand carts gave him an epiphanic moment that would change his life. The next day, he went to see his friend Abrar, a professional chef. He badgered Abrar to teach him how to cook biryani in the traditional style. Abrar accepted Lalla as his apprentice.
The first day he gave him a list of ingredients to buy and said, “get all of this and come back tomorrow.” For the next couple of months, Lalla served as his apprentice, working for 12 hours a day, every day. Then the big day came when he set up his stall in Chaupatiyan, with barely 3 kilograms of biryani to sell. The traditional taste and a reasonable price of Rs. 2.50 for half a plate was much appreciated. Twenty years of hard work enabled him to buy a fixed shop of his own. Today, a plate of his biryani sells for Rs. 160.
With evident pride, he says: “I can eat leftover food myself, but would never serve it to a customer. We don’t sell tomorrow what we have cooked today. We finish off whatever we cook the same day, whether it is sold for a price, or given away to someone in need.” He continues,“There have always been connoisseurs of good food, but attitudes have changed now. But whoever comes to us today always returns with two more customers the next time! All our customers are celebrities for us—they burn fuel worth Rs. 200 to come and eat biryani worth Rs. 100. Whatever can be stronger evidence of their love?”
The conversation moved on to ‘carving the biryani’. Biryani is traditionally cooked in layers of rice and meat. It is something of an art to serve out a plateful, as the upper layer of rice has to be ‘carved’ through; to first place a piece of mutton from the lower layer on a plate and then cover it with layers of rice of different colours. Lalla ‘carves’ biryani with a flair that makes it look like a sport. Crowds collect to watch and applaud him. Talking to him is an experience in itself. His parting shot as we take our leave—“I am now just the director of this firm, it is our Sonu Bhayia who is the manager of Lalla Biryani.”
3. Thele Wali Biryani
It was around 1950 that Imtiaz’s grandfather, Abdul Majeed left the services of an impoverished taluqedaar (a person with large landholdings) of Barabanki and came to Lucknow. Confident of his craft, he set up shop near Naaz Cinema. Loading a huge pot of biryani, another of raita and placing the requisite crockery and cutlery in a large iron basket, he would lug it to and fro to the shop every day.
A plate of Biryani (2022)Lucknow Bioscope
When Imtiaz was a child, he thought his grandfather looked like a professional wrestler.Today, he feels that he looks like a bigger wrestler than his grandfather used to look like. Years of hard labour resulted in the family’s finances improving. An old girls’ school in Nakhaas was shutting down. Abdul Majeed bought the building and moved his entire clan into the premises. The entire lane is known as the Pulao Wali Gali now. With the passage of time, Imtiaz’s uncle Wahid set up shop in Nazirabad, close to where his father started out.
Wahid Biryani ranks among the most famous outlets in Lucknow today. Imtiaz’s father Mohammad Chand took up the responsibility of the shop in the Pulao Wali Gali. The only change that this establishment underwent over time was, he says,“My grandfather used to sell biryani out of a basket, and I sell biryani off a hand cart. But it is also true that in all of Lucknow, you will find that paye ki biryani (biryani made with buffalo trotters) can be had only from our cart. We serve paye ki biryani only on Sundays. Our style of preparing bade ki (buffalo beef) biryani also unique.
Actually, the dish should be called a yakhni pulao but very few understand the distinction between a pulao and a biryani these days. Biryani and pulao are made on order as well. Sometimes we get an order for a custom-made biryani late in the evening. But we know that the honour of our customer is at stake, and we ourselves will lose face if we can’t deliver. We get to work and deliver the order in an hour or two.” Imtiaaz is celebrated for this approach to his customers throughout the town. “Just don’t ask us for paye ki biryani at two hour’s notice—for that, you must give us the time that the dish requires!”
4. Idris Biryani
Abu Baqr states: “I cook with good intentions and have always kept to the path shown by Allah and his Prophets. I cook the food, Allah adds taste to it. This business earned its fame because of my father Mohammad Idris and Allah’s will. I am but a seeker of skill, and as I learn something new every day, I am a student as well; but after all I am only human and not an infallible angel. I am but dust and will return to Lucknow’s dust.
Idrees Biryani (2022)Lucknow Bioscope
My father started this business in 1968. Our family is originally from the qasba (a very small town) Mohaan. The poet and freedom fighter Hasrat Mohani was my father’s uncle. Haji Raheem was also related to him and was his mentor. My father worked at his place for 25 years before he sought his permission to start his own business. I have been in charge of the business for the past 35-40 years.
Many people now say Lucknow biryani means Idris Biryani! Actually, what we cook here is yakhni pulao. Allah’s bounty remains the same—the same rice, the same mutton, it is what we make of it. The difference lies in the way one cooks rice. It can be plain boiled rice, rice tempered with cumin seeds, rice cooked with lentils as khichdi, rice cooked with spices as tahiri, as pulao with green peas, as pulao cooked in a meat broth and as biryani layered with meat. They are all different rice dishes. In my father’s time, we used to eat rotis(flatbread) made from diverse kinds of flour: bajra (pearl millet), jowar ( great millet), makka (corn) along with qorma and murgh musallam.
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These are hard times. I have myself observed that one person is enjoying the food in the shop while another can only look at the food longingly because he cannot afford it . In my father’s time, I used to buy tender mutton for Rs. 17 a kilo, basmati rice from Haldwani at Rs. 3 a kilo and spices and condiments for Rs. 10-20. Mutton of the same quality costs Rs.500-600 a kilo.
Even online orders show a preference for ‘low fat’ food. I sometimes feel I should tell them that a person who eats fat-free food will not have a charming face! My son Hammad manages the business now”.
Jio Raja Biryani
Jio Raja Biryani is famous for their paye ki biryani. Twenty eight year old Amir, the current owner, lets us know that the business was established during his great grandfather’s time, passing on to his grandfather and later on his father Sadir, also known as Jio Raja, inherited his father's business. The venture started as a small cart in the Bakra Mandi, then moved onto Nakkhas and then Nixon Market. Finally they moved to Lalbagh and this has been their place of business for many years now.
Regular biryani is sold every day of the week, and the special paye ki biryani is set up only on TTSS (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday). A quarter plate of biryani in his father’s time cost Rs 20, the same costs Rs 40 now.
Amir has tremendous respect for his craft and fondly recalls how his father insisted on teaching him to cook biryani himself. The preparation of the biryani starts in the morning and the meat is cooked for a good eight hours to really instill the zaykaa (taste). He reaches Lalbagh at 9 pm and the 10-12 kgs of biryani is sold out before the night is over. In a moment of warm conversation, Amir tells us how after his father passed away in November, 2021 and the responsibility of the family and the business fell upon him. He smiles and talks about how he's ever so grateful to be diligently working for his family. His family lives in Pulao Wali Gali and is involved in the cooking of the biryani.
