Dishes

Hyderabadi kachchi dum biryaniకచ్చి బిర్యానీVegetarian and non-vegetarianMain

Raw mutton marinated in yoghurt, papaya, fried onion, mint and green chilli, layered under parboiled basmati, sealed with dough and finished over a slow fire so meat and rice come to doneness together. Served with mirchi ka salan and a thin dahi chutney, which are not garnishes — the salan supplies the sourness the rice deliberately lacks.

Where to try: Shadab at Ghansi Bazaar, Bawarchi at RTC Crossroads, Cafe Bahar at Basheerbagh.

Hyderabadi haleemNon-vegetarianRamzan evening

Wheat, lentils and mutton pounded in a deg for hours into a single shredded paste, finished with fried onion, lime, mint and ghee. It is a Ramzan food and largely disappears for the other eleven months. It holds a geographical indication registered in 2010 — the first non-vegetarian dish in India to get one.

Where to try: Shah Ghouse and Pista House during Ramzan; hundreds of street degs across the old city.

Sarva pindiసర్వ పిండిVegetarianBreakfast

A thick savoury pancake of rice flour with soaked chana dal, peanuts, sesame, curry leaf and green chilli, pressed by hand into a cold pan, holed with a finger and cooked slowly until the base is crisp and the interior set. Also called ginnappa. Made on a Sunday or a festival because it takes an hour.

Jonna rotte and sajja rotteVegetarianBread

Sorghum or pearl-millet flour worked with hot water and patted flat between the palms on a wet cloth, then cooked on a griddle. There is no gluten to hold it, so the shaping is entirely a hand skill and the bread must be eaten within the hour.

SakinaluసకినాలుVegetarianSnack

Rice-flour dough seasoned with ajwain and sesame, piped by hand into a flat concentric spiral and deep fried. Made in quantity at Sankranti by groups of women working together, because one person cannot pipe and fry at the same rate.

AmbaliVegetarianEveryday drink

A cold soured millet gruel drunk from a tumbler in the fields through summer, often with buttermilk, salt and raw onion. The plateau's answer to a hot morning and no time to cook.

Pachi pulusuVegetarianAccompaniment

Literally raw broth — tamarind extract, raw onion, green chilli and salt, with a tempering poured over and no cooking at all. Eaten over rice or jonna rotte in the hottest weeks.

Gongura pachadiVegetarianAccompaniment

Roselle leaf wilted in oil and pounded in a rolu with dried chilli and garlic until it is a coarse dark paste. Sour enough on its own that it needs no tamarind, and it keeps for weeks under oil.

Kandi podi and karam podiVegetarianEveryday

Dry powders — roasted redgram with chilli and garlic, or chilli with cumin and salt — eaten with a spoonful of oil or ghee over rice or roti. In a household with no vegetables in the house they are the meal, not the seasoning.

Natu kodi pulusu and golichina mamsamNon-vegetarianMain

Country chicken simmered long in a tamarind and pounded-chilli gravy; and mutton cooked down dry with onion and chilli until the fat renders and coats it. Both assume a lean, tough animal that needs time.

Mirchi ka salan and bagara bainganVegetarianMain

Long green chillies, or small brinjals, in a thick gravy of roasted sesame, peanut, coconut and tamarind. The salan exists to sit beside biryani; the baingan is the same gravy given a vegetable that will absorb it.

Dalcha and khatti dalVegetarian and non-vegetarianMain

Bottle gourd and mutton bone cooked into chana dal and soured hard with tamarind; and its vegetarian cousin, a thin sour dal eaten with plain rice. The everyday food of the old city, and the dish that shows the Deccani kitchen using tamarind the way the villages do.

Maleeda and sattu pindiVegetarianFestival offering

Wheat or jowar roti crumbled with jaggery and ghee, and roasted-gram flour worked with jaggery. Made as the naivedyam for Bathukamma and handed round among the women at the end of the evening.

Boti and talakaya kuraNon-vegetarianMain

Offal and goat's head cooked with heavy spice — the parts of the animal a village slaughter produces once and cannot store, so they are eaten first and fast.

Double ka meetha and qubani ka meethaVegetarianDessert

Fried bread soaked in reduced saffron milk, and dried Turkish apricots stewed to a dark syrup and served with cream. The apricot is imported, and always has been; it is the clearest ingredient trace of the city's Persianate supply line.

Irani chai and Osmania biscuitVegetarianAll day

Tea decoction and a separately reduced milk combined at the counter, drunk in a small cup with a biscuit that is salted and sweet at once and designed to hold together when dunked. The Irani cafés that serve it are an institution of the city, not a food fashion.

Where to try: Nimrah Cafe by the Charminar; Subhan and Karachi bakeries for the biscuit itself.