A restaurant in Pune has started Biryani battle on Twitter

Shikha Chaurasia

Pune, July 4, 2020: A restaurant in Pune named ‘Ancient Hyderabad’ has gone all out and put up a signboard and declared that any Biryani other than Hyderabadi Biryani will henceforth be known as Pulao. It has also gone to the extent of calling Biryani with potatoes as ‘batata wada’ rice. A user took this opportunity to share this on Twitter and this resulted in a Biryani war among netizens.

People, especially foodies are very sensitive about food. Many users were offended. There are all types of Biryani lovers. Some who are vegetarians, like veg Biryani. Some like egg Biryani and hardcore non-veg lovers like non-vegetarian Biryani and refuse to accept that any other form of Biryani can taste good. Some hardcore chicken/mutton Biryani lovers laugh on the faces of veg Biryani lovers and refer to veg Biryani as pulao.

Now comes the battle on Twitter where people belonging to different cities are getting offended if their version of Biryani is being ridiculed. Who knew that people could get so personal when it comes to food? Here are some tweets to explain how emotionally involved people can get when it comes to Biryani and their food. 

One user wrote, “Hyderabadi biryani is overrated, Lucknow biryani is a lot better.” Another user tweeted, “Dear Hyderabad, Pouring Mirchi ka Salan on your boiled rice and calling it Biryani tantamounts to crime against humanity. May as well pour ketchup while you are at it.” One user also went to the extent of calling Hyderabadi Biryani as another religion. 

Another user from South India tweeted, “I guess these guys still haven’t tasted the Dindigul Biryani Of Tamil Nadu made out of Seeraga Samba rice…Taste once then u will fall in love with it.” One user came to prompt about the biryani from Calcutta and wrote, “Hyderabadi biryani = spicy masala rice. Lucknow and Calcutta biryani= real deals.” 

A netizen got furious over this comment and said that Kolkata biryani doesn’t even come close to the Hyderabadi biryani and added further that Kolkata biryani is just made up of big fat potatoes. One user found the silver lining of humour amidst the Biryani war and said, “Amazing, Everybody is busy claiming their rights these days. This is biryani nationalism.” One user tweeted, “Awadh ka naam sune ho?aao kabhi haweli pe..!! Khilayenge Biryani!

Keeping this Twitter biryani war aside, the truth is, people belong to different cultures and societies where food is cooked authentically according to their preferences and ancestral cooking habits. That is why food preferences can differ drastically. Let’s just say that everyone should be able to freely choose and eat any type of biryani they like.