The battle of the biryanis
With Hyderabadi biryani gone to Telangana, Andhra Pradesh is pushing its own version of the dish,
If you are somebody who is familiar with the cuisines of South India, you will be aware of Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul biryani and Ambur biryani, Telangana’s Hyderabadi biryani and Kerala’s Moplah biryani. What is, however, missing from this list is the Bongu biryani, which comes from a part of Andhra Pradesh that borders Odisha.
The bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014 placed Hyderabad in Telangana. And with that, the newly created state came to, “own” Hyderabadi biryani. Determined not to let this culinary blow get it down, Andhra Pradesh is now working to prop up its own trademark biryani — the Bongu biryani.
Bongu biryani is a traditional speciality of Maredumilli in Andhra’s East Godavari district. It is cooked in bamboo shoots by the tribal and local residents of Araku valley, a hill station 115 km from Visakhapatnam, the port city of Andhra Pradesh. This is the same area that produces the famed Araku coffee which is today exported to countries like Switzerland, Italy and Sweden.
Stuffed in bamboo shoots, the Bongu biryani is cooked directly on flaming charcoal, which gives it its unique taste and characteristics. It is low in oil and cooked with natural ingredients, which is one of the selling points that the state government is highlighting to popularise the dish.
“Bongu biryani is prepared in a specific kind of bamboo that is available in the Araku valley. It has a certain diameter which allows for ingredients in the right measure to be stuffed into the bamboo,” says V Jayarami Reddy, chairman, Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC). “The bamboo has to be fresh when the biryani is cooked in it. The ingredients, too, have to be natural.”
APTDC is now training chefs from various restaurants — from local eateries to five-star hotels — on how to prepare the dish. One-day workshops are being organised to provide hands-on experience. The first batch of 30 chefs was trained in Tirupati, close to Tamil Nadu, and similar workshops will be held at Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, among other cities.
According to government data, tourists visiting the state spend nearly 40 per cent of their holiday budget on food and beverages. Last year, 163 million tourists visited the state. This number is growing at 14-15 per cent, the government estimates.
Local delicacies are one way of promoting tourism. And as the Hyderabadi biryani no longer qualifies as local delicacy, the government has, through the State Institute of Hotel Management, identified 30 unique recipes from various districts to be promoted as indigenous cuisine. The exercise will include documentation of the original recipe with help from the National Institute of Nutrition. Bongu chicken and Bongu biryani are among these recipes for which the government is also applying for geographical indication (GI), says APTDC managing director Himanshu Shukla.
In 2017, the Geographical Indications Registry had refused to grant a GI tag to Hyderabadi biryani on the grounds that the applicant, Connoisseurs of Deccani Biryani Makers Association, had failed to provide historical data of its origin. APTDC officials say they are taking no such chances with Bongu biryani and are preparing a strong case for GI.
“We have created a marketing plan to promote Bongu biryani and Bongu chicken,” says Shukla. This includes organising four food festivals every month at the state’s leading hotels, which will also be incentivised to include these dishes in their buffets. A master chef has been appointed to train chefs and the recipes will be part of the hotel management course.
State-wide cooking competitions centred around these delicacies will also be held. Television commercials and cookery programmes are also planned for November and December. As of now, ~5 million has been earmarked for this brand-building exercise.
The state, while it is pushing the biryani, is not looking to fix its price and has left that decision to individual restaurants. What it does hope, however, is that a tourist who spends around ~800 on food in a day, will shell out another ~100-200 on the Andhra speciality.