A Nizami Menu

The Golconda Bowl and Charminar joined a short list of restaurants in Mumbai claiming to specialise in authentic Hyderabadi food,most notably the now defunct Hyderabad Spice in Oshiwara and the 10-year-old Nizam’s Heritage in Byculla. What has made the former two different is the fact that their claims of serving authentic Hyderabadi cuisine are justified.

While The Golconda Bowl has managed to infuse authentic flavour in most items on their menu,Charminar hits the mark with a few. Both have paid attention to detail — the former with utensils and cooking methods among others. “What most restaurants do with their ‘Hyderabadi biryani’ is that they cook the mutton separately and then the rice with the mutton,” says Janeshar Akhtar,head chef at The Golconda Bowl,Mumbai. “What we do with our biryani,nihari and haleem is slow cook it for eight to nine hours,” he adds.

This slow-cooking is one of the trademarks of traditional Hyderabadi cuisine.

In addition,all of their chefs are Hyderabadi and their cooking utensils and the masalas used in the food are from Hyderabad. “I went to Hyderabad to select our chefs and went through a very painstaking process of selecting each one individually,” says Chada.

Charminar,too,employs similar methods. “We have two chefs,one of whom is from Hyderabad and the other from Lucknow,” says Kalvert. “We also get our nihari masala from Hyderabad,” he adds.

Both offer all the usual specialities of the cuisine,such as mutton and chicken dum biryani and nihari. Charminar also serves bara handi (a gravy dish made by mixing 12 ingredients including meat,wheat and spices) and khichda (a coarsely ground mixture of pulses,wheat and meat),both of which are commendable.

The Golconda Bowl goes one step further with the authentic Hyderabadi experience by offering a variety of dishes that are traditionally made in Hyderabadi homes but almost never served in restaurants. On the menu are tamate gosht (mutton in thick tomato gravy),gosht dalcha (a gravy comprising meat,lentil and gourd) and bhindi gosht (okra and mutton in gravy).

The cuisine that goes back more than 400 years to the time when the Nizams ruled over the erstwhile Hyderabad state has achieved much popularity. It is almost impossible to find an Indian restaurant today that doesn’t have an item or two on its menu with the prefix ‘Hyderabadi’. But to find a biryani or a haleem that has the markings of authenticity remains a challenge.