#PulaoBiryaniDay marks Eid celebration in Indore

Recognising the need to celebrate the existence of Pulao and Biryani which are the most savoured dishes across the nation, a group of foodies marked 25^th June 2017 as #PulaoBiryaniDay. The social media was taken by storm on Sunday with food aficionados posting pictures of varieties of Biryani and Pulao on their social media handles across India. Amongst cities like Goa, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore etc.Indoreans too observed the day by coming together for a potluck supper. Amit Pamnani, a city based Chef who had invited foodies over for a potluck at his residence shares, “The idea behind the event was to showcase Indian food to the world. Internationally, people celebrate food days like World Cheesecake Day, World French Fries day, World Nutella Day, Cheeseburger Day etc. Similarly, Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal thought of marking Indian food days to pay tribute to foods, dishes and ingredients that are Indian. Following the suit we are trying to elevate Indian food to the same level. We already had a few food days in the past recently like Pickle Masala Day, where people came together and made pickles together. On Biryani day, we made biryani as per our styles, some were signature recipes of grandmothers and some tasted authentically like Mughlai Biryani.”

It was double the celebration as the day was observed on the onset of Eid and Biryani is synonymous to the festival. Food reviewer Belly Kanungo feels, “The day gave us a chance to soak-in the Eid spirit. Initially, we had thought of having a potluck but eventually it turned out to be an elaborate Eid celebration as we had mutton Biryanis, chicken Biryanis, egg and cheese Pulao, different types of Raitas - veg, cucumber and plain authentic Raita along with some onion salad from eight different kitchens. Each Biryani tasted different from one another. There was dum Biryani which had layers of rice, Masala chicken and toppings of Kesar rice and caramelised onions that tasted absolutely like an authentic Biryani of a Mughlai restaurant. There was mutton and chicken masala pulao-biryani that tasted perfectly like how we Indoris like to eat - full of spices and Masala.”
Food aficionado, Rakesh Dawani adds, “Though, there have been debates on the difference between Biryani and Pulao but one thing is common between both these irresistible dishes that they bind foodies together. The celebration was given a pause with a dollop of Sheer-Khurma.”

Indore has been seeing a lot of youngsters choosing to organise potluck dinners on occasions like Easters and even for Iftar. Shivam Anand, a 20 year old engineering student who replicated his grandma’s recipe to make egg-pulao for the day is of the opinion, “It is only because of potluck that we got to savour eight different kinds of Biryanis in a single day. Potlucks are fun and gives us ideas to experiment with different dishes in our kitchens. Indore is known for its food and such sessions are only taking the city forward as like-minded people get to meet under one roof and talk about food.”


For Satyajeet David, a city based chef, Biryani means "Celebrating - The Royal Way”. He shares, “A day dedicated and celebrated as #PulaoBiryaniDay in India is indeed very inspiring not only for Chefs but all foodies. I appreciate the thought to embark an occasion like this once in a year. It was a memorable experience being a part of this celebration in Indore where we relished different flavours of Biryanis and Pulao. I am looking forward to celebrating this day every year henceforth. We (food Connoisseurs of Indore) are in talking to come up with more such days to celebrate the essence of Indian food.”