Golden yellow mutton biryani, made with long-grained fragrant rice, lightly spiced with cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, ginger, garlic and more, rich with pieces of tender mutton cooked just right, and garnished with fried cashew nuts, plump raisins, coriander and mint leaves, is a perennial favourite of residents in Thiruvananthapuram. Right in the middle of the biryani would be a boiled egg.
Served with a not-too-sour raita of finely sliced onion, tomato and green chilli, coconut chutney, lime pickle or date pickle and lots of pappadam, the aromatic biryani, cooked with generous dollops of ghee or coconut oil, would disappear in minutes. This was the biryani that used to be served in most upmarket and small restaurants, and eateries in erstwhile Travancore, which included places such as Nagercoil, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam Alappuzha, and Kottayam. The culinary tradition continued even after Trivandrum became Thiruvananthapuram.
So, for many who grew up in Thiruvananthapuram before the noughties, this was the aromatic biryani that whetted their appetite for more biryani. Over the last decade, there has been a profusion of restaurants serving versions of Thalassery and Malabar biryani cooked with small-grained kaima rice or jeerakashala rice. Well-known restaurants and popular eateries in Thiruvananthapuram switched to this rice for biryani. And the dish was no longer the same for gourmets.
