Indians are touchy about food. And when it comes to biryani, the attitude is one of reverence and complete intolerance to any criticism of the dish. So when a South African cooking website got the recipe of biryani "shamefully" wrong in a viral video, all hell broke loose.
Food24.com, a popular food recipe channel in South Africa, recently shared a video recipe for making biryani oni ts website as well as social media handles. Made with generous helpings of diced potatoes, tomatoes, and other vegetables along with chicken and brown dal (lentils), the recipe did not pan out.
Despite the channel's use of desi ingredients like "garam masala", the recipe failed to get the royal dish right. And the resulting dish got roasted like no biryani ever should. Many pointed out that lentils were totally out of place in a biryani while others berated the chef's use of raw, un-fried onions to cook with the rice.
Definitely not a biryani as I know it... but the South Africans have a unique food culture and I’m not sure if this is their unique version...would have to ask a South African xx
— Saliha Mahmood Ahmed (@salihacooks) October 1, 2020
It's not Biryani. Stop playing eith our emotions. I have not seen anything more scary.
— Waqas Habib Rana (@waqas464) September 30, 2020
White people at @food24 : there is no such thing as bonelsss Biryani and this video isn’t biryani, it’s disgusting. Who cooks chicken in raw onion? At least take the time to make the onion slightly golden before you dump stuff to it. And no, no spices in rice. WHO IS YOUR CHEF??? https://t.co/OmNQXb8AsJ
— Alia Chughtai (@AliaChughtai) September 30, 2020
The part where they scoop it up with a poppadom made me throw up in my mouth https://t.co/swgllgOkQD
— dr nabila (@nmunawar) October 1, 2020
I think they're just wrong at naming ut biryani because its not Biryani. No one adds lentils and these much veggies in biryani. Its a different recipe for something else but not biryani at all.
— Faiza Khan (@faizakhan_) September 30, 2020
Are you sure this is not a improvisation on @webmd's tea recipe. This is closer to that tea than this is to Biryani.
— Amit Phansalkar (@asuph) October 1, 2020
Finally a biryani worse than Islamabad's https://t.co/JkjHmyzVlV
— Ibrahim (@IamIbrahimKhan) October 1, 2020
This is biryani. I’m not sure what that is. pic.twitter.com/HeNX3djMAd
— SophiaQ (@SophiaAQ) October 1, 2020
The original biryani is ashamed to see what you have done. Biryani in a le creuset pot, I knew it was downhill from there.
— Gems and Pearls (@GemsandPearls) October 1, 2020
that's not a biryani! pic.twitter.com/odQDXebjid
— senior africans (@comradesipho) October 1, 2020
I have never made this in my life but from the jump I knew this wasn’t it.
— Amicus Cutay (@TaylaPinto) October 1, 2020
The outrage and trolling was so much that Food 24 had to issue an actual to food lovers. "We’ve heard you. We got it wrong, and we’re sorry. We will remove the video and would like to make a biryani together?" the channel tweeted. T
We’ve heard you. We got it wrong, and we’re sorry. We will remove the video and would like to make a #BiryaniTogether -- to all recipe developers and chefs who would like to work with us on a traditional recipe, please make contact with us and let’s do it #together.
— food24.com (@food24) October 1, 2020
Biryani is a popular South Asian dish with many versions of it existing across the continent. In India itself, several versions of the delectable,slow-cooked rice delicacy exist, often competing for the crown of the "best" or "original" biriyani flavour. In West Bengal and Bihar, for instance, biriyani is made with potatoes while Hyderabadi biriyani uses an entirely different set of spices to flavour their rice sans the potato.
As per reports, Biriyani was the most ordered food amid the coronavirus lockdown in India. The "StatEATistics report: The Quarantine Edition" from the food delivery platform Swiggy found that Indians ordered biryani over "5.5 lakh times" from their favourite restaurants.