Hyderabadi touch to Parsi bistro

When Sodabottleopenerwala, the Bombay Irani café modeled restaurant launched in the city, one did pine for authentic Hyderabadi dishes on the menu. True blue blooded Hyderabadis that the owners Shaaz and Shiraz are; the duo didn’t take too long to include Hyderabadi menu at SBOW.

And this they did with all the passion that it takes – long process that included research, revisiting menus from old Hyderabadi households including those from their own homes, trying and testing until they got it exactly right. And then, with great aplomb, they launched the Hyderabadi menu.

The newly launched Hyderabadi menu at SodaBottleOpenerWala (SBOW) has three sections, bakery, specials and desserts. The bakery in addition to Osmania biscuits, includes Chand, Shatranj and Badam biscuits and Dilpasand puffs, Sheermal and Munshi nan.

Hyderabadi Specials includes Varqi lukhmi – the spicy vegetarian and the classic mutton varieties. Marag – the flavourful thick chicken soup is usually made at homes and weddings unlike the lamb soup – nihari, which has gained quite a commercial value and is available at many nooks and corners in the old city.

SBOW has on the menu a pretty robust marag and the nihari in its paya and zabaan variants. As Shiraaz mentioned, making Hyderabadi khaana is quite a laborious process – time consuming, meticulous and involves slow cooking that needs oodles of patience, and hence is not usually available in restaurants, except for a few Irani cafes and joints in and near Charminar.

Including authentic Hyderabadi hence is a bold attempt and this SBOW has done well by including the ever-so-popular home styled kaddu ka dalcha and bagara khana, khatti dal, bagara baingan and dum ka murgh.

Thankfully the right balance of khatta and theekha (sour and chilli) that is the signature of Hyderabadi is retained; which unfortunately has otherwise transformed into myriad forms over the time in Hyderabad. The Tali Hui Arbi and ghost (simple deep-fried dishes made using basic spices) are amazingly crisp and just the way they need to be.

The menu, of course, has Dum ki Biryani and Haleem – a home-cooked version made using wheat barley, lentil– hot, creamy and hearty, and not overtly spicy that makes you unlearn and unwind the taste buds that are, otherwise used to the popular variety you usually get during Ramzan.

On the dessert menu is the Qoobani ka meetha (the omnipresent apricot sweet) and kulfi falooda that is reconstructed to be served innovatively.