The Guide went in search of the best Iftar food being dished out from home catering services around town and got an opportunity to feast on Mughlai, Peshawari, Middle Eastern and Kutchi Memon cuisines

Last year, during the holy month of Ramadan, The Guide had gone in search of the best street food to be had during Iftar. While we discovered gooey Haleem, spicy kheema samosas, juicy seekh kebabs, handis of fragrant biryani and Shahi Tukda, we never thought our hunt for home cooked Iftar food would lead to a gastronomic mapping of the different strains of Islamic cuisine in India.


A Middle Eastern Iftar spread prepared byu00a0 Mahajabeen Sheikh
(Clockwise from right): Sambusak, Basbousa, dates, porridge,
Ba'shamel and Tabouleh.

Who knew that delicious, non-greasy, mutton mince or cheese-filled Middle Eastern sambusaks could be found in a Kamanahalli neighbourhood or a fragrant, Yakhni biryani cooked in mutton stock was waiting for us in an Indiranagar home and a kheema, egg and vegetable stuffed puffed pastry called Madina Roti, a Kutchi Memon speciality, was just a phone call away.

Biryani finds a fitting home in Indiranagar
The most persistent request Azra Sidhan, an Indiranagar-based fashion designer, has ever received from friends and family during get-togethers is 'Biryani Chahiye'. "I have been cooking for the last 27 years. And the request has been uniform at parties, birthdays and any family gathering. People always want me to cook biryani," says Azra. On her

daughter's insistence, Azra recently decided to take that plunge and turn into a food entrepreneur catering eight to ten varieties of biryani along with raita. Named after her daughter's nickname, Tona's The Biryani Place not only makes chicken and mutton variations of the basic biryani or the several layered Mughlai version but also a richer Yakhni style. Seer fish and prawns fried in a spicy green masala made of spring onions also partner fragrant basmati rice in the form of Fish Biryani. However, the biryani that is much in demand and a conversation starter at parties, according to Azra, is definitely her Yakhni Mutton Biryani which she learnt from her mother, a native of Peshawar. Chunks of goat meat (the rann or the shank portion of the animal) are cooked along with rice in a mutton stock. The spices and condiments are tied up in muslin cloth potli to make the rice fragrant while cooking.

What you get (we did manage to wolf down two huge servings of it) is every grain of rice coated with juicy, meaty flavours, garnished with caramelised and golden fried onions and fresh coriander. The dish wasn't spicy but came with a kick of freshly ground black pepper. The meat had been cooked off the bone and melted in our mouths, the fried onions adding a sweet note to the dish. Use your hands to polish off this meal. The meaty flavoured potatoesu00a0 in the dish were an additional delight.

Where Tona's The Biryani Place, 3rd Cross, Indiranagar
Call 9880181144
For A minimum order of four servings, Chicken Biryani R 150, Mutton Mughlai Biryani R 200, Yakhni Mutton Biryani R 250 and Fish Biryani R 275 onwards
A six to eight hour advance notice is required.