Skip to main content

Hyderabad is all about eating till our stomach bursts!

The Biryani, Seetaphal icecream, Irani Chai

Rajinikanth took me out for lunch and treated me to some Nawabi delicacy, Hyderabadi dum biryani. I wanted to try at a local place and he took me. The tender meat, the flavour of spices, with a touch of masala, served with kebab and dhal. It was the feeling of satisfaction. If you want to know the value of food, feed a traveller. He bought me Seetaphal ice cream for dessert, which I wasn't a fan of at first but started liking the flavour of the fruit with the taste of milk.

Rishoo Mittal visited our home last year, through Couchsurfing. I remember taking him around Coorg, on the Jawa. Later, He referred me to Dom and Enoch who stayed at the homestay. Dom promised to buy me a Hyderabadi Biryani and Irani chai when I visited Hyderabad. We caught up in the evening for a lavish, full to the brim luxury restaurant dinner. Dom had Rotis with gravy while I and Enoch finished one mutton biryani each and ordered another. He managed to finish most of the second but I couldn't. I said I was too full when Enoch said, 'Do you know how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time'  and then Dom added some more jeera rice and I was done. I was so full, I just couldn't look at the plate and apologized for not being able to finish. 

The Irani chai! ”vaisa chai, zindagi me na piye miya”( I haven't tasted a tea like that my whole life). So rich and sweet, more like a dessert than a tea. Coming from a place where we drink chai to stay awake, this chai was a dessert, promising enough to put one to sleep. It had something like condensed milk or milkmaid making it taste out of the world. Promises being saved, they gave me a thumbs up to keep going. 

Dom had Irish and Chinese ancestry, was a corporate turned drummer, had his drumming studio in Hyderabad. He had a connection with Coorg too with one of his grandparents living near virajpet, a long time ago.

Enoch Joy, a combination of technology and brains, having a career with Facebook in the past, started his own company which didn't work out well. He now teaches core technology. All I can say is Big Brains with a passion for fishing and he was leaving on a fishing trip the next day. 

The next morning, I started towards Puri and Bhubaneshwar. Rajinikanth suggested a place called Papikondalu near Badrachalam. I was 60 kilometres away from Badrachalam where I had to take the deviation to Papikondalu. The place is an island, can be reached in a few hours on the boat. I stopped to check online and it said they allowed only on prior online booking which cost around three thousand rupees. I checked with people around, even they said the same. At that point, It was not affordable. I moved on.

I fell sick with a fever the next day. By now, I had lost most of my fat, was living with a routine of two meals a day and there was barely enough energy. The body felt weak, with pain through the spine from the bike's vibration. I camped at around 12 30 and slept in the hot sun. I was sweating so badly that my clothes got wet. Waking up in the evening, I made some porridge, ate and slept again. I could use the sleeping bag only when it was too cold, It heats up so much, there is no need for it in South India.  I was feeling a lot better when I woke up the next morning, luckily no body pain.  I packed up and rode ahead. 

Early ride, fit and fine, left the coast and took the forest. 

I was guided through Rajmundry and Vishakapatnam by the maps but I noticed a road parallel to it going through Jeypore in Odisha keeping me off the coast and highways. I changed the route to ride through rivers, mountains and agricultural lands.  Unlike Coorg where we fill up the paddy fields with water before planting, here the land is wide and flat and the water doesn't flow through the fields. The beautiful part is when it rains it fills up the place and these people simply plant rice wherever the land is wet. 

Odisha is one of the most beautiful states I've visited so far. Nature’s at its best. I found beautiful places to camp and nobody bothered. It has a distinct culture of its own and the people are a charm in the rural areas. They didn't mind sharing their space and mostly didn't even bother to come to enquire seeing me camped.



Rajinikanth at the Biryani house


A selfie with Enoch, Dom and myself after the mega dinner.


Like the blog? Then support the blogger

You can contribute through Phonepe @ 7259496378 ( Akarshan Devanand )

Or

Bank transfers can be made to

Federal Bank

Akarshan Devanand Bhagwan

Account number - 19310100012360

IFSC - FDRL0001931

Kushalnagar branch

---

Instagram

@Akarshandevanand

https://instagram.com/akarshandevanand?igshid=ZDdkNTZiNTM=

YouTube

https://youtube.com/user/TheAkarshan17

Thankful to them all, Thankful to the One! Much metta

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India - from divide and rule to divide and sell

The Indian politics loves the MNC'S over any Indian farmer feeding them to oversize.  A job valued 2 lakh in the USA is done at 1 lakh in India, where there is a about 20% to the Government, then a share in every penny spent out of the remaining 80%. The higher the pay scale, the higher the tax. The higher the income, expensive are the things you buy, the costlier the things you buy, the more you feed the system for free. All you trendy ladies and gentlemen in the cities feasting of the grains and veggies, the ones who grow can hardly afford a proper clothing. All oversized humans, enjoying the protein from cows and chickens. Do you know there is hardly one veterinary doctor for every 30 kilometres and every time an animal gets sick, it sufferers until someone reaches on time. Does anyone have any idea, what you are living on and what you are living for? Had any of them once opened the religious books of each other, this world would have been a much better place with a...
Post a Comment
Read more

La Sovereign De Himalayas - The cry of my soul was calmed with purity

As we left the Sadhu, we glided down the slopes enjoying the speed but for Dinakar he had to give himself some push whenever the cycle stopped. Turns out he parked the cycle in good condition at an ashram before going to Satopant and when he returned someone had broken a connecting part between the gear and frame. We planned to stay at the Gurudwara at Govind Ghat which we reached around 4 in the evening. Turns out Dinakar smoked too so while Ramesh rested we went out to have a smoke. Later that evening a Sadhu came and took a bed next to ours and joined in the conversation. That's when I heard the name Khagbasundi for the first time, Dinakar spoke about it before saying it was one of the toughest treks, both me and Ramesh were interested the moment he said it was one of the toughest treks. Ramesh watched a video and looked confident enough to do it. We had no clue about the distance or how many days we had to plan for but we knew we had to carry out groceries. After making sure we...
Post a Comment
Read more

A week in Dev Bhoomi, to realise Human body is a Miracle and people cannot be bought.

Chander Verma is a father of 3, a local resident of Munsyari. Having done various jobs in the past and now running the Mayank Homestay by himself, on lease at 3.5 lakh a year. The day I reached, I told him that he was paying way too much but he already made an agreement for 3 years. He did magic with his hands when it came to cooking though. No bad habits, would smoke a cigarette rarely if someone offers, humble and a neat gentleman. Lovely kids and a beautiful family, living life on what they could afford. He knew his expenses would gradually increase so I asked him to think wisely before he did anything. I had long conversations with him, numerous times during my stay. When I called him to discuss my bill he was kind enough to offer the room at 500 and dinner at 150, even suggested that I extend my stay till the roads ahead were open. I wasn't moving around much but had to be paying rent for my stay and took only 1 meal. Dinner. Survived the rest of the day with biscuits and tea ...
Post a Comment
Read more