Are you game for some Ramadan biryani?

As the Ramadan month draws to a close, everyone starts cozying up to their Muslim friends with the hope of getting invited for Eid-ul-Fitr lunch, or at least that they would be given a tiffin box full of mouth-watering biryani made at home.

However, traditions are making way for convenience. From a time when the women of the house spent all day cooking up a feast for the entire family, bulk bookings of biryani are the order of the day. Khalida Nihal, a software engineer, said, “Biryani is the quintessential dish of Eid. It is easier for us to just order a couple of kilos of biryani, as everyone in my family is working. Many others are also doing the same.”

She added that some families still hired cooks to come and prepare biryani at home, but now there is not enough time or space around the house. “That too takes some effort; to supervise and buy all the ingredients needed is a difficult task. Anyway, the festival sweets are still made at home,” Khalida says.

Several biryani centres closed their bulk booking orders on Sunday morning, citing heavy orders. “On Monday, packet biryani will be available, but we are not taking any more orders,” said the salesman of a biryani shop in Kilpauk. Other shops too declined bulk orders as they had already taken up the maximum possible quantity they could produce.

The smaller shops that normally serve only chicken biryani have planned to include mutton biryani on the menu. A popular biryani shop on the Perambur Barracks Road stretch has planned to cut down on the usual boiled egg and sweet that comes with a packet of biryani on the normal days. “The demand will be more, and we will have more quantity of mutton biryani than chicken biryani. It is mostly for those who are away from home and staying alone; they too will want a taste of Ramadan,” said the manager of the shop. While several of the bigger restaurants organised special Iftar menus as devotees broke their fast every evening, there seems to be no big buzz for the Eid feast. Ramesh, the manager of a restaurant on Casa Major Road, attributed this to the fact that it is a family-centric festival, where everyone visits relatives and share food.