Why Mughlai food is the most royal amongst delicacies

Mughlai cuisines have thrilled palettes all over the world. Although, there have been amazing empires all over the world, Mughals always stood out because of their love for art, architecture and food. And just like their lavish lifestyle, their meals were sumptuous, to say the least. The royal looking Mughlai dishes taste much like what an emperor would have on his table. Masalas, oils and colour add to the dishes’ grandeur. There won’t be a single foodie in the world who has eaten biryani, murgh musallam, kebab, rogan josht etc and not got hooked to them.

The display of the royalty in the food has toned down a bit. In the peak of the Mughal era, cuisines were made to look lavish, colourful and fragrant and it was eaten with proper respect and table manners. Decorating the food was also seen as a nutritional benefit on the advice of the royal physician. For example, the royal biryani had each of its grain of rice coated with silver oil, because silver aids digestion along with acting as an aphrodisiac. Even the best restaurants in Delhi now are unable to match that level of grandeur.

Mughlai food turned out so well because it infused the best of many cultures including Iranian, Persian, Afghani, Kashmiri and Punjabi. The cuisines are not only non-vegetarian though as some emperors even liked vegetarian food. For example Akbar ate vegetarian three days in a week and Aurangzeb was an out and out vegetarian though he did fancy his occasional mega-biryani, as it is referred to by the historians. Being the national capital, Delhi’s food was influenced by a lot of cultures. Although, North Indian cuisine in Delhi remains the favourite of every one mainly because of its Mughal background. So hurry up and order, it’s time to feast like a king. 

The North-South combo!

I am a ‘mixed breed’ as my friends call me. That’s because I have a Punjabi mom and a Malayali dad. I am the by-product of cultural diversity in India and I have experienced a lot of such ‘diverse’ things right form my childhood. I have been brought up in Delhi, so I must say that I have its influence slightly more than the southern corner of our country. But apart from that I have always encountered the best of both!

For instance, language has been one of significant things of my life. I know Punjabi from my mom’s family and Delhi has always been my teacher when it came to the accent of authentic Punjabi language. Also, I acquired the knowledge of Malayalam from my grandparents who lived with us and dad who wanted me to be fluent in his mother tongue as well!

So I used to be a wonder kid back in school who knew Hindi, Punjabi, Malayalam and English! Even I never realized how I picked up so many dialects, accents and dictions!

The next inevitable point that I must mention is food. Breakfasts were never boring as I would either get aloo paratha or dosa and the likes. Although I have been exposed to North Indian food in Delhi more, I am equally attached to South Indian cuisine.

We have explored the best restaurants in Delhi serving both North and South Indian cuisine! I am at times surprised at my undivided love for both idli and chole kulche at the same time!

Festivals were the best part of my upbringing into a culturally ‘mismatched’ family like this. Pongal used to be so much fun! And Diwali was just as grand!

The best thing is I never realized while I was growing up that I was imbibing two different cultures together which otherwise the society considers ‘impossible’. Everyone creates ‘norms’ but few realize that there is an inexplicable peace (and joy) beyond that.