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.
No comments:
Post a Comment