Karnataka - Bidar   

A month of gastronomic delights

Rishikesh Bahadur Desai

PALATABLE FARE: People queuing up before push carts at Iftar during Ramzan in Bidar.

BIDAR: Ramzan is the holy month of fasting. It is also the month of delicious food items. Various kinds of dishes, sweets, and health drinks are prepared and sold at the old fort city of Bidar every evening, as the believers break their fast.

Apart from hotels and restaurants, many make shift eateries on push carts also open up during this month.

They are found lining up side by side from Basaveshwar Chowk on Bidar-Hyderabad road to Choubarah Masjid inside the fort city. The food is fresh and hot at Iftar, the time to break the fast. ``Keeping your dishes by Iftar is the most important thing about doing business in Ramzan. If you are early or late, you lose customers,'' says Zaffer Abdulla, who has been selling ``dahi wada'' for the past ten years during Ramzan.

``Dahi wada is among the most popular dishes consumed during Bidar, unlike other parts of the state where ``samosas'' are preferred.

However, some prefer ``pattis''. A rich and nutritious sweet, ``Shahi Meetha,'' which was considered to be the personal favourite of the Nizam of Hyderabad, is made from deep fried flour dipped for hours in concentrated sugar.

However, ``Harees'' is considered the most nutritious food. One cannot miss ``biriyani'' during Ramzan. It is the staple food for many. It doubles as dinner too.

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A month of gastronomic delights

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