Biryani is close to almost all of the desi’s hearts. Be it Hyderabadi or Sindhi, Bombay, or Mughlai, Biryani remains sacred for Indians and Pakistanis with the same intensity. And when someone attacks Biryani, you see the archrivals uniting their efforts to call them out.
An event recently happened, which proved this point. Food 24, a South African publication excelling in food, took to Twitter what they called a Biryani recipe. The video showed a dish that had rice (check), chicken (check), potato (check), black lentils (?), non-golden onion (?). And it looked all gooey.
Yes, it did happen. Have a look at the video!
WATCH!
In celebration of Heritage month we've whipped up an easy-to-make, scrumptious biryani that'll have you coming back for seconds >> https://t.co/5oIFxD8P7H pic.twitter.com/bFA95EhXYE
— food24.com (@food24) September 30, 2020
1. And I am Shahrukh khan
Because we refuse to believe that such a dish can be called ‘any’ form of Biryani, so we can easily make such a claim.
If this is biryani, I'm the Queen of England.
— Mango Man Extraordinaire (@Mehdi_Mustafa) October 1, 2020
2. Biryani: Defining sacred
In this time, when everyone is living their way, we need to define sacred in clear terms. Because clearly, the internet needs it.
@marymood @Asma_KhanLDN @salihacooks. Look at what they’ve done. pic.twitter.com/es376gpl36
— ⚫️Henna Rai⚫️ (@henna_rai) October 1, 2020
3. Laaton kay bhoot
This one was plain hilarious now. The Pakistani touch? Well, we would like to correct it by calling it the brown touch.
The only Pakistani touch the cook needs is a good old fashioned, robust, ultay haath ka, kaan ke nechay, chapairr!
— Owais Siddiqui (@OwaisO) October 1, 2020
4. You don’t have to be a cook to know Biryani
Well, this scene told us we could never show the video to our moms. Because in the desi family, even a 3-year-old knows an onion is supposed to be fried golden.
My heart screamed at that point
— Fiona Lortan (@Fifistep) October 1, 2020
5. Cooking Biryani questions
ShivaniChandra13 was all business. Instead of lashing out or making fun of it, she posed the question. She asked, “Do none of these cooking videos ever actually ask a brown person how their food is made before posting these ridiculous versions?!”
I have a serious question. Do none of these cooking videos ever actually ask a brown person how their food is actually made before posting these ridiculous versions?!
— Shivani Chandra (@ShivaniChandr13) October 1, 2020
6. Should we curse them, though?
Well, well, cursing them with diarrhea with COVID going on does not seem very nice. So let’s not go there. But eating that would probably lead to it anyway…
i hope whoever came up with this recipe gets chronic diarrhea <3
— hoziers hoe🌈 (@la9at) October 1, 2020
7. In the end, a request…
In the five steps of grief, towards the end, a person is just exhausted. They lose all the energy to put up a fight. And that is what probably happened here. So this twitter user decides to keep it plain simple and easy. ‘Please delete this video, thank you.’ How simple can you go from here?
please delete this video. thank you.
— Mohammad Zaheer (@mzaheer88) October 1, 2020
Blunders do happen, we understand. But an error this significant which attacks the entire South Asian culture, is unacceptable. With the kind of response they received on Twitter, Food 24 realized their mistake and announced that they would remove the video from all other outlets. Later, they said that they would not delete the Twitter video for the sake of discussions. I mean, no wonder, did you see the retweets and comments desis made?
We’ve heard you. We got it wrong, and we’re sorry.
We will remove the video and would like to make a #BiryaniTogether — to all recipe developers and chefs who would like to work with us on a traditional recipe, please make contact with us and let’s do it #together.
— food24.com (@food24) October 1, 2020
They apologized, which is good. Hopefully, next time they decide to explore the heritage of any culture, they will ensure they corroborate the recipe with multiple sources.
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