Foodies observe Qatar Biriyani Month at Grand Gourmet in Wyndham Doha Hotel
Grand Gourmet in Wyndham Doha Hotel opened its doors to an intimate group of passionate foodies to experience the culinary treats of Chef Nikhil's delicious biryanis in the context of Qatar Biryani Month, organized by Urban Point and Qatar Living.
Everyone can enjoy Buy 1 Biryani Get 1 Free offers at Grand Gourmet Wyndham and several other restaurants across Qatar by downloading the Urban Point app, which is available on Android and IOS.
Three biryanis were served: mutton, chicken and fresh water fish, and mutton was my favorite, along with most others.
Chef Nikhil is originally from Kerala, and has many years of experience in preparing this culinary delight. He educated the group about the origins of biryani.
It turns out that the dish traces its roots to Iran and was adapted to local tastes across the South Asian continent since the 17th century. After this surprising fact, I did a little digging and found an interesting history of biryani:
The dish originated during the Mughal Empire when Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan's Queen, Mumtaz Mahal reportedly inspired the dish in the 1600's. On a visit to the Indian army barracks, she found the soldiers heavily undernourished. She requested the chef to prepare something that combined both meat and rice and provided a balance of rich nutrition and protein. What the chef created was biryani.
In those days, because of its connection to the royal courts of the Mughal Empire, biryani also stands out as a dish reserved for the most special of occasions. The Mughal Emperors were known to lavish in luxury, wealth and fine dining, and biryani became a perfect staple dish to suit.
Today, biryani has been very much adapted to individual and personal styles. Any Asian restaurant will serve it as one of their specialty dishes. Interestingly, you can tell a lot about the heritage and background of a person in the way they cook certain foods, and biryani is no different. Once a dish fit for royalty, it has most certainly become one of South Asia's most prized trademarks.
Since Qatar hosts so many different people, especially of South Asian origins, they bring this delicious dish with influences from all over, and it is only natural that one benefit of living here is that biryani is available in hundreds of different styles within a very small area.
For this reason, Urban Point has done the homework of finding the best restaurants in Qatar who offer delicious biryanis and, in the spirit of community and friendly competition, arranged for these restaurants to offer Buy 1 Biryani, Get 1 Free for the month of November.
The offer can be redeemed simply by downloading the Urban Point application on IOS and Android, and going to the restaurant to redeem the offers.
