It was 13th May, 1856. A steamer came ashore at Bichali Ghat near Metiabruz in Calcutta (present Kolkata) and landed the eleventh and the last King of Awadh, Abul-Mansur Mirza Wajid Ali Shah (also known as the Nawab of Awadh) along with his khansamas and bawarchis. He had fled from Lucknow after losing his Kingdom to the British. It is then that a distinctive style of biryani was introduced from the kitchen of this Lucknowi Nawab which eventually became famous as The Calcutta Biryani.
It is said that golden fried potatoes were used instead of meat as the poor couldn’t afford meat and still now potatoes are used giving it a unique flavour with infusion of light spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, mace along with cloves and cardamom in the curd-based marinade of the meat, which is cooked separately from rice. This combination of spices with a few strands of saffron and a dash of rose water not only gives it a distinct flavour but also a rich aroma compared to other styles of biryani.
Now coming to The Shiraz Golden Restaurant, mononymously known and famous as Shiraz was established in 1941 by Mohammed Arshad Ali and Ali Hussain at 56 Park Street. In 1972 one Shamshuddin Bawarchi had joined the restaurant as a cook, and introduced a new recipe of preparing biryani. One of the ancestors of Shamsuddin was a cook of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. It is said that since Shamshuddin Bawarchi’s joining, Shiraz has never looked back till date and now has quite a few outlets in Kolkata & around and also one in Dubai.
During my recent visit to Kolkata, I had made sure to not miss this vintage (to me atleast) restaurant and its famous Biryani and keeping the ongoing crisis (pandemic) in mind and maintaining all the precautions I finally managed to enjoy the scrumptious Biryani along with another delectable dish, the Rezala. Cheers.
(with inputs from Wikipedia and Ei Samay)
Chicken Rezala
