Irani
chai is one of the most flavorful and delicious chai recipe that has been
gifted to India from the people of Persia. Slowly and gradually it has taken the
form of Indian Attire and is now one of the most popular local products of
Hyderabad.
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| Irani Chai In Nimrah Café |
Chai is mostly served with Irani Samosa or Osmania Biscuits which are another
specialty of Hyderabad. The color is a very special brown and the
taste sweet and of this thick brew. Very different from the ordinary chai cupp
!
After pearls and Biryani and yes of
course Charminar, something that is synonymous with the city of Hyderabad is
the Irani Chai. Take a tour of any part of the city and you will see people
sipping cups of hot creamy Irani Chai.
Be it morning or afternoon or evening or
night, Hyderabadis can be seen gathering around any Chai stall having their
never ending discussion over cups and cups of Irani Chai.
What is so special about this Tea Recipe?
Just
like Dum Biryani which is most commonly known as Hyderabadi Biryani, this tea
follows the same cooking process like the biryani. It is also known as “Dum
Chai”. Slowly brewed spices give the tea a nice flavour. Irani cafés are the places where one could
feel free to sit for hours and share or discuss things in a bindaas manner.
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| Iranii Chai |
Nimrah
Café and Bakery at the crowded Old City, which opened its doors for chai lovers
in 1993, right next to the iconic monument, Charminar, has turned a tourist
destination. Indeed, Nimrah has also become a photo shoot spot under the
historical monument for tech-savvy people.
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| Nimrah Café & Bakery |
One’s trip to Charminar never gets
complete without sipping an Irani chai at Nimrah Café and Bakery. Nimrah Café is the
first choice to treat myself with a cupp of Irani Chaii and a couple of Osmania
Biscuits, before a heritage walk to start around Charminar. Tea is priced at 12
Rs and 2 Osmania biscuits at 5 Rs. Pretty Cheap!
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| Making OF Irani Chai |
chai always tempted my travelling of Hyderabad. Whenever we are in Hyderabad,
we don’t miss loitering around the iconic monument, Charminar and a sip of
Irani chai at Nimrah.
The
tables inside and outside Nimrah will be filled with chai cups and a plate full
of Osmania biscuits from the time it rolls up its shutters at 4 am. Despite the
fact that hundreds of eateries continue to exist in and around Charminar.
It’s
good that they have kept a couple of tables outside for people to enjoy their
Chai with the iconic Charminar in the backdrop.
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| Charminar-Hyderabad |
Standing outside Nimrah Café with a cupp of
hot Irani Chaii in your hand, the sun rays hits the Charminar to bring it to
life. Lots of hustle and bustle around as road side shops are being set up. All
this with the Irani Chai is pure enjoyment.
If looking for the real taste of hyderabadi
life, don’t go visiting luxury hotels and restaurants but to the road side
stalls and eateries selling out some most authentic and delicious delicacies of
the city.
Source of Irani chai
Persian
immigration to India dates back at least 1,300 years when followers of the
Prophet Zarathustra, also known as Zoroastrians, settled here to escape
religious atrocities from the Arab invaders into Persia.
A
steady trickle of Zoroastrians and later Iranian Shia Muslims continued into
India during Mughal and then British rule. India remains the largest Migration
heaven, for Parsis, as they are known here, and Iranian Zoroastrian community,
outside Iran.
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| Irani Chai with Osmania Biscuit |
By
the beginning of the 20th century, Irani cafes had sprung up on almost every
prominent street corner in Bombay, Pune and Hyderabad becoming a symbol both of
Iranian cultural integration and distinctiveness.
Families,
during the nizam era, hardly visited any hotels. Eating out was not then part
of the Hyderabadi culture. This changed when students, who went to European
countries for higher studies, returned to the city and found the Irani cafes an
apt spot to spend some time sipping tea and lighting a cigarette.
Over time, students, intellectuals,
activists- all made the Irani cafe their hangout place. The cafes also had Urdu
newspapers. The elders would scan the paper in the morning and the lazier
younger generation would read them in the evening.
Origin of Osmania biscuits
According
to historian Arvind Acharya, the Osmania biscuits have originated in the 1920s
when the then Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, started to show his delight with them.
Prior to then, the biscuit of Hyderabad was a salty biscuit, almost like the
shortbread biscuits one sees in England.
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| Osmania Biscuit |
Reportedly,
the shortbread was Indianized with salt, and when Mir Osman Ali Khan liked them
a little sweet-and-salty, they were made for him, and given the name Osmania
biscuit.
Be
it an early-morning newspaper session, an official gathering or a casual
get-together, a sip of Irani chai and a bite of Osmania biscuit used to add the
final touch and perk up Hyderabadis’ mood.
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| Irani Chai,Osmania Biscuit,Nimrah Cafe and Charminar-Hyderabad |
Which
Hyderabadi would forget terms like ‘Pauna’ (which means quarter extra milk),
‘Pani kam’ (less water, hence stronger), ‘Malai Markey’ (with a dash of cream
on the top), ‘Sulemani’ (a sweet-sour tea made from black tea), Cutting chai
(half the quantity served at half price) and ‘Khade chamach ki chai’ (it has so
much sugar that the spoon can stand straight in the middle of the cup), are
some of the variants of Hyderabadi Irani chai.
From
a college-going student to an elderly person, a daily wager to a government or
a private employee, Irani cafés would be flocked with people sipping chai,
roaring with laughter, chit-chatting, sharing gossip, pouring over a newspaper
or merely sitting and enjoying a pleasant time.
Specialty Of This Irani Chai
The specialty of the chai lies in the
fact that it is not made solely from milk. A bit of condensed milk is added to
the mix, and the tea is prepared like a coffee concentrate, without letting the
vapors escape from the vessel in which it is prepared. The key to balancing the
taste perfectly is to not mix the tea and the milk during preparation, but only
when it is served.
The
typical accompaniment of Iranii chai is the famous Osmania biscuits, which reflect
the royal heritage of Hyderabad, or the lukmi, which is the local variant of a
samosa. The tea is often called 90ml tea, is an allusion to its standard
volume.
Brun
Maska is what the Persians traditionally ate with the Irani chai. It is butter
coated bread that is dipped in the sweet blend to give a salty-sweet taste.
“Ek Garam chai ki pyali ho”.
Tea is India’s most favorite beverage and most of the tea lovers will agree on
the point that nothing compares, a cup of hot masala tea for ever mood and
weather. Tea is so famous that there are numerous songs written on it, so you
can well understand the love of masala chai. It is this love that has compelled
us to list the beat masala tea serving cafes in the city.
The End
Now read it
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