Hyderabad: City’s food streets lure gastronomes with a wide variety during Ramzan month

Roadside stalls that come up across the city during the holy month offer tempting season’s special dishes including haleem, mandi, biryani, kebabs and a range of desserts

Hyderabad: Come Ramzan, and several places across the city turn into food streets offering the tempting season’s special food for a full one month.

The Errakunta road on the Srisailam Highway is popular for its mandi restaurants. Over a dozen big restaurants located here offer the ‘Arabian mandi’, prepared with rice, meat, spices like saffron and nutmeg, and pine nuts, almonds and raisins.

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Mandi, a traditional dish that originated from the Hadhramaut region in Yemen, has taken the city by storm in the last few years and restaurants on the Barkas – Pahadi Shareef road prepare and sell it till late into the nights. After the meal, one can sip a cup of Arabian Qahwa or the Sulaimani tea.

The Upparpally road stretch at Rajendranagar blooms into another popular food street after dusk with around dozen restaurants and roadside eateries offering a wide range of menu. Biryani, kebabs, mandi, haleem and many more items are available here from late evening till the Sehri time. The place gained popularity for its connectivity to the IT Corridor from the eastern areas of LB Nagar, and Vanasthalipuram.

The Malakpet Printing Press Road is yet another popular destination for food lovers with popular offerings such as haleem and biryani, apart from a variety of kebabs, prawn biryani, and Afghani pulao. The roadside stalls offer the pathar ka gosht and desserts. The hotels conduct business till around 4 am and a huge crowd, particularly those staying in the eastern areas of the city, preferring the place after the Moosarambagh junction, which is known for its restaurants and temporary food stalls during Ramzan month.

Purani Haveli is one of the oldest ‘adda’ for food lovers looking for an early morning meal. Those planning a traditional sehri meal visit the stretch to have the traditional khichdi katha, kheema, gurda fry, and bheja. Apart from the regular biryani, nahari – paya is also available at the restaurants here. One also gets desserts such as kheer, qubani ka meetha, and double ka meetha here.

The Mahboob Subhani Chilla stretch near City College is another destination for food aficionados. It was at this place the popular ‘pathar ka gosht’ was introduced to the public during Ramzan, a few years ago. Over a dozen roadside stalls come up on the road during this holy month offering a variety of kebabs such as shami kebab, shikampuri kebab, jehangiri kebab, pathar ka gosht, and haramasala ka gosht.

At Shahalibanda, it’s a food mela every night. Scores of people visit the stretch to relish the haleem, biryani and zafrani chai. A variety of desserts are also sold here by different food caterers. One can also visit the lassi and faluda shop located near the Princess Esra Hospital to savour the summer drink.