Rice v/s Amrohvis

I remember, since childhood whenever I suffered from a disease, the first thing every doctor/hakeem advised to be totally abstinent from rice. Although, due to my mother’s fondness, lunch for me only means rice. I have had best seasonal Khichdis, Tahiri, Pulao, Biryani and Dal-Chawal whole childhood. However it was a rule not to eat any form of rice in dinner except sometimes during Ramadhan.

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The point is, rice dishes are not considered a complete meal(You may not agree completely). Yes, I know how much everyone is fond of Biryani. But if you are invited for dinner and served only Biryani, its not considered good hospitality. It is believed eating rice in dinner makes you vulnerable to cough and cold. And also eating rice when you are sick is a completely no-no.

I used to blame Hakeems for this earlier. Recently, even a doctor advised my mother not to eat rice. She argued with the argument I have told her earlier that whole South India, Eastern India, Bihar, Eastern UP, and Kashmir eat rice for lunch and dinner both. The doctor replied, “It is a regional thing, they live on rice but if you start doing like them you will fall sick”. Hearing this I lost faith in Medical Sciences. :)

And its not just with Amroha it’s the same with whole Western UP and most of Delhi.

I think it is because we never combine rice with our heavenly gravies. Rice is always cooked as a separate single dish(e.g Khichdi, Biryani , Tahiri etc). We never combine plain boiled rice, like others, with separately cooked meat and vegetable(Dal is an exception). We need rotis or freshly baked naan with every gravy.

A simple test:

Imagine you are in Amroha. You are invited to dinner at wedding reception of a friend. There are two dishes on the menu: Naan Gosht and Biryani.

What will you choose?

Well, I go for Naan Gosht.

What about you?