Biryani, Dosa, Two Of India’s Most Ordered Foods In 2021: Zomato

It wasn’t an easy year for most of us, oscillating between hope and despair. The second wave took a massive toll on our healthcare system, but the roll out vaccines did bring some cheer. Social distancing and WFH became a norm, and food remained a constant source of happiness. Whether you were ordering in or cooking everything from scratch, the only thing that kept you from focusing on the mayhem outside was food. In its yearly round-up, Zomato, a leading food delivery app said that Biryani and Dosas were two of the most ordered foods in the year gone by and are we even surprised? 

On their social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter, Zomato did the 2021 meme rewind, and in their signature, witty style revealed “a little bit about how India ordered”. 

Biryani was India’s top-most preference when it came to ordering in. “We delivered ~2 biryanis EVERY SECOND”, Zomato noted. Dosa happened to be India’s second most ordered dish on their app at 8.8 million+ orders.  

There were plenty of other interesting revelations too, for instance, Paneer-Butter Masala and Butter Naan were ordered more than 1.1 million times, together. More than a crore craved and ordered for momos, while there were a total of 7,297,152 who were identified as ‘samosa lovers’ by the app and 3,157,424 ‘vada pav lovers’.  

Interestingly, earlier this month, even Swiggy reported Biryani to be the most ordered item for six years in a row. And the cities that loved their biryani most were Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Lucknow. So, what is it about Biryani that spells magic beyond boundaries? It is tough to tell. It is rich, robust, and yet a beloved comfort food of millions. Biryani is traditionally touted to be a spicy one-pot meal of rice and meat, which is often topped off with caramelized onions. But off late, we have witnessed many renditions of the rice dish. Kathal Biryani, Paneer Biryani are a few of the popular veg biryani options that seem to have found a loyal fan base of their own. 

If you are trying to make restaurant-like biryani at home and failing miserably, here’s a recipe that will surely come to your rescue. 

Now, coming to the second most ordered dish on Zomato’s list, Dosa. Dosa is a humble crepe-dish from South India. Like Biryani, Dosa also have many avatars, it could be paper-thin and crisp, or slightly thicker and stuffed. There could be a great deal of variance in the batter too, some can be made with lentils, some with rice, some with poha, some with all them combined. The fermented dish is usually combined with a Sambhar (a South Indian lentil-based vegetarian stew) or chutney. Here’s our most favourite Mysore Masala Dosa recipe, that you can try making for a restaurant-like experience.