HYDERABAD : The humble onion has been grabbing the headlines in the country for some time now because of its skyrocketing price. If not reduced to tears, people certainly do miss it when the raita has cucumbers only, and even well-known eateries in the city serve raw cucumber and lemon wedges with biryani instead of raw onions.
Although the prices have stabilised a bit now, it is still out of reach for many. A few are using it for the Sunday special dishes, and are waiting for the time they can make a Mutton Do Pyaaza without counting pennies.
The effect of the high prices has been noticed on one important component of the Hyderabadi biryani too – birista — those crispy, fried onions. Biryani does not taste like itself without liberal quantities of these crunchy onion slivers.
Since hotel owners cannot drop birista from biryani, they have started outsourcing it to cut down costs. This business move has been extra helpful in these times when the price of onions is shooting through the roof.
Manager at Nayaab Hotel in Old City, Omer Aziz, says: "We used to make birista at our hotel till a couple of years back, but found that buying it from dealers who exclusively deal in it is cheaper. Peeling onions and then cutting them fine needs a lot of manpower. During these times, when the price of onions is high, getting the birista from authorised dealers work well for us. Moreover, we choose our dealer only after we run various tests to see that they are supplying good product. Many other hotels in the city are now doing the same."
Syed Irfan from Deccan Birista, who supplies fried onions to 40 hotels in the city, says: “It takes 5-6 kg of raw onions to make 1 kg of birista. The weight of the product depends on the quality of raw onions — on whether they belong to old crop or new, or if they have less water content. Unlike the dehydrated birista from which all water is squeezed out, we retain 60 percent water content as we believe the latter offers better taste. Our product stays fresh for 3-4 months and is completely machine made.”
Explaining the economics behind manufacturing birista, he adds: “If the cost of onion is Rs 80 per kg, hotel owners need to spend around Rs 600 for every kg of birista, which includes oil, fuel, labour and transportation costs. Since we produce it on a large scale, I offer the same to them at Rs 200-250 per kilo.” Today, Deccan Birista supplies around 250-300 kg of birista every day, some of which go to other districts in Telangana as well.
Sajjad Merchant from Reza Foods, who gets it from Gujarat and sells in Hyderabad, says: “Gujarat exports dehydrated onions all over the world. When the price of onions is low, these companies in Gujarat buy onions, cut them and dehydrate them. Later, when the price of onions increases, they fry the dehydrated onions and sell them. We get this product here and supply around 300 kg to around 200 hotels in the city. The demand for birista increases exponentially in haleem season during Ramzan month. These companies are employment hubs for women. Though the main task of cutting is done through machines, women perform other steps like washing and peeling the onions, and sorting the final product.”
When asked if dehydrated onions fare low on taste,he adds: “No, not at all. It tastes the same as the ones with some water content. The dehydrated ones have longer shelf life too and will stay fresh a whole year.”Mohammed Ameeruddin, owner of Hitech Bawarchi hotel, says: “We use half a kilo birista in every biryani handi. We also use it in other dishes like Mughlai Chicken and Dum ka Chicken. On an average, we use 10 kg of birista daily. It brings a lot of flavour to dishes, and we are careful to see that our customers are satisfied with the taste.”
For Shiva Kumar, owner of Madhapur Bawarchi, the decision to buy birista from external dealers was to do with lower rent. “I used to have a larger kitchen before, and making birista used to take up considerable space. After I switched to a smaller kitchen, I did not have enough space to dedicate to cutting and frying large quantities of onions. Irealised that the quality of the product being supplied by the dealers was similar to the one made in-house. This move saved me money as I saved manpower and paid less rent for a smaller kitchen.”
There are other firms in Hyderabad who manufacture birista manually. The manager of one such a firm says: “Onion prices rise every year before the new crop comes in, but this year, this increase was abnormal. This has made it difficult for a small player like me to make profits. That is why I am purchasing machinery to cut the onions now so that I can compete in the market.”
Since hotels in Hyderabad are now outsourcing birista making, will it become a trend for households too? Only time will tell. However, consumers must be aware of adulteration in the products which might have cauliflower leaves and potato mixed in them.
(The writer can be contacted at kakoli_mukherjee@newindianexpress.com)
Twitter: @KakoliMukherje2