VIJAYAWADA: ARE you ready to spend Rs 10 more for the heavenly flavoured ‘Haleem’? As the price of meat has gone up, the cost of Haleem too has been hiked all over the city.
The city’s one of the most crowded areas ‘Panja Centre’ in One Town, land of Haleem, is ready to offer their best Haleem. More than 25 battis (stalls) have been arranged in Panja Centre alone. “Our Masjid has announced the festival and now we are ready serve the holy Haleem,” stall owner Sheikh Imtiaz said. He said that since eight years he has been successfully arranging a stall here. Every year in the month of Ramzan, he spends more than `2,00,000 and over 800 customers visit his stall. “We are increasing the price of Haleem by `10 as the meat price has gone up,” Imtiaz said.
Haleem is a dish prepared by adding more than 33 rare spices to create a classic flavour. Owners of the stalls bring best chefs and workers from Hyderabad, Warangal and Karim Nagar to prepare best Haleem by paying more than Rs 2 lakh and they stay in the city for a month. Master Chef Sheikh Zavid from Karim Nagar said that hard work decides the quality of Haleem.
“I am a Hindu and initially I was reluctant to taste Haleem imagining that it was prepared under unhygienic conditions. Observing for two days, astonished by their hard work and neatness, I began eating Haleem twice a week,” says G Bhaskar Rao, owner of a hardware shop. He said that ‘Salim Haleem’ stall is the best place to taste the dish.