Kauwa Biryani: Sporting a funny name with a growing fame in Dhaka streets
With quite a funny street name, Mohammed Abul Hossain's biryani has been winning hearts of people in the streets of Dhaka.
Kauwa Biryani, which is simply chicken biryani in the makings, has seen great popularity recently on social media.
Mohammed Abul Hossain Medda, around 60 years old, sells the infamous Kauwa Biryani straight from his van.
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He sits just on the opposite side of the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel, facing the Panthapath Tejgaon Link Road, in front of ICB Islamic Bank Ltd. just beside the famous Karwan Bazar signal.
So, how did a chicken biryani turn into Kauwa Biryani?
To know where this term actually came from, let's talk about the famous Indian actor Vijay Raaz's popular Kauwa Biryani scene from the film "Run (2004)" where he is seen enjoying a biryani which is advertised as chicken biryani for just 5 rupees.
He gets amazed as he finds out about it and orders one right away demanding for a leg piece to which the seller replies, "Har admi ko leg piece chahiye. Kaha se laun? Ek murgi mein do hi leg hota hain buss!" – which translates to "Everyone wants a leg piece. Where will I get those from? A chicken has only two legs."
To that Ganesh Yadav (Vijay) replies, "Hamare yaha to chaar hotey hain. Do murgi kain" – which translates to, "[Where I come from] We have four [legs] and two of chickens."
In the scene, he takes the biryani plate from the seller's hand, starts feasting on it while making another observation that the chicken leg seems so weak that it might have had polio.
As soon as Ganesh finishes eating the biryani and proceeds to wash his hands and mouth, he burps and makes the sound of a crow to which the biryani seller and customers nearby get bamboozled.
In the next scene, Ganesh is seen walking down the street while burping sounds of a crow, where one man (played by another famous Indian Actor of recent times, Pankaj Tripathi) stops him and asks him, "What happened, brother?"
To which, Ganesh replies that whenever he is burping he sounds like a crow. The other man (Pankaj) then asks what he ate, to which Ganesh says that he had chicken biryani for five rupees.
The other man reacts to it surprisingly, saying, "Bhaiya woh kauwa biryani hain" – which translates to "Brother, that was crow biryani," and cracks up.
The residents of Dhaka took this reference and used it to define Mohammed Abul's chicken biryani as Kauwa biryani.
Mohammed Abul Hossain has been in this business for the past 23 years and had learned how to run this business from his superior Ostad Alamgir Hossain, who still runs a biryani business in the opposite area of Dhanmondi Abahani Maath as Abul Hossain quotes.
Abul Hossain sells each plate at a price range of 30-50tk. He never turns away his customers with an empty stomach. He accepts whatever amount one can afford.
He serves a plate of chicken biryani with available options such as bhorta/chaatni, salad and water for which he charges no money.
His daily customers are usually rickshaw pullers, CNG drivers, Pathao riders and staff of nearby markets.
During my visit, I got to talk to two of his customers. One was a Pathao rider, Shahed.
"I found out about this place through my rides, and I have been a customer of his for a good while now. This is one of my most favourite spots to grab a quick meal, the other one is a similar food van located in Rampura Boubazar area, at Lohar Gate where Khichuri with a variety of options is sold at a price range of Tk50-100." said Shahed while sitting on his bike waiting for his next Pathao ride call.
I met another young customer Rakibul, who was there for the first time. He noticed the van while passing by and took two packets as a parcel.
He seemed like a decent young man from a comparatively upper-class family than the usual customers of Abul Hossain.
As I mentioned before, the customers of Abul Hossain are beyond any certain class or profession, and are equally served.
Abul Hossain mentioned that his business hours are usually from the evening till midnight. During the month of Ramadan, he starts from the time of Iftar till 2/2.30am in the night. He also added that his customers are mostly there around 11pm in the night.
It is an absolute pleasure to the eyes and the tummy to witness the magic of Abul Hossain and his chicken biryani, famously known as Kauwa Biryani, which surely keeps many people from starving while going about their daily hustles across the city.
