The tenth and last nawab of Awadh was exiled to Garden Reach in Kolkata’s Matiaburz in a series of most unfortunate events. The heartbroken royal lived the rest of his life on a stipend of Rs 1 lakh a month. At Matiaburz, he tried to build a mini Lucknow with constructions like Murasa Manzil, Noor Manzil, Adalat Manzil and Sibtainbad Imambara.With the nawab, Wajid Ali Shah, the natives saw the arrival of true Lucknawi andaaz, with poetry recitals, kite-flying, cockfights and, finally, the great Lucknow khansamas with their awe-inspiring flavours of Awadhi culinary tradition.The tragic loss for Lucknow was a gastronomic gain for the hungry zamindars and Bengali babus, for they were the witness to the making of a great recipe.The line that sums up the story behind the presence of the potato in Kolkata biryani is... “Necessity is the mother of invention”. Since the budget for the biryani feast was limited due to financial crunch, the khansamas started to replace meat with potatoes. With time it became customary to keep a piece of potato in a plate of sumptuous biryani.But Bengal was never alone in understanding the potential of Superpotato as a taste enhancer. We find potato along with vegetables like carrots, peas and cauliflower in the vegetarian tahiri of Telangana.Biryani was never an authentic Indian dish and, much like samosa, it took different routes to enter India from its birthplace Persia (Birinj = Rice in Persian).As legend goes, one particularly significant winter of 1398, in a long day of bloodshed and massacre in Delhi, Timur the Lame had a tingly feeling in his tummy.Mumtaz Mahal, seeing the condition of her malnourished army, created biryani as a complete meal.Although we find a rice dish called Oon Soru, composed of ghee, rice, meat and spices like turmeric, coriander, pepper, and bay leaf In Tamil Nadu way before the Mughals set foot in India.After entering India, the biryani changed herself, according to the regional availability of spices and local taste, and has had a glorious existence in many avatars.However, based on culinary techniques, the biryani can be divided into two types.The royal khansamas of Lucknow were known for the use of gold and silver in their dishes.In Lucknow, the patronage of the nawabs resulted in the most exquisite way to cook dum-pukht biryani.The Lucknow or Awadhi biryani is the perfect example of a pakki biryani where meat that has been cooked and saffroninfused rice are layered in a copper handi which is sealed with dough and left to cook over a slow fire.It is impossible to capture a vast subject like biryani on one page. In the next episode we discuss each biryani in detail. Stay tuned and, of course, keep tasting.