A wintry morning is a time when many love to visit Barkas in the southern corner of Hyderabad. The top reason is the ‘harees’, a delicacy similar to the mouth-watering haleem, and available at a few small eateries in Hyderabad’s famous Barkas Bazaar.
Barkas is the corrupted form of the Barracks housing Yemeni soldiers of the Nizam Army. During the Nizam era, the Yemeni soldiers were accommodated here, hence the word Barracks and its popular corrupted form Barkas.
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The eateries in Hyderabad serving traditional food are now making a quick buck selling Harees to the crowds. It is prepared with mutton or beef and prepared at three hotels in Barkas. It is prepared with spices but the sweet version is also available and a big hit among the visitors who frequent the locality.
Qaisar Bin Abdullah, owner of Hadrami Harees Hotel in Hyderabad who specialises in this dish and conducted business for 50 years in the Barkas Bazaar says that winter sees a lot of rush for it.
“Harees is well known for their unique taste and are quite nutritious too. We add a lot of pure ghee and dry fruits. People prefer it more in the winter season as it is supposed to be a warm food”, he told Siasat.com.
People from across Hyderabad visit the hotel in the morning to eat the delicious Harees. “It is only sold for about four hours in the morning. By 9 am, we wind up the business,” said Abdullah.
Initially, the Harees was a hit among only locals. As it gained immense praise for its taste, people from far-off places across Hyderabad frequent the restaurants. Another hotelier, Abdullah bin Haftoor explained that it is boneless. “Only quality meat is used. The process of preparing this is more or less similar to haleem and spices are almost the same”, he said.
In Hyderabad, Harees is available in two variants, one is sweet and the other is spicy. For the sweet harees variant, a couple of spoons of sugar are topped on the plate and folded into the harees. The regular spicy variety has dollops of pure ghee.
