Mammis Biryani

Basuli Chawk gets busy early. We are right there in Bidanasi. The stove goes on around ten. You can smell the cardamom and cloves all the way down to Mangala Mandir. It’s a small place. Not many chairs, but people don’t mind. Some days it rains and the roof makes a lot of noise. We just keep stirring the pots. Cuttack heat is no joke, especially in a kitchen. We buy our meat fresh every morning from the local market. My hands always smell like onions. We’ve been at this address in Chahata Nagar Bidanasi for a while now. Neighbors know us by the sound of the shutters opening. It’s not fancy. The floor is just concrete. We don’t have fancy uniforms. Just us in our regular clothes, serving whoever walks in. Sometimes it’s students, sometimes it’s people going to the temple. We run out of food by late afternoon most days. Then we clean up and do it again. The Bidanasi area is quiet at night. We like it that way. If you’re looking for us, look for the big blue pot near the door. The address is 753008, but most people just know the landmark. We don't change the recipe. It's the same way it was made years ago. Some people say it's too spicy, others say it's just right. We just cook what we know. We don't have a website or anything like that, just the shop and the street outside.