Nizam's Kitchen · Sweet-Salty Tea Biscuit
Osmania Biscuit
Photo: Jyothivalaboju / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
It's named directly after the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, who reportedly asked his royal kitchens to invent a biscuit that was sweet and salty at once — an unusual combination that kept his name attached to the recipe ever since.
A dough of flour, milk, ghee, cardamom, sugar, and a pinch of salt is baked into a soft, crumbly biscuit that dissolves almost the moment it's dunked. Hyderabad's Irani cafés sell it by the piece as the standard accompaniment to a glass of Irani chai.
Why it's made this way: Its royal-kitchen origin and Turkish-and-Persian-influenced baking technique tied it permanently to the Nizam era, and its pairing with Irani chai has made the two inseparable in Hyderabad's café culture ever since.
More from India
Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below.
Photo credits.