Thalapakatti Biryani in San Diego

Seeraga samba: why this biryani is different

Seeraga samba is a short, round, almost stubby grain named for its resemblance to cumin seed — seeragam is Tamil for cumin. Put it next to basmati and it looks like a different crop, because in every way that matters it behaves like one.

Basmati is prized for length: the grains elongate as they cook, stay separate, and carry flavour lightly. Seeraga samba does the opposite. It is dense, it absorbs far more liquid than its size suggests, and it drinks up the masala instead of sitting alongside it. The result is a biryani where the spice is inside every grain rather than coating it — heavier, more concentrated, and considerably more filling than the same volume of basmati biryani.

It is also a slower, more expensive rice to cook with, which is most of the reason so few kitchens outside Tamil Nadu bother with it.

Where the name comes from

The style traces back to a biryani shop opened in Dindigul in 1957. Its founder was known by the turban he wore — thalappa kattu, roughly “turban-tied” in Tamil — and the nickname attached itself first to him, then to the shop, and eventually to the whole style of biryani made that way. Today “Thalapakatti” is how most people in Tamil Nadu ask for a Dindigul biryani.

We cook in that style. We are not connected to any restaurant of that name — this is the Dindigul method, not a franchise of anyone.

How ours is made

Mutton on the bone, a masala ground rather than spooned from a jar, and seeraga samba cooked with the meat so the rice takes on the stock. No food colouring: the colour in the pot comes from the spices and the meat, which is why it comes out brown rather than the orange people sometimes expect from a biryani.

It is a heavy plate. One order feeds one hungry person or two moderate ones, and it reheats better than a dum biryani does — the short grain does not go to mush the way a long grain can.

Chicken or mutton

Dindigul built its name on mutton, and that is still the one to order if you are choosing between them — the longer cooking is what the seeraga samba is really for. But the chicken version is the same rice and the same ground masala, and it is lighter and a little cheaper, which is why it is the one that gets ordered at lunch.

If you want a chicken biryani that is not the Dindigul dish at all, the Hyderabad chicken dum biryani is the sealed-pot Hyderabadi style and the Madras chicken dum biryani is the lighter Tamil city version. Both are good; neither is this.

Every biryani we cook →

Ordering

It is on the menu at both lunch and dinner. Order online for pickup or delivery, or call the restaurant. For a group, bucket biryani serves four — mutton, chicken or paneer — though the bucket is the standard style rather than the Dindigul one.

All of our meat is halal.