The dish of rice, meat and caramelised onions uses 7 spices for a meal of intense flavours The Yemeni dish Zurbian - perfectly spiced rice and tender, juicy, fall-off-the-bone meat - is often made during Ramadan and Eid Image Credit: Shutterstock
It is a story that is several centuries old and has its roots in migration from Yemen to Hyderabad in India (1724-1948).
It is the story of Zurbian or Zurbiyan, a biryani with its past in the culinary heritage of Deccan India.
We chanced upon it in the Heart of Sharjah, where Yemeni poet Essam Nasir Aldanmi had just merged a melody of flavours into one dish, the finale of which had included spreading out saffron-infused rice over meat, lavishly topping it with caramelised onions, fried raisins, toasted cashews and almonds, and leaving it to cook in its own steam.