Haleem makers caught off-guard by curfew announcement

They plan to continue making and selling the dish in smaller quantities before night-time restrictions kick in

The sudden announcement of night-time curfew in the State caught the haleem makers in the city off-guard. “We begin making the dish in the morning. The announcement was made in the afternoon. I don’t know how we will deal with today’s product,” said M. A. Majeed of Pista House when asked about the curfew announcement. Haleem is unique to Hyderabad as it is made by big restaurants only during the month of Ramzan according to Islamic calendar. “We start selling by 4 p.m. and most of the people who pick up parcels or stand and eat start coming by 8 p.m. and it goes on till 11 p.m.,” said a teller at a restaurant near Lakdi-Ka-Pul. While last year there was no commercial sale of haleem by big restaurants due to COVID-19 lockdown, this year only a few restaurants ventured to set up the clay ovens used to cook gargantuan quantities of the special dish that has a GI tag. Some restaurants even set up a countdown to the month of Ramzan but this year that was also missing.