Biryani tops India’s lockdown food choice in 2020: Report

New Delhi: The coronavirus pandemic might have discouraged foodies from dining out, but it did not come in the way of them ordering in their favorite food – biryani, according to a new report by food aggregator Swiggy.

In its fifth annual “stateatstics”, the on-demand delivery platform found that even though these were unprecedented times, India stayed loyal to biryani in 2020 by ordering “more than one biryanis every second”.

“The mighty chicken biryani reaffirmed its place as India’s favourite dish. Also, over three lakh new users made their Swiggy debut by ordering in a chicken biryani,” the Bangalore-based pan-India company said in a statement.

However, its vegetarian counterpart did not have the same luck.

For every veg biryani, there were six chicken biryani orders, it added. The delectable rice dish was followed closely by masala dosa.

Also making it to the list of top five dishes India enjoyed this year were paneer butter masala, chicken fried rice, and garlic breadsticks.

With the pandemic confining people to their homes, demand for cappuccinos, varied flavours of tea, and street food saw a spike.

“Perhaps missing their office cappuccinos and masala ‘chai’ while working from home, lakhs of hardworking Swiggy users fought the post-lunch slump by ordering in varieties of tea and coffee,” the report said.

“What did Indians miss the most this 2020? Not colleagues, not friends, but their ‘pani puris’. Swiggy ensured there was no social distancing from this most missed ‘chaat’ as they delivered over two lakh ‘pani puri’ orders post-lockdown,” it added.

The annual report also revealed some interesting ordering trivia from this year, like a late-night order of cheese fries in Chennai, which it received at 4.59am on February 21.

Two customers from Bhopal and Bangalore opened their deep pockets for the delivery partners on separate occasions by tipping them Rs 5,000 each, which is “the most generous tip received on Swiggy”.