If seafood is on the table, a cold shrug of the shoulders is all the excitement you could extract out of Shaan Rahman. But shift the scene to his home and place a fish biriyani on the dining table that clearly rings out 'mummy-made', and you would have a Shaan Rahman who just can’t get enough of the delicacy. This is what the ace musician who has been composing quite a few good tunes for the Malayalis to sway to had said about his mother's cooking—“I am generally not a great fan of fish or seafood as such, but when mummy makes it in the unique Thalassery style, you just cannot say no!” an excited Shaan said over the phone. It is not just the biriyani that he is in love with, but the way she teems it up with other delicacies; the fish biriyani would always be accompanied by some mouth-watering chicken fry. Even the Malabari _Neychoru_ (ghee rice) becomes more desirable as some delectable chicken curry turns up with it. So when is it that mummy whips up her special biriyani for her doting son? “Well, we, from the Malabar area, do not need any special occasion to make biriyani at home. Whenever she or we feel like, biriyani is on the table. “Or it could be just that I was away from home for work purposes, and when I come back I’m sure to find a pot of biriyani waiting for me. “It’s more like my mother’s way of saying welcome back home.” **A Favourite among friends too** The said biriyani not just tops Shaan’s list, it appears to be popular among his friends too. Shaan recounted instances when his buddy and singer-director Vineeth Sreenivasan used to turn up at his house claiming to be on a vegetarian diet. Apparently all the veggie thoughts go right out of the window when the biriyani turns up at the table, and Vineeth would be happy to be left with just that for all three meals!

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