HYDERABAD is perhaps more famous for its two food items, Bombay Bakery’s cakes and Haji Rabri, than its cool breezes and glass bangles.

The cakes travel in length and breadth of the country and also land on foreign soils because of their rich and extraordinary taste. Rabri is in fact a variant of kheer made from milk. It too is in high demand during Eid celebrations and weddings. The Bombay Bakery celebrated its centenary in November last year. The two food items have one thing in common. They are family-run and owned.

People throng outlets of their favourite food items on or before Eid. Rabri (sweet condensed cream) is sold from Eid morning till late night but cakes are available only till afternoon or at till the evening of the eve of Eid. The bakery remains closed on Eid days.

It is perhaps the only family business in Cantonment area that is being run in the owner’s residence.

Haji Bashiruddin who died at the age of 100 about 11 years ago started the Rabri business after migrating to Hyderabad’s Pucca Qilla area from Rewari in India’s Haryana state in 1948. The business is now being managed by his fourth generation now. A few months ago the family opened an outlet in Karachi’s Saddar area.

“We are told that my great grandfather was boiling milk to prepare “Kheer” (rice pudding) when it took the shape of what we know today as Rabri. He then experimented with it twice and thrice before coming up with the final recipe of this product,” says Naveed Ahmed Sheikh, great grandson of Haji Bashiruddin.

Rabri and cakes travel to foreign countries also. The guests or visitors from abroad or within the country can’t help buying them if they visit Hyderabad.

Rabri is soled in earthen pots which help preserve it for around 40 hours. Plastic ones are also in use now but the aroma of earthen pot further enriches the taste, says Sheikh.

He says Rabri takes around 45 minutes to be ready for sale after having passed through five different stages. It is made up of pure milk and sugar and frozen before sale.

The milk is boiled at high temperature till about ten kilogram of milk reduces to one and a half kg. Sugar gives it a yellowish hue and then layers of cream are collected in a big cauldron and left to freeze.

“It is purely a family cuisine and we don’t leave it to our employees to prepare it,” says Sheikh, an alumni of Cadet College Petaro.

He plans to sue the shopkeepers who are using his brand name of his family. “I have got this product registered in our name,” he says.

Nowadays, Rabri is becoming an essential item on the menu in weddings. It is rich in taste but one can’t have too much of it because of heavy fat contents.

Usually, 500 kg of Rabri is sold a day, according to Shaikh, and during Eid days the sale shoots up to around 4,000 to 5,000kg.

The nearly 100-year-old Bombay Bakery, established in a bungalow, is also a purely family-run business, which has become synonymous with Hyderabad. It was being run by Kumar Thadani until he died in June 2010 and now his adopted son Salman Sheikh alias Sonu runs it.

Sonu has embraced Islam. He avoids speaking about bakery-related issues.

“Pahlajrai Gangaram Thadani, father of late Kumar, never planned to make a bakery. He had planned a hotel here but due to some construction-related issues he had to drop the idea. That’s how today people see a Bombay Bakery here,” recalls C.S. Bhatia, an old friend of Kumar and former civil servant.

The bakery’s cakes travel through the length and breadth of the country and even to foreign lands. The cakes find their way into government offices and official gatherings, besides homes.

Macaroon cake is the speciality and very popular flavour. Chocolate, coffee, cream and fruit cakes are also popular flavours besides biscuits.

Full chocolate cake is said to be a new addition to the list.

“Kumar told me once he uses pure ingredients like butter, fine flour and sugar to make a quality cake,” Bhatia says and adds the family had started with plain cake, bread, pastries and biscuits before being adept in cake making.

M. Parkash advocate, another close friend of late Kumar, says that quality of cakes remains same so far throughout all these years.