Pilaf is the most recognizable and common dish found throughout the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and India. This dish is simple yet popular, and today we’ll trace the origins of pilaf and its varieties today.
Pilaf goes by a multitude of names depending on which country you are in. It can be called Polao, Pela, Pilav, Pallao, Pilau, Pelau, Pulao, Palau, Pulaav, Palaw, Palavu, Plov, Palov, Polov, Polo, Polu, Kurysh, Fulao, Fulaaw, Fulav, Fulab, Osh, and Aş. Pilaf is a rice dish with meat or vegetables of both cooked together with rice. Pilaf is a very common food in Hindu temples or Uzbek food stalls, showing how popular it is. Pilaf is made using preferably basmati rice or any other long grain variety of rice, cooking it in fat, then broiling it in meat or vegetable stock and broth along with the meat and vegetables. In some places, bulgur wheat is substituted for rice.
This dish has even found its way into Latin America, the Caribbean, and even Africa! Pilaf is a borrowing from Turkish pilaf, which is borrowed from Farsi pilāv. The Hindi word pulāv stems from Farsi too, due to the Persianized culture of North India after the Central Asian conquests. Pilaf as a food originated in the Abbasid Caliphate, spreading the dish from Spain (paella) to Afghanistan (pulao). After that, it evolved into the various forms we know today. At some point, Indian Muslims added more spices and meat and fat to the pilaf and made the biryani, the most popular Indian dish in the world right now.
Well, that’s it for the history of the pilaf, and I hope that you’re hungry, ’cause I know I am!
Anay Ganesh 