Book excerpt: For Doreen Hassan, Hyderabad is not just where her roots lie, it is also the city that informs the way she and her family lead their lives. Known and loved for their legendary hospitality for over four decades, Doreen and her husband, Peter Toghrille Hassan, have preserved a way of life, a culture and a cuisine with great affection and pride in their cosmopolitan home in Delhi, passing their love for food, family and friendships to their children and grandchildren. This is not a collection of Hyderabadi recipes that stops at the biryani or the Mirchi ka Saalan or kebabs or Shahi Tukra. It is a personal story a tribute to the city that Doreen calls home. Over the decades, she has archived priceless family recipes from her husband's storied Hyderabadi family. The result is an astonishingly rich record of culinary history, which speaks of a city that absorbed influences from across the world and made them its own.