Hyderabad, April 14 -- If you search for Hyderabad on YouTube or Instagram today, chances are your screen will be flooded almost immediately with high-definition, slow-motion videos of steaming biryani, the golden-brown bun maska or a fusion dish in a Jubilee Hills cafe. The historic arches of Charminar or the galleries of Salar Jung Museum will mostly be in the background.

For the contemporary traveller, the city's architectural landmarks have been eclipsed by its culinary ones, signalling a shift in the nature of tourism here. Hyderabad is witnessing a rise in a new breed of visitors, someone we can easily call the "gastronomic pilgrim".

They treat the streets as an open-air buffet and its legacy eateries as the ultimate holy sites. T...