Come rain, shine or pandemic, biryani continues to take the crown of being India’s favourite food. It has emerged as the most ordered dish on Swiggy, according to its StatEATstics report for the year. Be it chicken, mutton, or veg, a biryani was ordered more than once every second in 2020.
This year, Swiggy has titled its report The World from Home (WFH) edition with the world being at home for most part of the year due to the pandemic. Swiggy says it delivered five times as many orders to ‘Home’ addresses compared to ‘Work’ addresses between January and March. That number rose to nine times as many Home orders versus Work orders in April and May.
While chicken biryani topped the list, it was followed by masala dosa, paneer butter masala, chicken fried rice and garlic bread sticks. And after delicious lunches during a workday, Swiggy says lakhs of users fought the afternoon slump by ordering varieties of tea and coffee.
The pandemic also meant all celebrations had to be done indoors, thus increasing the number of orders for birthday cakes. 6,56,174 birthday cakes were delivered post lockdown.
Bengaluru emerged as the top city in terms of ordering food in 2020. It was also the city that gave delivery executives the most generous tips. A Bengaluru user, Swiggy says, gave a Rs 5000 tip to a delivery executive. Bengaluru users also seem to love chocolate with one person ordering 391 units of chocolates on Swiggy Instamart.
Bengaluru was followed by Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi.
Chennai also recorded Swiggy’s earliest and latest late-night order with one customer ordering in chicken noodles at 5 am in March, while another customer ordered cheese fries at 4:59am in February.
What did Indians miss the most this 2020? Not colleagues, not friends, but their pani puris. Swiggy says it delivered over 2 lakh orders of this most missed ‘chaat’ item post-lockdown.
The pandemic has undoubtedly made everyone more aware of their health and immunity, with healthy food becoming a rage over the past year. Swiggy launched ‘HealthHub’ in August to cater to this demand.
As per its report, while users in the National Capital Region (NCR) ordered the healthiest meals, users in Bengaluru showed a high resolve to get healthy. At 130%, the city saw the highest increase in healthy food orders on Swiggy HealthHub.
In terms of dishes, users looked for healthy versions of their favourite food with high-fibre idli, high-protein khichdi, vegan gravy, low-fat salads, keto-friendly sandwiches and gluten-free ice creams being the six most ordered healthy dishes.
With many ordering in groceries during the pandemic, Swiggy says it delivered 75,000 kgs of onion, making it the most ordered item on Instamart so far, followed by potatoes, bananas, coriander leaves and milk.
With people also looking to cook their own meals, Swiggy delivered over 1.6 lakh meal kits via Instamart.
Earlier this year, Swiggy also launched its Dunzo-like pick up and drop off service Swiggy Genie. Home-cooked food was one of the most ferried items in 2020, and a rising interest in baking also meant a lot of people were swapping goodies and organising socially-distant potlucks. Swiggy says it received over 120,000 food-related tasks on Swiggy Genie.
Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai saw the highest number of Genie orders.
However, before the pandemic, forgotten keys, chargers, jackets and spectacles were the most common tasks pre-pandemic for Swiggy Genie.
While the shortest delivery was a 600-metre distance in Bengaluru to exchange a water can, the longest delivery spanned 39kms in Kolkata and involved the delivery of a SIM card.
However, the most interesting Genie task was a person sending a Swiggy delivery exec to get in touch with their spouse because their phone was off. Another person used Swiggy Genie to turn off a water pump at their house, while one user called Swiggy Genie to unlock their door while being stuck inside.
“With several schools adapting to online learning, parents used Genie to collect new textbooks, homework diaries and stationery from schools. In all, Swiggy delivered 6000 book kits to students from specific schools that had partnered with us,” the report revealed.