So I stumbled upon the ‘tehzeeb’ city last weekend- Lucknow! What a beautiful place, with huge roads dotted with pristine gardens that a certain politico has built amidst a lot of controversy. From Aminabad to Gomti Nagar , the one thing that you can feel in the erstwhile ‘Awadh’ is warmth, amongst people, their handicraft (lovely chikankari!!) and of course theircuisine. Although I was there on business, it was quite adventurous to sneak out some time to meet a few dear friends from Lucknow so I could enjoy the gastronomical experience of the famous Awadhi cooking.My friend, Malvika actually stuffed her car with the 7 of us and took us on a food joyride. So first we stopped at the Royal Café in Hazratganj market and enjoyed the ‘Basket chaat’ there. It is pretty much a mix of aloo tikki, crisp sookhi poori, soft badaswith a drizzle of curd, red and green chutney packed in an edible basket made of potato ‘lachha’ (slivers) itself . The basket chat is particularly famous for its uniqueness and surely the taste. It was chatpata but too filling. So we decided to give food a break with some shopping in the market itself. A couple of hours later, we had given the Lucknow economy a serious boost by collectively spending almost half a lakh on the chikan kurtas andshalwars.
With so many in the car and so many (parcels) in the boot, we were then driven to relish the brilliant, world famous TundeyKebabi’s galouti kebabs with mughlai roti. While the mainTundey Kebabi is in a place called Chowk in the busyAminabad, we settled for the one in Gomti Nagar to avoid theRamzaan rush. The Aminabad Tundey has kebabs that are made with beef (known as Bade ke Kebab) as well but the rest of the branches have mutton ones only. 
Between the seven of us we ordered three plates galouti and two plates boti kebabs. Both came with a liberal helping of sliced onion and chutney on the side. One bite into them and you know why there is nothing liketunday’s kebab that exists anywhere other than Lucknow. The melt in your mouth consistency transcends you into gastronomical heaven especially when accompanied with the mughlai roti. Over 100 years old, the legend associated with the invention of these kebabs goes thus. In Lucknow, there was a one armed chef in the royal kitchen who designed this recipe and the consistency so he could make them with one hand. Another story is that the chef made these kebabs so that the Raja in those days, who didn’t have teeth, could enjoy them without any botheration. While in conversation with the great grandson of Tundey I figured that tundey kabab is actually unique because of the closely guarded secret recipe of masala that is used to make them. This masala has more than 150 ingredients and have been given down the family tree by the women of the house. TheirBoti kebab was quite a delight too. It is lamb marinated in curd and then garnished with seasoned onions and served with a brown gravy. The masala in there was also to die for. Although everything was so delicious that we could go on eating there, we kept some space for the Dum Biryani from the famous dastarkhwan.
Dastarkhwan is actually a Persian term that actually means a wide spread of dinner that has everything from Qorma to Kheer. However, this Dastarkhwan is a restaurant in Hazratganj where we sat dowm to have some chicken curry and mutton dumbiryani. Interestingly, the dum style of cooking originates fromAwadh itself. The style of Cooking on slow fire (Dum) was used extensively by the Lucknowi Bawarchis. While in Dastarkhwan,when the Awadhi Biryani was served, everyone just quietly took in the experience of the delicately cooked meat over the ‘khilekhile’ saffron soaked rice. Truly had never had anything more divine!. The succulence of the meat warranted for an encore but we knew we would have had to rent a stomach for that.
By this time, I was so high on food that I convinced everyone to make a dash to Imambara, in old Lucknow despite the Ramzaanrush. Although this area has been named after the monumentImambara, it has been made famous by the phirni available at many stalls that are specially decorated during the holy month. Made of coarsely ground rice and condensed milk, this phirniwas truly brilliant because of the delicate flavours of saffron and cardamom and also the temperature at which it is served. Petbhar gaya per mann nahin bhara! With this thought, we reluctantly called it a night only to wake up early morning to enjoy the famous dahi jalebi at the Chaar Bagh Railway station. This unique combination is supremely popular in lucknow and now I know why. The jalebis are crisp and the dahi (curd) has right amount of tart in it. Together they make the perfect ‘Nawaabi’ breakfast. I wish I could spend some more time exploring the city and the Awadhi cuisine but conferences are sometimes quite ‘zaalim’!
