Hindustan Times
Lucknow Diary
The great biryani search continues. But Lucknow, it turns out, is pulao country. It is also the place for outstanding kababs and kormas. And it has the best chaat in the entire country
I went to Lucknow as part of the great biryani search. But all controversies about whether Lucknow made a biryani or a pulao were quickly settled. Every single person I met in Lucknow was clear that Lucknow only dealt in pulao, not in biryani.
But why then did so many restaurants advertise that they served Lucknowi biryani – even in Lucknow itself? And what’s the difference between a pulao and a biryani anyway?
The answers seem to be shaded in grey rather than black and white. There is no clear distinction between a biryani and a pulao unless you take the Hyderabadi line that only a biryani made with raw (rather than cooked) meat is the real thing. In Lucknow as in so many other places, I have decided that biryani and pulao exist in a continuum. Some versions are clearly biryani and some are clearly pulao but the distinction appears to be the spiciness and the wetness of the final dish. Between these two extremes are many many stages and whether you use the term biryani or prefer pulao seems to be a largely subjective decision.
And why do dhabas and restaurants in Lucknow claim that they serve biryani? Well, because of commercial motives. People seem more willing to order a biryani than a pulao. Think about it. How many people have you heard praising pulao? And yet nearly everywhere you go you will meet somebody raving about the biryani at his or her favourite place or suggesting that you meet for a biryani. Pulao has been devalued by the tendency to apply the term to virtually anything, even a dish of mildly spiced rice cooked with peas and eaten with daal. Biryani on the other hand sounds like a dish that can stand up on its own.
That said, I have to confess that because this was a rushed two-day trip with a TV crew, I really did not have the time to go exploring the various kinds of pulao that Lucknow has to offer. Working on the principle that the best Lucknowi food is found in private homes and not in restaurants I had dinner with the Rajkumar of Mehmoodabad in his haveli. The Rajkumar knows his food and has the added advantage of being married to a great chef from Hyderabad (the famous Kulsum Begum) so he understands the distinction between the two cuisines and their rice dishes.
His chef (a Lucknowi cook as distinguished from his Hyderabadi wife), made a complex biryani over several hours introducing the kinds of steps I had rarely seen before. For instance, after the meat was cooked, he washed it in saffron milk, an impressive process that seemed mildly unnecessary.
I also had an outstanding mutton korma made by a traditional cook called Armaan Shah (whose family have done this for five generations) on a wooden fire inside the Chhota Imambara. It made for astonishing television but it was also a great korma.
I asked Armaan Shah if he had a secret recipe. Naturally he lied. (They all do. There’s at least one ingredient or masala that they never reveal). But he made a valid point. The secret of good Lucknowi cooking, he said, is not the recipe. It is the hand. A chef has to know when to add what and depending on the water, the quality of the meat etc, it’s never exactly the same process. A great chef will have the confidence to improvise and to extract the maximum flavour from the ingredients.
I stayed at the Taj, a hotel I remember well from its glory days when it was the Taj Mahal Hotel Lucknow well before it was downgraded to a Residency business hotel. In the old days, the F&B standard was spectacular. Ghulam Rasool cooked in the kitchen, Siva was the executive chef and on one memorable occasion, the general manager, a genuine Parsi eccentric in the old mad Tata tradition, cooked me a brilliant prawn patia with his own hands. (You can take the Parsi out of Bombay, but you can’t take Bombay out of the Parsi).
Alas, standards have dropped precipitously. Nearly everything that could go wrong, did so. The key cards didn’t work, the lights would not come back once the generators had been switched off till you fiddled with the card hole, they never remembered which newspapers to deliver, the tea was darker than the strongest espresso etc.
The final straw was when I went for lunch to the specialty Indian restaurant. There was not a single guest at any table. One waiter wearing a dirty uniform that would have got him fired at a railway station cafeteria approached me with the menu. As this was a confusing document, listing various keemas including one that was allegedly ethnic, I asked him what this really meant. “New menu, sir, I am not knowing,” he said. I asked if he could check with the chef.
Seven minutes later he was back. “Actually, sir, even chef saying this is mistake.” Through it all, a manager stood near the computer not bothering to ask what the problem was or to offer any assistance.
Inevitably, somebody recognised me and then the service was utterly transformed. The waiter in dirty clothes was banished and three new waiters materialised out of nowhere. After that, I felt like an SPG protectee judging by the way they ringed
my table.
On the other hand, the food was really outstanding. They did a very nice chicken kabab made from thin piccatas of breast, a good galawat kabab and an excellent keema matar (which may or may not have been authentic judging by the menu confusion).
It’s all a bit of a shame. Throughout my stay I had the sense that the hotel was run by nice people who were trying their best.
But if this is their best, then the hotel doesn’t quite cut it. And the Lucknow Taj is really a gorgeous property that deserves to be treated better.
Of course, there is a second part to my Lucknow story. As much as I like the Avadhi food (until the animal fat congeals in my veins and my liver resigns in protest) the real attraction of Lucknow for me is the chaat. Though I am a dedicated Bombaywallah when it comes to chaat, I have to concede that the best chaat in India is in Lucknow.
I have never worked out why Delhi, which is so near Lucknow, cannot match up to these standards. Nor does Delhi manage the synthesis that UP chaatwallahs have effected in other parts of India. In Bombay, chaatwallahs were / are called bhaiyyas because of their ethnic origins but the city’s great chaat dishes (most famously bhel puri) emerged out of collaborations between Lucknow wallahs and Gujaratis. In Calcutta, the puchka which is in direct descent from the batasha has a slightly sour Bengali flavour of its own because the Lucknow wallahs knew they had to adapt to local tastes. Only Delhi remains dull.
I made such a pig of myself on the streets of Hazratganj that I hesitate to recount how many batashas I demolished and how many chaatwallahs were made to offer me samples of their wares. Perhaps next week. Or a couple of weeks after that…
(6 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
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Thanks Mr. Vir Sanghvi for doing a piece on one of India’s hidden treasures that is Lucknow.Being the capital of the hindi heartland( or the cowbelt ) Lucknow has rarely been recognized as a wonderful and livable city.Lucknow’s people, its cuisine and its vibrancy grows upon any visitor who has the time and the patience to look deeper.
Please Mr. Sanghvi your readers are waiting for the follow up piece on Lucknow that you promised.
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Hi Vir, there is always some extra we get while reading your articles. I did not know that lucknow offers great chaat.
Also, I have seen very few places who offer good momos. I always have momos at Yo China or at road sides. It would be great if you tell about momos at good restaurant. good chinese food will also go. well i am momos freak, thats why i streched it a lot.
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Deb Reply:
July 13th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Hi Vineeta
Anyone who’s been/been taken to Hazratganj in Lucknow, much less stayed in Lucknow (like we have) could tell you stories about the famous ‘Tokri Chaat’ here. Haldiram in Delhi tries to do somethink like that with Lachha Tokri, but it’s not a patch on the original. I esp. enjoy it when the shop attendant exhorts you to go for second-third-fourth helpings of the yoghurt topping, all for free.
Happy snacking!
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Great read - I love Lucknowi food!
On a side note - I read your article on truffles - apart from the establishments you mentioned there, any others in India that do justice to truffles?
Thanks,
Riz
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podmena traffica test0D
I have been following your food columns on and off and have been bursting to ask you one question.
How do you mange to gobble up such variety of food or have you added it all it all to your girth and now become a buttered chicken?
Some years back I saw you at Habitat and you seemed reasonably slim. Now has the rude food column changed all that forever???????????
Now if you want a solution for remain reasonbly slim, without having to give up your “rude food” I can provide you one. And this is an extraordinary simple and effective one.
Or if you already have the solution, let me know, since I am doing some research on reducing inches after munching kilos…
curiously yours
Sanjay
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I am quite surprised to know that Lucknow has pulaos only.
My experience tells me that Lucknow is actually a Biryani place. Pulao is more of Western UP dish. As far as my knowledge goes, there are three main differences between pulao and Biryani. Number one is that in Pulao, rice is cooked in yakhini (stock) along with precooked meat whereas in Biryani, both meat and rice are cooked separately and only in its final stage the two are layered and put on “dum” . Another difference is in Biryani gulab jal is used for flavoring, whereas in Pulao only kewra jal is used. Third difference is saffron is used in Biryani as a flavor as well as color. Pulao does not use saffron. At the time of serving, it is garnished with thinly sliced onion crisp and brown fried in ghee.
Would appreciate if these facts are verified by someone
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ABK Reply:
May 20th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Thank God for u Meena….finally sumone who could calrify the diffrence between the two…..A Pullao & A Biryani….Considering myself a bit of a Foodie myself ….To the best of my personal research on the Famed Cuisine…u are absolutely correct! Also to that I must Add Mr Sighnvi is also correct…..Lucknow was always famed for is Stuble/ delicate Flavours…one of the reasons it was called the PARIS OF THE EAST….hence it was famed for its over a 1000 or more diffrent pulaos ,salans, kormas, musallam & kebabs…..What u eat in diffrent commercial establishments around the city is the Refined Lucknow Pulao.. which can stand for its self unlike other Pulaos around the country…..Thats what makes it Unique even though commercially they call it the Lucknow Biryani…..( A Richer NIzam was widely known to import Lucknow Cooks to Run his Kitchens given even Hyderabadis were fans of the Lucknow Cusine ,Culture,Fashions etc & Looked up to it)..a lot more homogeneous in its flavour….Biryani…a persian derivative of Fried…hence an authentic Lucknow biryani is when the rice is fried before its cooked with the meat stock et all….plus, color, meetha ittar & kewra make it distictly LUCKNOWI!!! But a lot of Local Old Families even cook a Korma Biryani where KOrma is cooked & Par boiled rice layerd to Make it another version of the LUcknow Biryani!!…Here sum do use Saffron as a personal preerence with kewra/ & meetha Ittar!!Plus Lucknow biryani s always served with only a Bhurani raita/ green chutney/kachumber….unlike the Mirchi Salan of Hyderabad!Refined Subtelty at its best!!
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Yeah I agree with Meena. Biryani in Farsi means ‘fry before cooking’ and if you apply that definition then the Hyderabadi Biryani wont be what it is claimed to be. Awadh Biryani on the other hand has both rice and meat precooked before being layered together.
Though I love the Hyderabadi Biryani, for the rice if for nothing, my love affair with the Lucknowi Biryani has been unbroken for pretty much all my life. Mr. Sanghvi, I recommend that you have the biryani’s of the streets. Wahid makes a killer biryani and Avadh Biryani corner with its massive half plates, that a normal person can barely finish is a definite go. These places may be low on hygiene but they make up for it by their taste.
As for Delhi chat not learning from Lucknow, my take would be that food doesnt travel, as well as we think it does. I study in IIT Kanpur and let me tell you the food in Kanpur is so bakwaas, which is surprising considering that Lucknow and Kanpur are only 80 kms apart. But I have been to every place that people here have recommended including the one starred hotel that they have and short of a butter chicken at a sikh establishment I have never had anything good to eat here. Except of course Thaggu ke ladoo, but there is just so much ladoos that you can have.
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Does Vir ever respond to comments? I am surprised to see him here. I used to read his articles in the HT when I lived in India, and truth be told, his little black and white photo was kind of cute and I built up a fantasy around him. Unfortunately in this color blog photo he looks like he has gained quite a few kgs and he looks of ill health.
Vir? Are you there?
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Mr. Sanghvi
You complain that you do not get good food in Delhi.
Have you never been to Old Delhi and eaten ‘Nihari’ and ‘paye’?
Actually the best ‘Delhi’ food is to be found across the border–in Karachi!
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