Lucknow is a city known for its royal heritage, architectural brilliance and incredibly delicious food.Once you set foot here, be prepared to be mesmerized by the city’s beautiful landscape and impressive architectural landmarks. Other than beautiful historical sites and courteous locals, Lucknow is also famous for its delicious cuisine. A quintessential gourmet central for every foodie, the city’s cuisine includes a wide range of mouth-watering relishes like kebabs, nihari-kulcha, zarda, kaliya, sheermal, warqi parathas, kachoris, ghewar, nimish and many more delightful preparations to appease your palette.
Here are the must try cuisines from Lucknow that will leave your taste buds tingling:
* Nihari and KulchaNihari is a robust meat curry, simmered overnight with spices & special herbs on a low fire, that is best served with a warm, fluffy ghilaaf kulcha (the upper layer is ghilaaf and the bottom layer is khameer).
* Awadhi biryani
Cooked in the royal Awadhi style, the textures of Lucknowi biryani are softer and the spices milder. The first step involves making a yakhni stock from meat that is slow boiled in water infused with spices for about two hours or more. This is the reason why this biryani is moister, tender and delicately flavoured than other biryanis.
* Shammi KababJuicy chicken kebabs mixed with chana dal and aromatic spices, smeared with eggs and fried crisp Shammi kebabs melt-in-your-mouth and definitely a must try.
* Boti KababFrom lip-smacking galawat kebab and mutton rogan josh to chicken biryani and shami kabab, Lucknow is a non-vegetarian’s delight. However, the star of its mouth-watering menu is undoubtedly the boti kebab – small pieces of boneless mutton slow-cooked in a thick gravy.
* Galawti kababThe best-known kebab of Lucknow is, of course, Tunday Kababi’s galawati. What makes this kebab irresistibly delicious is the heavy use of spices like black pepper, cardamom and star anise, among others. These spices are added to a rich, thick paste of papaya, yoghurt and gram flour, blended in with minced meat and made into small patties that are shallow-fried on a large cast-iron girdle heated by smouldering charcoal.
* Handi chickenThe Handi Chicken is cooked with a rich spicy gravy in an earthen pot over a flame in a meter deep charcoal pit. This process allows all the potent flavours to seep into the chicken. Fragrant and flavoursome, Handi Chicken served with glazed caramel sheermal bread is a dish sure to stoke your hunger and leave you craving for more!
* Chaat tokriChaat is a dish made of potato cuts and spices that are combined with tangy Indian chili and a sauce made of dried ginger and tamarind. It is then garnished with yogurt and green coriander leaves. Every state or city in India has its own version of this dish, including Lucknow. The difference between basket chaat and the regular one is, instead of plates, the chaat in served in a potato nest or basket. This savory hors d'oeuvre uses a handful of spices as its main ingredients, thus creating a blend of sweet and sour taste that will definitely leave you wanting more
* NimishA whimsical frothy seasonal sweet, Nimish is why autumn mornings are much awaited by Lucknow’s foodies. Dexterous sweet makers in Lucknow use thick milk, dew drops and a dash of saffron, cardamom, pistachio and rosewater to make these creamy, airy and intensely flavoured sweets. Beautifully embellished with ‘Chandi ka Warq’ (silver leaf), nimish can be found on the streets of Chowk as soon as the sun mellows down in autumn.