There’s more to UP food beyond peda, barfi, kebab or biriyani
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Now that everyone has said their piece about the absence of galouti kebab, Awadhi biryani and nihari from the Uttar Pradesh government’s new One District One Cuisine (ODOC) list, let me tell you what is truly missing: purpose and context.Any cuisine is defined by a region’s geographical and cultural makeup, its terroir, local produce, cooking methods and consumption patterns, and not a quick list of street foods. And for a state as diverse as Uttar Pradesh, spanning Himalayan foothills, rich Terai forest, the Gangetic plain and the Vindhya hills and plateau, the range of cuisines is wide.
“A few dishes do not make a ‘cuisine’. The list is a gross misrepresentation,” says Sangeeta Khanna, author of Culinary Culture of Uttar Pradesh (2019).Much has been made of the absence of Lucknow’s iconic meat specialties.
To be honest, I am not worried about the erasure of Lucknow’s culinary legacy. The city has been recognised by Unesco as a Creative City of Gastronomy for its sustainable food culture, traditional culinary heritage, and innovation.
People across the country associate the city with kebabs and biryani, and its food has been and continues to be documented as well as enjoyed. It is the erasure of the culinary heritage of other regions that worries me—the regions that haven’t even had a chance to flourish and have forever lived in the shadows of Lucknow.Gorakhpur, the city in Purvanchal where I grew up, has been assigned litti chokha, garlic mini samosas (samosas with garlic in the potato masala!) and barfi.
A true-blue Gorakhpuriya will be more excited by the thought of litti mutton. At Tarkulha Devi temple on the outskirts of the city, mutton cooked in an earthen pot with onions and
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