Kolkata: Slow-cooked delicacies that consume more fuel are fast being struck off the menu across Kolkata’s restaurants grappling with the LPG crisis.Handi biryani, mutton rezala, rogan josh, gosht kaali mirch, dal makhani, and even rumali rotis have been either discontinued or were on their way out to conserve scarce LPG at several fine-dining restaurants. Desserts, too, were struck off the menu and were being outsourced at some restaurants.With most restaurants either shifting to induction cookers and chullahs to get around the fuel shortage, dishes that take long to prepare are being taken off burners. Those serving Mughlai and north Indian cuisine were most affected. “While we moved to an open chullah to centrally cook all our biryani, we decided to discontinue handi biryani, dal makhni and rumali rotis, which are fuel guzzling. Mutton items have to be cooked on a low flame for a long period and end up consuming a lot of gas. These can’t be prepared well on electronic gadgets, while we already have our open chullah booked for biryani, which can’t be discontinued,” said Aminia owner Kabir Azhar. He added that ‘non-priority’ items like sweet dishes, too, will be temporarily discarded. Songhai-Manthan decided to drop 2 of their major mutton dishes — rogan josh and mutton biryani. “While biryani is not one of our best-selling dishes, we will continue to serve mutton kaali mirch, which is a variant of rogan josh. But it will be impossible to prepare both once we run out of our LPG stock,” said owner Sudesh Poddar, also the President of the Hotel and Restaurants’ Association of Eastern India. Songhai, too, will discontinue its desserts — brownie and cheesecake. These will now be outsourced.Several Mughlai joints discontinued rumali rotis since they have to be cooked on an open flame that keeps an upturned kadai warm. “The flame can’t be turned off and the cost of preparing 50 rumali rotis is the same as preparing 200 pieces. And fuel consumption is very high,” said a restaurant manager.Mughlai chain Oudh 1590 decided to ‘prioritise’ 80% of its top-selling items. “We discontinued keema kalija, which is a signature dish but not a frequently ordered one. In sweet dishes, we are alternating between firni and shahi tukda,” said owner and co-founder Shiladitya Chaudhury.A restaurant owner described the situation as ‘very grim’. “My LPG vendor stopped supply and we are holding on to our last stocks. Our menu was curtailed in a major way, while biryani and tandoor items are now being cooked on a ‘coal bhatti’. But it has limited capacity and we are also using induction cookers,” he said. Oasis on Park Street hasn’t run out of LPG yet but cut down its use by 75%. “We are steaming the biryani rice in electric steamers while the meat is prepared separately in pressure cookers to minimise gas use. For Chinese, too, we are using electric boilers, electric fryers and inductions,” said owner Pratap Daryanani.
