The current LPG shortage, due to the Middle East crisis, is showing its impact on the satvik food during the ongoing Navratri food menu as well. Food joints in Lucknow have tweaked their menu to offer quick-cooked and grilled food items that don’t require slow cooking.
Items like paratha, chaat and slow-cooked items have been opted out by many food joints.
“We have skipped items like kutu-paratha, roti and sizzlers as it consumes a lot of fuel. Instead, we have increased our charcoal menu like paneer tikka, paneer hariyali tikka, aloo tikka to our signature menu. In fact, we are preparing kuttu puri too on a charcoal burner,” says Chef Nittin from Pack-n-Chew.
Classic Radhey Sweets too have skipped all fasting chaat items this time. “Chaat needs a lot of fuel and the tawa has to be kept burning for a longer duration. Instead, we are focusing on items like Allo-stuffed Khasta, Malai Puri, Makkhan Vara and other sweets items along with our special thai,” tells Utkarsh Gupta.
Prices too have been tweaked. Matrika Gupta of Ram Asrey Sweets tells us, “We are using traditional cooking methods now so have upped prices a little to meet the extra cost. Also we have skipped phalhari khasta, malpua, singhara battisa (barfi) and a few other items this time.”
The Aviaan, which is running a satvik festival at its restaurant, introduced a special thali and an à la carte menu. “We are able to do so as we have modern electrical cooking equipment. Our Chef Vijay has curated items like angoori rasmalai, sabudana tikki and other items for our guests,” says its general manager Akash Singh Rathod.
An official at Fairfield by Marriott informed that they too have just kept some falhari chaat, fruit and the thali item for the fasting inhouse guests and visitors.
