Category Archives: Lucknow

Chasing flavours – Malai Makhan

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The traditional Malai Makkhan in Lucknow

The traditional Malai Makkhan in Lucknow

Malai Makkhan or cream butter is one of the most amazing sweet snacks sold during the winters in Lucknow and Kanpur (and also some other parts of UP). While the name may scare the diet conscious, the true product is much much lighter and devoid of any noticeable fat content.

I normally had trouble describing how it looks like, and thus the picture above. Incidently, I have been buying this amazing sweet from the same seller (who comes on a bicycle singing along makkhan malai on the streets) for over a decade! 

The best description of the recipe of this treat is  - saffron flavoured frothed cream, made by hanging unsalted butter overnight in dew and then aerating it by beating it.

Dew being an important factor to manufacture this delicacy, its only during the winters and early spring that we Lucknow-ites are blessed with this. I has a slightly sweet flavor of  frothy cream which just vanishes in your mouth tickling your taste buds wanting for more.

Shape of things to come

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One of the key questions which I have asked myself many times is whether I really have any acumen for business or atleast marketing. This question has been answered and yet it shall be asked again!

Anyways, yesterday I observed a tetrapack of ‘Onjus Thandai’. What surprised me was that just 3 weeks ago me and a friend of mine had recommended the same product for Haldirams in a competition. I believe we weren’t too wrong. However, I also observe that Onjus suffers from:

  1. A brand name tied well with oranges, this might just hurt them.
  2. Little distribution, very regional in availibility.
  3. Assortment – Is putting Thandai in the rack of juices a good idea?

Looking at the ‘ganjing’ trip I made today. I also observed a few changes which have hit my city Lucknow…I would just raise questions here..and avoid suggesting answers.

The Indian Coffee House is totally revamped (actually was revamped quite a while ago, but I visited it today). Now it just looks like a new age cafe than the old coffee house with wooden tables and fans hanging from metre long poles. The menu is revamped too with Italian food and a full blown Indian dinner menu as well. Prices have also gone up but still acceptable.

Now the real question is: Indian Coffee House has been, through the decades, the centre for politican and literary discussions in Lucknow. But this revamp aims to make it more relevant to the new age consumers – the youth. By doing this is it not hitting its old clientile? Afterall, the old ambience and the laid back demenour of the place is what attracted them. Moreover, are changes in the menu, christmas decoration and better decor enough to attract this new target customer?

 

Diwali Break – Choti Diwali

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Another busy day, most of it went in shopping and bank related jobs. I still managed to take a few snaps of the festivities en mi casa.

It was really fun to be back in the diwali market rush and haggle for clay diyas, electric lamps, or kitchen utensils. Trust me, this is the real festival, the rush and the pavement shopping has no match in the malls of today. I did manage to get a good deal on electric lights and shall have my setup ready tomorrow morning.

I also spent a bit of time on clicking pictures of the drawing room with its dim lights, and one of them is a pretty decent snap…

Our drawing room!

I also hope to make my first rangoli tomorrow morning, hope that mom helps me with that…

Happy Diwali

Hasta la vista

Diwali Break – Dhanteras

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Its great to be home, after 5 months. Much has changed in the city, particularly the traffic has increased substantially. Another surprise is the infamous Ambedkar Park, that project of the current chief minister of UP seems to be re-constructed all again. This comes as a surprise because the Park had been completed more than 5 years ago and was open to public. I cannot understand the logic of almost reconstructing all of it! Illogical to me at the least, specially when there is a 14 kilometer long fly over awaiting completion in its last phase, stalled ever since the Government changed hands.

Anyways, its Dhanteras today, and I had a trip to the local Diwali market to buy the clay idols of Goddess Laxmi and God Ganesha. It was fun to be a part of the hustle and bustle of the market, I always enjoyed this bit of shopping in the Diwali market, it gives me the feel that the festive season has arrived. I happily clicked snaps and even recorded a small video of the paraphernalia on display. Boy, if you aren’t here then you miss all the fun!

Clay couples for Diwali…ain’t they lovely? My best pic for the day

Later, went with my grandpa to the nearby multiplex and bought advanced tickets for Om Shanti Om. Hope that it would be a good one, and then I splurged almost a thousand bucks on four books thanks to my grandpa…

I am back, but the festival has just begun, it is going to be quite at home but I know I would be enjoying every bit of it.

Fair Play

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There I am, back to my place at Lucknow, and also back to a Dial Up Internet connection. Well, I had just forgotten how terrible it always was using a Dial Up, and thanks to the bright people at BSNL, I cannot expect to have a Broadband connection at home till the time I goto Pune!

Now to the main topic, I used to crib a lot looking at buses in Bangalore having numbers and places written in Kannada, it used to be so inconvienent to me who doesn’t understand the language. I used to mutter that they should atleast write in English numerals, but then I was so biased! In the past week I could see that forms at the bank were totally in Hindi, BSNL customer care is in Hindi, all bus numbers and places in UP are written only in Hindi. Now while Hindi is the national language, a big number of us don’t understand it, and this makes it so inconvenient for the southwallahs who come over here.

Forgive me guys, its all fair game. You choose your language and we choose ours, there is no solution to this divide!