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When there is an Awadhi food festival anywhere, you can judge the whole festival by their Galouti Kebab. If it is on the menu the day you go, that is! I’ve been unlucky sometimes, but time around luck was on my side. I am going to focus on two stunning dishes. Besides the great jelabi with curd that is apparently a breakfast staple in Lucknow.

The Galouti. The visiting chef, the winner of the first edition of Masterchef India has decided  to serve the food of his hometown instead of doing it the Italian way! And just for that, my respects for him are high. With deep knowledge of the cuisine along with some technical things like the differences between attar and ittar (the former is a just a perfume and the latter can be used both for food and to smell nice!), the chef dissects the differences between Awadhi and Mughalai with ease. The use of saffron, rather the non-use of saffron seems to be the biggest difference and without the food being as rich and heavy as the Mughal counterparts, Awadh is one of my favourite Indian cuisines.

The night would have simply belonged to the Galouti kebab. The chef dismisses the story about the king who couldn’t chew and all that and insisted that the Kakori kebab is his favourite, toppling the Galouti, but there was no Kakori kebab on the menu that day. So, Galouti is still king. Whether there was a king behind the story or not. Beautifully spiced, soft and melt-in-the-mouth served on a tiny paratha, there was nothing to not love about the Galouti.

But there was an underdog who didn’t let the Galouti run away with the prize. The lamb gravy called the Karele ka Korma. If I wasn’t so biased towards a Galouti, the winner that night would have been this korma. Making a melt-in-the-mouth kebab with meat that was minced, then minced again and then made in to paste suddenly didn’t seem like a big deal. The gravy with chunks of mutton, almost as easily melted away. With the super soft naan, the sheermal, giving stiff competition to the evening that could easily be titled, melt-in-your-mouth, the lamb was simply the winner. But due to my self confessed bias, I will declare the lamb as the joint winner with the galouti.

I didn’t taste much else, but the little bit of biriyani, supposedly the king of rice, was overshadowed by its humble side-kick, the raita. So much so, that I left the biriyani alone and drank the bhagara baingan raita. Literally. With beautifully spiced curd with nice nutty flavour notes, the biriyani had no chance of competing.

This is possibly what happens when a passionate chef wins a Masterchef title and still goes back to his roots! Reasonable perfection at a young age!

Awadhi Food Festival is on till the 16th of April at the Dining Room, Park Hyatt, Velachery.

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If you didn't understand the title, don't worry. No many do. Let me try to explain it to you. Hazratganj is a place. The other word has something to do with 'feast' and 'daawat' where lots of people get together. If you are still confused, think of it as a Lucknow Food Festival at Madras Pavilion in ITC Grand Chola.

It is a feast like food festival where kings are showcased. Where there is a palanquin in the middle of the restaurant. Do you know the palanquin? Where the royals sit and the not so royals carry them? Yes, I can read your mind now. Among the food family, it is reserved for our king. The Biriyani! When it is the Awadhi Biriyani, even the exec chef of the restaurant will carry him around in a palanquin and make the first set of guests cut open the screen to reveal the king. As if he is queen. Only queens need to be given that glamour, right? Why is this guy being treated with so much fuss?

As for me, I am this poor little white gravy tucked away among the buffet. I keep seeing this 'king' being given all the royal treatment, where as me, the poor gravy wasn't noticed. But I could hear what these food guys were talking about.

They were going crazy over the soups! Really going gaga over the mutton and then also the almond soup! And then over the kebabs. Of course, when there is Galouti on the menu, who wouldn't? But will they take notice of me? A poor like white gravy with a long name, the Murgh Rezala. My name may not be as royal as the single worded, biriyani, but I am tasty too! But who will notice me?  And my two friends, the Pumpkin Kebab and the Paneer in Pomegranate gravy? We maybe interesting, but it is the Galoutis and Biriyanis of the Lucknow world that get the attention. I am a little popular in Bengal though!

These food bloggers went crazy after the Galouti and the Fish. I heard words like 'fantastic' and 'awesome'. All meat eaters. I am a chicken too, but these guys are totally skewed towards meat.

But then something interesting happened! I heard a tall food blogger say that the 'Pumpkin Kebab' was way better than the Galouti!! Is this really happening? A meat eater actually prefers a vegetarian kebab to the OH-MY-GOD, Galouti? Maybe, I have a chance at getting tasted. And maybe even written about.

When I land on the table with the other main course dishes, I wasn't even photographed properly. Somewhere in the background of some dhal in a fancy pot. Hmmpff! I hear words like 'full with starters', but when there are my more famous cousins, the Nehari and the Haleem, I am sure they will find space in their stomachs to taste them. Maybe borrow space from other organs in their bodies to make space, if required!

Nope, I wasn't going to be tasted. My dear friend, the paneer in Anar, wasn't even on the table. Now they were gorging on some mushroom that is apparently Rs. 75000 (yes seventy five thousand) a kilo. Hmmmpfff! And then they eat the biriyani. I heard one foodie tell my chef that after all the amazing dishes, the 'biriyani' simply did not live up to the outstanding standards of the rest of the dishes. Or maybe, he said, that he couldn't even taste biriyani! So much for putting this guy on the palanquin.

And then I hear this awesome food lover who looks at me and says, "Interesting". Maybe I have a chance. He takes a piece of roti and dips it into me and takes a bite! And he lets out a moan! A really big MOAN! He looks at the chef, points at me and says, "What is that?" while taking another piece of roti! The chef finally introduces me. I hear lots of moans as the rest of them dip their rotis into me and start praising me. Yay! I got tasted. I got appreciation.

And our awesome food blogger points to the palanquin and tells the chef, "Hey, this Chicken Rezala thing should be on the palanquin!

Ha! In your face, you Awadhi biriyani! And in your backside, you Galouti! I am KING! Now make way...............

I am on the menu till 31st July 2016 and am priceless! You only have to take the dinner buffet if you want to taste me! 

Supposed to be a food lover's paradise, Lucknow has been on my wish list. Not because anything else, but just the Awadhi Biriyani and the Gulouti Kebab. Taj invited us over and here goes.... Now that a Awadhi chef landed here from Lucknow, I was dying to try the galouti kebab.

Starter: Nice. Check
Main Course. Nice. Check.
No galouti in main course. Grrr......
Dessert: Nice. Check.

If I am going to spend anytime on writing about it, it will be about the fantastic Awadhi Biriyani. Loved it. Okay. review over. Okay, particularly, the fish kebab was very good and in the main course, the dhal was stunning. Surprisingly for me, the vegetarian dishes were quite excellent, coming from a cuisine that is predominantly, meat based. Okay. Review over.

But having a Lucknow Chef in Chennai and not eating Galouti was nagging me. It was like we missed gold. So, three foodies, decided to go back by ourselves on Monday and eat the Galouti Kebab. We hatched a plan and landed there. Again.

And it was everything we wanted it to be. A nice sheermal (or shirmal, or sheermaal) served first. 5 pieces of galouti on a separate plate. I was a little too impatient and so I gulped down one piece. It was near nirvana. Near, because it was a little spicy for me. Obviously, it had to be eaten with the bread, so this time I followed protocol. Bread first. Take photo. Place the kebab on top. Take photo. Smear it.  Take photo. Fold it. Thats it. After that I was done taking photos. Kept the camera aside. Folded it and gulped it down. This time it was nirvana. 4 such nirvanas. And we were done!!!!!!

Long live Awadhi Food Fest. Unfortunately its on only till the 26th of Oct!!!

Having a long day at work while fasting, is a little more tiresome! And if you are stuck on the road in traffic at the time of breaking fast, its a little more annoying. For a day that started at 4 am and having had only water at 645 and nothing again till 8 pm, the Awadhi Food Fest came as a beautiful end to the day! Marriott has flown down Chef Younis Khan from Bombay, who apparently specialises in Awadhi cuisine and the minute we heard 'Galouti Kebab', all foodies were in!

What surprised us was that the restaurant was packed on a Wednesday evening. There was a large family of about 16 people in the table next to us and they were very intrigued by us taking food photos and having the chef next to us and it was a pleasure when they wanted to take photos of themselves and were praising the chefs to no end. It's always nice when you have a great food experience and you know that the table next to you also had a great time. Its like sharing the good things that enhances them! Complete with a dancer and the place set up with props, this was the works.

This is a buffet which has (besides the regular buffet), a selection of Awadhi cuisine. You get two veg and two non veg starters, followed by an excellent buffet spread. The galouti this time was different. The meat was cooked to perfection and was a melt in the mouth, but the flavour was slightly different. I wasn't able to point out what was overpowering, but the melt in the mouth lamb made us forget the flavours. I didn't know that could happen! This was followed by an excellent Malai Prawn. The galouti kebab faded in comparison! This was just super yumm!!!! For the vegetarians, there was a vegetarian galouti kebab that was a stunner for me. I would have preferred if it was called by a different name, but the paneer potato sandwich in the guise of a galouti was a kicker. The masala paneer completed the four starters, but having been invited by Marriott, we were served one extra veg and non veg starter - a superbly tender lamb ribs and a very average malai paneer.

Having stuffed ourselves with the starters, we contemplated going straight to dessert in a typical BBQ Nation style, but the smell of the biriyani was alluring. This was the Awadhi style biriyani, complete with raisins et all, and in the same pace that Iftar' box's quality dropped in Chennai, the quality of the food festivals are going up notch by notch! We all enjoyed the wonderful biriyani, but were even more surprised by the Nehari, which had a pull apart lamb that could be tore with a finger! Super yum! The dessert spread had a surprise - a mirchi halwa! Clearly with an overpowering capsicum taste, this was a masterpiece. Sweet, but without undermining the taste of the capsicum.

We came for the Galouti, but went back having a superbly satisfying meal.  The festival is on till the 20th of July and the menu changes everyday!