Street Food from Lucknow

Of men and manners: Of taste and tradition

Babu Lal Halwai (2022)Lucknow Bioscope

Lucknow Bioscope looks at the city through the history of street food. These are a potpourri of eateries dotting the city-scape in the form of small shops, thelas, hawkers, sometimes only a cubby-hole-in-the-wall. 

Front photo of Lakhpati Kachari (2022)Lucknow Bioscope

One marvels at the endless queues of patient customers, shared seating, if any, with strangers, and a remarkable system of keeping accurate billing accounts with little or no paperwork involved.

Abu Bakhr (2022)Lucknow Bioscope

These establishments follow their own rules, timings, levels of hygiene, as if to cock a snook at all the standardizations restaurants are expected to follow today. 

They provide reasonably priced and delicious food to all those who flock to them and go back for more. Their histories and aspirations have been shared by their owners.

Aloo Tikki on Iron Tawa. (2022)Lucknow Bioscope

So, the discussion here is not limited just to food, but extended to the personalities that have devoted their life's efforts to their enterprise. Eateries have been selected under the category of Kabab, Kulcha Nihari, Biryani/Pulao, Chaat, Khasta- Kachouri,  Sweets and Paan. So, while the eateries may be selling other food items as well, they have been selected under the specific category that they are best known for.

Credits: Story

Curation: Ansaf, Noor Khan, Saman Habib
Graphic: Stuti Mishra 
Photography: Anshubhi Singh, Ayan Bose, Isha Pratap Singh, Karan Kashyap, Tasveer Hasan 
Text and Translation: Amit Misra, Divya Joshi, Wasim Ahmed 
Special Thanks to: Amir Jamal, Madhavi Kuckreja 

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.

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