The Well-Fed Bong

Kakori has always enjoyed name recognition. It was once a prosperous hamlet known for poets, civil servants, kababs and mangoes; then a train robbery made the place worthy of an Amir Khan movie . Kakori even went interplanetary in 1976 – for some unknown reason a crater on Mars is named after it. Of late, however, Kakori enjoys a different kind of name recognition – as the somewhat unexpected flag bearer for Lucknow’s Nawabi cuisine. I say unexpected because till fairly recently, the Kakori was a niche product –  Tunde’s famous galouti or the more ubiquitous shammi kabab usually led Lucknow’s charge against the tandoori invasion. There are traditional galouti vendors everywhere - Delhi, Kolkata in addition to Lucknow - but kakori till recently had never stepped beyond the mango orchards of its namesake hamlet. However, in the last few years, I’ve notice that the not-so-humble Kakori has stolen the march. The Galouti has melted away and even hole-in-the-walls now advertise the ...