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History of the Tunday Kabab
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- Category: Indian Food Articles
- Published: Monday, 25 April 2011 00:00
- Written by Dinesh
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On our trip to India this year, I was introduced to the Tunday kabab which is apparently a specialty of Lucknow. Lucknow is famous for its kababs and if the Tunday kabab is one of the more famous ones from there, it was hard not to go try it out. The Tunday kabab is a a flat pattie like kabab which is really soft and succulent. It is so soft its difficult to hold it in your fingers as it just falls apart. We got to sample this at the Tunday Kababi Restaurant in Bangalore, which is a branch of the restaurant from Lucknow. The kababs are created into patties and fried in a shallow pool of oil, as you can see in the pictures. They are usually cooked on a large pan in large groups of 25+ patties. While eating at the restaurant we found an interesting story behind the origin of the Tunday Kabab. The story goes as follows - There was once a Nawab (royal family member) who really loved to have kababs, but as age caught up with him, he lost his teeth and was unable to enjoy the kababs. He apparently setup a contest that whoever created the softest and most succulent kababs would enjoy royal patronage henceforth. The secret recipe was created by Haji Murad Ali, who apparently had only one hand. In India, a person with a leg disability is called Langdey, while a person with a hand disability is called Tunday, hence the name Tunday Kabab. The secret recipe apparently has 160 spices (who knew there were 160 spices out there) including Sandalwood. The recipe is a family secret and is passed down to the generations by the ladies of the house. |
Verdict : The kabab is definitely very tasty, soft and succulent but it was almost too soft for me. It was like eating a kheema curry than a kebab. For now, I would probably prefer a sheek kabab over this, but someday in the future when I am older and toothless, maybe I will appreciate this kebab a little more.
A chef with one arm, a toothless royal and a legendary kebab. Who could have dreamt that? Almost fictional huh?
Tunday Kababs are available at
Tunday Kababi
479 5th Block, KHB Colony (near Krishna Temple)
Koramangala
Phone - 97315 53030.