FLAME undergrads explore Lucknowi food culture in research project

A group of 15 undergraduate students, under the Discover India Program of FLAME University recently studied the street food of Lucknow as their research project. When it comes to studying food in India, cross-cultural factors play a huge role. The teams aim, however, was to explore a city where the food culture has remained relatively untouched, throughout centuries. One of the oldest cities in India, Lucknow, known for having retained its traditional and authentic street food cuisine for over five centuries became the centre of their project.
With a purposive sampling and ethical guidelines in mind, the team set out to obtain authentic and credible information which could further be critically analysed. While studying the history and origin of dishes, it was clear that the popular joints as well as the food items spanned across a large timeline.
In the process of going into the depths of Lucknowi food and through interactions with the joint owners and food scholars, the team gained a metahistorical perspective. Apart from being exposed to a variety of ideologies and beliefs, credits to the research project, they also learnt to respect the difference of opinions within the group. Ironically, the attempt to explore ‘food’ through a daedal lens was also an attempt at creating an amalgamated identity for it. Not only did the team discover the authentic food gem of India, the city of Nawabs, Kebabs and Aadab, but also discovered themselves in the context of a different culture.
The process highlighted that dishes such as the Biryani, Galawati Kebabs, Sheermal, etc. are original to this city of Nawabs. While dishes such as Chaat, Kulfi and Makkhan Malai travelled to Lucknow and integrated into its identity.
While some recipes remained intact over the years, other vendors kept theirs a secret. Adaptation and continuation of traditional cooking techniques that use copper vessels, tandoors, and homemade equipment were observed on-field and credibility was analysed by referring to scholarly archives. While acknowledging such aspects of cooking methods and historical tracing were rather tangible and visible to the naked eye, the philosophical dimension of their research was relatively implicit. The direct interactions only gave the team a limited view of the beliefs followed, but drawing inferences from the ambience, body language and other additional factors played a huge role in the findings and facilitated this small-scale ethnographic research.