Meera Ali's first-ever visit to Lucknow was in 1990 when she married Muzaffar Ali, the erstwhile raja of Kotwara. Today, she is a custodian of Lucknow's fashion and food history with her brand House of Kotwaraset up with her husband in 1990-and a 2017 book, titled Dining with the Nawabs, relating anecdotes of sharing a table with the royalty of yore. The couple also runs Maashra by Kotwara, an Awadhi dining experience, in Delhi. Meera has called Lucknow her home for 34 years now. Here, she lets us in on her top spots in the City of Nawabs.
STREET TREAT
"Lucknow has excellent street food; one just has to have the appetite to discover it. Mubeen's in the Chowk area serves the best nihari and kulcha, ideally eaten early morning. We've relished it several times after a morning walk or a drive through the city. But the fabled cuisine of Lucknow is only found in old homes where the women, the traditional khansamas or cooks, continue to make special dishes like shalgam gosht-turnips and mutton cooked underground overnight."
SHAHNAJAF IMAMBARA
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