Dig into the tasty royal cuisine from Rampur

This was my first taste of Rampuri cuisine at the ongoing Dine Like The Royals with food from the kitchen of the Nawabs of Rampur, K3, JW Marriott, Aerocity. I was about to get a taste of the vegetarian food by my own choice, although I am a non-vegetarian.  The first thing that strikes you is the fact that this cuisine, unlike the Mughlai cuisine is lighter yet packed with the best of herbs and ingredients. You could get the taste of every ingredient bursting through layers of herbs and spices.

Rampuri cuisine is characterised by the use of dry spices and the use of khada masala (whole spices), which give the dishes its unique flavour, Rampuri cooks also make liberal use of ingredients like lotus stem, pineapple khus roots, jackfruit, figs in their dishes. I tasted jackfruit curry, mawe ka kebab, some very subtle yet fragrant pulao filled with chunks of fried cauliflowers. Fellow guests on my table raved about the non-vegetarian varieties which included lamb and chicken dishes. There was one dish which was quite the topic of conversation - kachche ghost ki kebab and the yellow chilli (specific to the region) sauce that was potent and pungent yet went so well with the dishes. Although this cuisine from Uttar Pradesh of India is usually dominated with the non-vegetarian dishes, the vegetarian fare that I tasted were rich and delicious yet rested very light on the tummy.

Hope you guys get to go and taste some of these Indian delicacies at the Dine Like the Royals food festivals where the chefs will be happy to give you the history of each and every culinary journey of this extraordinary Indian cuisine. It's on till 26th March

By Arati Thapa