Iconic eatery Tunday Kababi to stop selling buffalo meat kebabs
Tunday Kababi, one of Lucknow’s most iconic eateries, has stopped selling kebabs made of buffalo meat and is now offering chicken kebabs instead at its outlets in the old city and Nazirabad, days after chief minister Yogi Adityanath ordered a crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses across Uttar Pradesh.
Mohammad Usman, whose grandfather established Tunday Kababi in 1905 and who is now the owner, also confirmed their outlet in the old city was closed for a day on Wednesday due to a shortage of buffalo meat.
“There is a problem in procuring buffalo meat at the moment and so we had no option but to stop selling the kebabs that used to be our USP,” Usman told HT.
A visit to Lucknow is incomplete without tasting the melt-inthe-mouth galouti kababs at Tunday Kababi and hundreds of people jostle through the crowds on the cramped streets of the Old City to savour them. “These kebabs used to be among the most sold, mainly because of their taste and affordability,” Usman said, adding that about 60kg of buffalo meat was consumed each day in the outlets.
Closure of illegal and mechanised slaughterhouses has been among the pre-poll commitments of Adityanath’s BJP. The party seems to be acting on its promise, with a number of abattoirs being subjected to raids and shutdowns. Buffalo meat preparations are sold not just in Tundey outlets but across various other popular eateries as well.
“Our adversaries would like to raise the pitch against us but let’s be very clear we are not against authorised and licensed slaughterhouses. But anything illegal would certainly invite action,” UP minister Siddharth Nath Singh said.