Chicken hops back on dishes safe!

YUMMY CHICKEN tikka, delicious leg piece, mouth-watering butter chicken are back on  hotel tables with a vengeance.

Perhaps the season of Holi has helped them to stage their comeback on the cuisine list.

“Yes! The bird is back,” claims president of UP Poultry Farmers’ Association Devesh Rastogi.

“We have already incurred a loss of Rs 50 crores in the city, Lucknow used to consume 70,000 kg of chicken and 15 lakh eggs per day. After the rumour of bird flu on February 18, the sale of chicken dropped to just 20,000 kg and 3 lakh eggs per day.  The sale of chicken has now reached nearly 50,000 kg, which means its now accepted by the people,” said Rastogi.

Bird flu or no, that leg piece still rules in our hotel, says deputy sales manager Hotel Taj Residency Shabahat Hussain.

“Our sale was never affected rather it went up after the scare of bird flu in the city. We assured our customers that we get our chickens from a famous company of Mumbai, which is the best in business. We cannot compromise on quality. We thank our customers for trusting us when they found it hard to believe others,” says Shabahat.

President of UP Hotels and Restaurant Association and senior vice president of Clarks group says, “chicken has made a silent return on the cuisine . The hotels which written off chicken as a dish have again included it in its menu card, moreover people have realised that the scare of bird flu no longer exists so they are ordering for chicken now.”

PRO Defense SMH Zaidi says, “ Army is having the supply of chicken from its contractors and we are quality conscious.”

“Yes the chicken is back again on the menu of railways dishes, but we cant say the same about the trains coming from Maharashtra,” said an official of NR railways.

Small eateries are once again watching chicken-lover come back. Owner of a Non-Veg Centre near Tulsi theatre Shahid said, “ Yes people have started demanding the chicken stuff once again. Our sales were surely affected after the scare of bird flu in the city but after the recent chicken mela and several other promotions people are back again.”

The Department of Tourism, Uttar Pradesh will be holding a “Kabab Festival” from April 1 to 3 this year for promoting the cuisine as a tourism product for the Awadh circuit in the city.

“The bird flu scare would have no impact on this festival. However, the venue for holding the festival is yet to be decided”, PK Singh, Regional Tourism Officer, Lucknow, Department of Tourism, Uttar Pradesh told HT Luckcnow Live.