Samosas beat tie biscuits to the Irani cafe platter

HYDERABAD: The once famous tie-biscuits, lukmes, khajoors and double buns are slowly disappearing from the menu cards of the city hotels, particularly those in the Old City, with samosas and mirchi bajjis replacing them.
Double buns and tie biscuits were once the favourite ''dip in tea'' delicacies of the people. Khajoor, a sweet dish, and lukmes adorned the showcases of the hotels and cafes and are revered a lot by the ''cafeizens'' of the Old City.
"However, these items have lost their place.Now hot mirchis and samosas are ruling the roost. There seems to be no particular reason why people turned away from these," says Salam, owner of Blue Moon cafe at Malakpet.
Lukmes are favoured by people when they are served hot.We used to make fresh lukmes every morning and evening and they used to sell like hot cakes. But now they are not preferred by many. Even many cafes and hotels were not serving these items, said Krishna Mohan of Yakutpura having a gulp of tea at a wayside hotel.
However, buns are still favoured by some. A double bun dipped in tea or with the ''chote samosas'' is a heavy diet and keeps one full for a long time.
Samosas and mirchi bajjis, along with onions cut into pieces are the new delicacies for the people with availability at almost all the times. Tie-biscuits are now confined to bakeries and few hotels, while lukmes have almost become a thing of past.
Thankfully, the people of the Old City, unlike their counterparts in the other parts of the city, are not fully accustomed to soft drinks and we still continue to bank on the various kinds of tea, an ''Irani chai'' cafe owner in Yakutpura said.