'Meal on wheels' a hit with foodies

LUCKNOW: After creating waves during the 1942 Quit India Movement, `Baghi Ballia' has caused a stir once again. Only this time, it is on the streets of Lucknow, and it has less to do with the freedom struggle and more with rumbling stomachs needing urgent appeasement. Here, the name conjures images of piping hot `bati chokha' -- a spicy blend of mashed potato and brinjal teamed with stuffed wheat flour cakes.And better still, if you can't reach Lallu Singh's ‘pucca' kitchen to partake of the delicacy, it's also available, not too far away, in its `meal on wheels' avatar.
If mobile kitchens and large crowds thronging them are passe in metros like Mumbai and Delhi, Lucknow is also warming up to the phenomenon. And if consumer reactions are anything to go by, many homemakers are preferring to let husbands buy their lunch, rather than packing their `dabbas' from home. Sunil Kumar, a government official who frequents Baghi Ballia's bati chokha joint, said: "Eating at this outlet is a good change. My wife gets a day off from cooking and I get a break from home cooked food too.'' If others like Kumar and taking to mobile kitchens available around office corners, vendors are also quick to cash in on the trend. Manager, Baghi Ballia Baba wali Bati Chokha, Kamleshwar Singh said: "We had our pucca shop but decided to set up a mobile kitchen near the health directorate because of a large demand for bati chokha from high court judges and lawyers. With many government offices in the vicinity, our business boomed once we began dishing out food from the mobile van.''
Most mobile restaurants in the city typically start their day at 11am and sell till 5pm. And once offices call it a day, it's also time for the restaurants to find greener pastures. Enroute to their new location, workers get busy preparing fresh consignments of food and by 6pm, kitchens are already dishing out fresh batches of piping hot food at new locations in the city.
If the trend for mobile kitchens, as opposed to permanent shops, is picking up, it is because it works well for both consumers and shop owners. Consumers are able to choose from a variety of cuisines and vendors can shift locations depending on demand. Operating from outside Krishi Bahawan, owner of Shri Ganesh Rasoi, Kamta Prasad Verma, said: "We get large crowds, especially during office hours. Often we exhaust the day's resources ahead of time because we've done good business. Then we pack up and go elsewhere.''
But what may appear a boon for hungry stomachs could well be a menace for the city administration and a nightmare for the already dismal traffic conditions in the city. Vendors laughed: "We collect Rs 300 each per month and pay the amount to the authorities whenever they come to threaten us with action. Then we just continue with our businesses.'' Nagar Nigam authorities, on their part, express their inability to curtail such businesses. Lucknow city health officer SC Dubey said: "There is no law that governs such mobile food shops. At best, we can take punitive action against vendors for dirtying their surroundings, but even that is difficult because they do not divulge correct identities. The drive gets stuck in a legal battle and we are able to do precious little to curtail such activities.''
The booming business at mobile restaurants may reveal a new side of the vibrant Lucknow that is constantly on the move, but the lack of absence of adequate monitoring mechanisms, both for quality as well as for administrative purposes, also makes it hard to decide whether to applaud or run down the changing city.