Hyderabad: Finding Telangana cuisine in Hyderabad is a near impossible task. Although there are close to 9,000 small and medium eateries including restaurants, hotels, food joints, tiffin and mess centres besides star hotels, original Telangana delicacies are not easily available.
Even the state-run hotels, like the Haritha Plaza Hotel in Begum-pet, are no exception.
One can't find Naatu Kodi Koora (a country chicken speciality), Nalli Bokka Koora, Mamsam Vepudu, bheja fry and boti fry, Bagara rice, Mudda Pappu and Pachhi Pulusu, Jonna Gatkha in the regular menu cards of noted hotels.
One can get North Indian, South Indian, Udipi and Chinese cuisines, but if one wishes to order traditional Telangana dishes, he or she is in for a disappointment.
Even Telangana snacks like Sakinalu, sesame laddus and Sarvapindi are not available.
Mr S. Dayakar Reddy, an NRI, who came for a brief visit to his home city, experienced the same feeling. He wanted to savour Telan-gana delicacies along with his family, but he could not find any.
The Tourism department has arranged Telangana food festivals on two or three occasions in the last 18 months, when few hotels had served popular dishes of the region. But they only lasted for a few days.
Telangana Hotels and Restaurants Association president Mr Venkat Reddy, who also owns Hotel Vivera near Bhongir on the Hyderabad-Warangal highway said that most of the chefs working in Hyderabad hotels were from other states and were clueless about Telangana cuisine.
Chef Paramesh who has been in the industry for over 35 years and is famous for his Telangana dishes, stated that the craze for Telangana dishes has grown after the formation of the new state.
Names of some dishes may sound similar to some Andhra dishes but ingredients are different as is the preparation. The few places that serve Telangana food are Palamoor Grills (Hitec City), T Grills (Gachibowli) and Telangana Ruchu-lu (Secunderabad).
Telangana Govt help needed for a boost
Chefs in star hotels in the city say that aggressive campaigning about Telangana cuisine by the state government is needed. Like Punjabi or Rajasthani dishes, Telangana food should also be popularised at the national level, they say.
Chef Mandaar Sukhtankar, executive chef at The Park feels that Telangana cuisine could become popular but a concerted effort is neered from the chefs.
Deepak (name changed) an executive working in a five star hotel on the city's outskirts said, "We received an amazing response during the TS food festival. People flocked in large numbers to taste different food items." Chefs could be trained to cook Telan-gana food but the government too should publicise TS recipes, he said.
