लखनऊ के दस्तरख़्वान पर अब पहाड़ का स्वाद भी।
Lucknow is a city that takes its food seriously, and its own kitchens are rich in ghee, slow cooking and pickles. Hill food fits in more easily than you might expect: a Pahadi ghee, a jar of mustard-oil achaar, or a bag of hill rajma has a ready place on a Lucknow table.
For families with roots in Kumaon or Garhwal, the harder thing to find is the everyday hill staple: gahat, bhatt for chudkani, jakhiya and jambu for the tadka, madua for winter rotis. Here you order those straight from the family shops that make them, and each shop packs and sends its own parcel. Cash on delivery is available where the shop offers it, as the product page shows.
In Lucknow and across Uttar Pradesh, Makar Sankranti is known as Khichdi, and khichdi is cooked and given on the day. In Kumaon the same morning is Ghughutiya, when ghughute fried from flour and jaggery are strung into garlands for the children. A pot of khichdi with hill ghee and a jar of pickle on the side, and a plate of ghughute after it, joins the two well.
Lucknow's summers are fierce and its monsoon is humid. Ghee turns liquid in May and June, which is normal; keep it away from the stove. Through the rains, keep spices and loon sealed, use a dry spoon in pickles, and move opened flour to the fridge.