4 min readMay 7, 2026 12:11 PM IST
First published on: May 7, 2026 at 12:11 PM IST
Orchha, a small town in Madhya Pradesh’s Niwari district, happens to be one of my go-to holiday spots. The reasons are many: Its rich history, its fascinating temples and palaces, its simple, almost-caught-in-a-time-warp pace of life and the grace with which the Betwa river undulates over the rocks.
But there is another reason to pick Orchha that lies some 17 km away, in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh. You see, to reach Orchha from Delhi, you will have to get down at Jhansi. And in what looks like any other market, there is an eatery, which has my heart: Meat ka Badshah. There is, however, nothing badshahi (royal) about this nondescript, no-frills establishment. But what it does not possess in appearance, it more than makes up for in the lip-smacking keema-kaleji. It is a concoction of minced meat and pieces of liver, served with roomali roti. I first had it in 2018, and eight years on, I have not been able to find anything that matches its perfection.
The keema-kaleji in Jhansi is just one example of the breathtaking non-vegetarian food that the vast state of Uttar Pradesh – which also happens to be my home state – dishes out.
So, when I learnt that UP has come up with a catalogue of over 200 dishes that are a hallmark of its 75 districts, as part of its ‘One District, One Cuisine’ scheme, I went looking for unique dishes to put in my bucket list. But all that it left me was asking for more. The items, 208 to be exact, did not include a single non-vegetarian item. No, not even the tunde kebab.
The state’s MSME Minister Rakesh Sachan has told The Indian Express that the omission was not intentional and that the list has been made by a committee comprising district magistrates, teachers, professors, and “local experts”.
This raises the question: How can one define the cuisine of a state that has a substantial number of non-vegetarians, and which is a leading meat producer in the country, without including a single meat dish? Is it even possible to have a conversation about the food of its capital, Lucknow, for instance, and not bring up its melt-in-the-mouth kebabs, its bursting-with-subtle-flavours biryani, its rich and guaranteed-to-send-you-to-taste heaven nihari?
There is no doubt that UP has some great vegetarian dishes. From the chaat in Agra to kachori-shaped samosas in Lucknow, from the makkhan-bread-mattha combo in Kanpur to malai toast in Varanasi, its cities will ensure you eat to your heart’s content without missing meat.
But, if you happen to be a meat eater, there is also no state quite like UP, with its selection of biryanis, kebabs (galawati, yes, but also majlisi, boti, shami, kakori and gilafi, to name a few), nihari and qorma.
UP is a state where you can start your day with tea and bun makhan, proceed to have a helping of khasta-kachori at mid-day, tuck in kebab-paratha for lunch, munch on samosa for evening snacks, and partake mutton biryani for dinner before calling it a day with the cloud-like makhan malai (trust me, Delhi’s Daulat ki chaat has got nothing on it).
Ask any non-vegetarian in UP, and they will tell you how dearly they hold its vegetarian dishes. Because in love, you don’t discriminate. And in a state like UP, which has been a confluence of different faiths and cultures for centuries, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food can happily co-exist.
An assurance by the minister gives some hope of the list being redeemed in future. “The list is flexible… (and) can be changed any time based on local recommendations and public demand,” he said.
When that happens, can we please give soya chaap a miss? I am sure even the vegetarians of UP won’t mind that.
The writer is assistant editor, The Indian Express
