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Chickens fly out of the menu
NO WAITING or queuing up for the tongue tickling chicken biryani or lip smacking chicken tandoori at restaurants. The scare of bird flu has forced people to keep chicken dishes off their menus. Even most shopkeepers here are planning to switch over to mutton-based dishes as chicken preparations increasing lose favour of Kanpurites.
NO WAITING or queuing up for the tongue tickling chicken biryani or lip smacking chicken tandoori at restaurants. The scare of bird flu has forced people to keep chicken dishes off their menus. Even most shopkeepers here are planning to switch over to mutton-based dishes as chicken preparations increasing lose favour of Kanpurites.
The scare is such that orders booked for marriages and other functions are also being canceled. Some shopkeepers had to distribute their cooked food or dump it in dustbins.
Talking to HT, Fayyaj Ahmed, who owns a famous chicken biryani shop in the Parade area, said that over the last two days his sale dipped by 90 per cent.
The usual flutter outside Fayyaj’s shop is missing as less and less people are taking the risk to go for the winged delicacy.
Rakesh Biryani in Parade area threw away most of the biryani he had prepared yesterday. Ansar of the famous Baba Sweet House shared Fayyaj’s plight. He said that sale had dropped by 60 per cent. However, owner of Five Star Hotel Haji Nisrat said the avian flu scare did not hurt his business. Such is the drop in sales that noted Tandoori Chicken Centre has opted to introduce mutton biryani in place of the chicken kind.
Poultry shop owners are equally tense over dipping sales. Many said they were selling 10 per cent of what they usually do.
Md Yusuf of Varsi Chicken Centre and Shanu of Ajmeri Chicken Centre crossing said their stock acquired three days back was lying largely unsold.
However, those making most out of the bird flu scare are meat sellers. In view of the rise in demand, they up jacked up prices from Rs 120 to Rs 150 per kg.
Similarly, fish sellers are making good money as sale has increased by 25 per cent. President of Fish Traders’ Association Fareed Ahmad and another wholesaler Abdul Rub said they were winning big orders from marriage parties.
But there are many who see a conspiracy behind this scare. Advocate Sanjai Singh Jatav blamed synthetic feed dealers for the scare.
He said the scare was a way to browbeat poultry owners to switch over to synthetic food from the organic kind. Then there are some who have not chickened out. Ashoka Tailor Shop owner Irshad Ahmad said the scare has been a boon for his family. With prices of chicken dropping to Rs 36 per kg from the earlier Rs 60, Irshad’s family is taking chicken regularly.
