Raj Kumar saxena

Part 3

 Web presence of book - Dastarkhwan-e-Awadh

When the book was published we did create a very basic web-site describing the book and its contents with the help of a well-wisher Mr. Satyendra Gupta. The website  http://saxenark.tripod.com/awadh.html  which still exists, had fairly good number of hits.

                The result was that we started getting mails from all over the world. First one came from a person who was a native of Kakori,  now living in Dubai appreciating our recipe of Kakori Kabab on the net. Second one came from Managing Editor of Cuisine Net Café’ in Brooklyn stating that it is very difficult to light a dung cake fire there to do our ‘Zamin Doz Machli” recipe. Many more mails appreciating the work followed. Few of the noted ones :

A botany herbarium expert of Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, UK

Dean, Hotel School, Virginia Tech, VA, USA

A senior citizen couple from Canberra, Australia who liked our recipe of “Lazzez Lauki” but wanted to know more about khoya, curd, chironji and kewra water

A businessman from Pune - a regular at Dum Pukht – who tried our recipe of Raan and found it very good.

A Hotelier from Hyderabad who wanted help to set up an Awadhi Speciality restaurant

CEO of GourmetIndia.com starting a discussion on his portal on Awadhi cuisine and ingredients like Zarakush and Baobeer

There were many reviews on different sites, many sites blatantly copied and reproduced text/pictures from our site. I found in  atleast two up-scale restaurants- one in Machla Marg, New Delhi and  another in Hammersmith, London – menus in which the name & description of the some dishes were copied word-by-word from our book. Horror of horrors – when I perused an award winning book “Emperor’s Table, The Art of Mughal Cuisine” by Salma Husain released in 2008. This book won Gourmand’s 2008 World Cookbook Award for "Best Culinary History" on 01^st  July 2009 in Paris. The book had simply reproduced 2-3 pages word-by-word description of cooking methods from our book. We did not want to bring it to the notice of the author or publisher. As long as Awadhi Cuisine was gaining ground nationally and internationally, it served the objectives of the initiative which we undertook in 1997. On a random check, references to our book were found on the following web sites :

http://www.supremecourtcases.com/index2.php?option=com_content&itemid=65&do_pdf=1&id=20670

http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.in/2005/10/dastarkhwan-e-awadh-itr-tempered-ghee.html

http://www.gourmetindia.com/topic/112-awadhi-cuisine/

http://lotsafood.blogspot.in/search/label/Avadh

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/63074-lazzat-e-taam/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dastarkhwan-e-awadh-sangeeta-bhatnagar/1013014321?ean=9788172232306&itm=1&

http://www.anothersubcontinent.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1038-food-from-hazrat-nizamuddin/

http://awadhfood.blogspot.in/

http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080220000626AAlSDI9

http://lucknow.yalwa.in/Catering-Services/31427/

http://en.goldenmap.com/Awadhi_cuisine

http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/awadhi_dum_aloo

http://en.petitchef.com/recipes/hing-jeerey-ke-aloo-fid-265527

http://www.ptmcindiavacations.com/special-interest/gourmand-tour.htm

http://www.indiaclub.com/Shop/searchresults.asp?ProdStock=4152&Loc=SRCAB

http://www.scribd.com/doc/59548824/BHM-SYLLABUS-CHRIST-UNIVERSITY-BANGALORE

http://www.anothersubcontinent.com/forums/index.php?/topic/6882-halal-butcher-talk/

http://www.navhindtimes.in/ilive/connoisseurs-royal-food

http://www.indiaclub.com/Shop/searchresults.asp?ProdStock=4152

http://www.anothersubcontinent.com/forums/index.php?/topic/5791-as-community-cookbook-collectors-club/page__st__60

http://lotsafood.blogspot.in/2008_01_01_archive.html

http://www.anothersubcontinent.com/forums/index.php?/topic/2053-desi-cookbooks-food-books/page__st__450

http://thalassamikra.blogspot.in/2005/04/love-fine-food-ergo-cannot-become.html

http://chefvishal.blogspot.in/2007/08/about-awadh-and-its-cuisine.html

http://chefvishal.blogspot.in/2007_08_01_archive.html

http://www.uppercrustindia.com/oldsite/25crust/twentytwo/recipes.html

http://endlessbanquet.blogspot.in/2004/11/edible-gold.html

http://mysoorean.blogspot.in/2009/03/lazeez-lauki.html

http://menshealth.intoday.in/story/Lick-your-lips/0/91.html