Hyderabad hotels reduce menu amid LPG cylinder shortage

Hyderabad hotels and tiffin centres are reducing menus due to a shortage of commercial LPG cylinders caused by the Israel-US-Iran conflict. Items like puri and idli are being skipped, and some establishments are switching to firewood for cooking.

Hyderabad: Not everything on the menu is being offered at the hotels in the city, courtesy the short supply of commercial LPG cylinders in view of ongoing Israel, US – Iran conflict.

Several small hotels and tiffin centres have cut down their menu in view of the gas cylinder shortage. “Usually, I prepare idli, puri, upma, dosa, mysore bajji and wada. Of the six, I make only two items on any day; the next day, two other items are removed from the menu, and the cycle repeats. Can’t do anything, I am now cooking on firewood,” said Santosh Kumar, of Sri Balaji Tiffin Centre.

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The hotel and tiffin centre owners point out that the profit margins had dwindled for the last 20 days. “There is a narrow profit margin; sometimes I don’t make any profit. Workers at the hotel are natives of Jharkhand and Bihar; we have to give them work so the hotel is open,” said Manmohan Yadav, of Annapurna Tiffin Centre at Mehdipatnam.

There are roughly 10,000 tiffin centres and small hotels in Greater Hyderabad where between 2 and 10 people work.

“Due to the shortage of commercial LPG cylinders, we are using firewood. The masters are not ready to cook on firewood and complain of a lot of smoke. So I gave the master (cook) a week’s leave and started preparing the items myself. The show has to go on,” said S Balaji, of Sri Sai Tiffin Centre.

A majority of the hotels have stopped preparing and serving the hot puri as it requires a lot of gas. And in some places, items that take more time to cook and consume more fuel are not being prepared. Even idli has gone off the menu in some eateries, including popular chains.

Big hotels have also reportedly cut down their menu due to the shortage of LPG gas, but do not admit it on record. “We are managing, that’s all I can say,” said a manager at a prominent Udupi hotel at Basheerbagh.