Travel Entry: Punjabi Food

I had to dedicate one entry regarding my trip to India just for the food we ate in Punjab. Mostly vegetarian and very very delicious. The flavor of the vegetables in the North of India is really not found anywhere else in India.

First, breakfast! Nothing like stuffed Kulchas in the morning. These are made of wheat dough and stuffed with cauliflower or tangy potatoes or panner (cottage cheese) and then cooked in a tandoor oven slapped against the walls of the hot tandoor. Served with spicy cholas (garbanzo beans) and pickle. Oh and how can I forget.. That IS a big chuck of butter! Have two of these in the morning and you are all set!

The best thing that goes after the kulchas is a hot cup of tea. And yes, the young couple next to me are my Mom and Dad. :)

For snaking during the day, nothing like hot pakoras (vegetable fritters) with chutney. To get them extra crisp these are fried twice! Sinful!
After mentioning Pakoras, talking about samosas is the right thing to do. Check out these busy bees stuffing dough with a spicy potato mixture for samosas and see the picture following it. Do you blame me for overeating?

Another favorite snack.. Pani Puri. These are hollow and crisp, filled with a small quantity of potato and then filled with a spicy chilled beverage. They are hard to resist, but due to the unknown source of water used, I would recommened having these only in reputable resturants and not on the streets.

Not an uncommon site to see people cooking on the street in the early mornings. Here puris are being made. Puris are made from wheat flour and then deep fried. Check out the size of the wok!

And it is almost impossible to go to Punjab and not try some tandoori chicken. This is where you can eat "real" tandoori chicken and this is how it looks like. I am so tired of trying every Indian resturant in the US trying to find a decent place that serves tandoori chicken with isn't floroscent pink.

Next week, I hope to share some techniques of how I make tandoori naan at home.

Travel Blog: Mumbai to Delhi to Amritsar

After staying a few days in Mumbai and meeting up with friends ad family we fly to New Delhi to start our journey to the North of India.
Our first stop is Delhi, just for the night. Traffic undoubtadely is again painful, but the Metro Light rail system is already up and running here.
One thing I couldn't get over in Delhi was their obsession with toilets... and that too weird ones.
Look at the two pictures below... The big grey building has sign on it "Toilet Complex". I was so curious to see what it was about, but took the picture from our taxi.
The next one was a very ugly bad toilet at the train station going from Delhi to Amritsar. It is titled "Deluxe Toilet".. nothing deluxe about it!

Amritsar is a sacred city for Sikhs where there are beautiful temples. It falls in the Punjab state, which is huge agricultural land.
The train journey from Delhi to Amritsar was around 7 hours. It does start early, so you can see my mom doozed off and my Dad hoping to fall asleep. :) Tried some color effects in my camera too.

I couldn't fall asleep as the journey was so scenic. The train goes through endless acres of lush green fields. They extend all the way to the horizon.
I believe the picture below is of a rice field. Needless to say the food in the Northern region of India tastes so much better. There is a lot of flavor in the vegatables which is not found at other places.

But then the other factor that makes everything tastes so good in Punjab is the deep frying. Check out these fritters (potato, cauliflower, onion etc..) not fried once but "twice" to perfection. Well known as "Pakoras"
It has to taste good. :)