Tuesday, December 29, 2015

'Odia traditional food is one of the best in the world, believe you me' - K.J.S.Chatrath

Prawn curry - Odia has some of the tastiest prawns in the world.


Odia traditional food is one of the best in the world, believe you me. 

Want to know more about it? 


Wednesday, November 25, 2015

'Wazwan of Kashmir' - K.J.S.Chatrath



Photo source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/When-a-train-pilot-says-Im-sick-its-time-for-a-leak/articleshow/49928159.cms


                                           Rogan Josh- a lamb dish. Photo source: Wikipedia 


Wazwan is a multi-course meal in Kashmiri cuisine. Almost all the dishes are meat-based using lamb or chicken. It is popular throughout Kashmir, besides being served in India at major hotels and restaurants
In the Kashmiri language, waz means a 'cook' and wan means 'shop'. The ultimate formal banquet in Kashmir is the royal wazwan. Of its thirty-six courses, between fifteen and thirty can be preparations of meat, cooked overnight under the supervision of a master chef called a vaste waze. Guests are seated in groups of four and share the meal out of a large copper platter called the traem. (Text source: Wikipedia)

...

Monday, November 16, 2015

'Tasty snacks at Obeidulagunj, district Raisen, near Bhopal, India' by K.J.S.Chatrath

I was in Bhopal last week. I was advised that one of the places to be seen was Bhimbetka cave rock paintings. I was also advised that on the way to Bhimbetka from Bhopal one must have samosa-gulab jamun snacks at a particular shop.

Returning back from Bhimbetka, I was half dozing in the car when the driver suddenly stopped the vehicle with a jerk. 'Kya hua (what happened) I asked him opening my sleepy eyes. 'Samosay', was his smiling, one word reply. We had reached the famous samosa-gulab jamun shop.




The name of this small, about 20,000 population town was 'Obeideulapur'. I got down and saw a lttle crowdbusy in eating snacks. I too ordered one large samosa and two gulab jamunas for myself and the same for the driver. 

The samosas was surely big as the samosas go- and tasty with a nice filling of mashed boiled potatoes and just a few peas. The gulabjamuns, incredibly fresh, were dark and floating in a generous helping of of sweet, tasty syrup. We qucikly polished those off and finished the adventure with a nice small glass of tea.
Fresh gulab jamuns being prepared.




While making the payment I saw this impressive photo of the owner of the eating place- 'Puran Pahllwan (Puran, the wrestler).
 

And how much did I pay for this extravaganza? Calculate yourself! 


While munching this samosa, my thoughts went back a few months. I was in a multi-nationality Group travelling through the Canadian Rockies in a coach. We reached a small, small, town with about 3,000 population at around lunch time. The name of the town was Chemanius. It is famous, inter-alia, for 39 wall paintings depicting its history. Our Group leqader gave us just 45 minutes to take the photos, snatch a bite and reach back in  the coach.  Even if I miss the lunch, I am not going to starve, I told myself and got busy taking photos of those wall paintings, which I would be sharing on my website soon. By the time I finished taking phots I had just 5 minutes left for the bus to leave. No, I just cant be late and give a bad name to 1.2 billion Indians I coaxed myself as I ran towards a small departmental store nearby.  



I had a quick look at the eatables available. All seemed to be having meat of some sort or the other. I shrugged my shoulders and started moving towards the exit. Then a middle aged lady behand the counter said 'Hello'. Hello I replied back and told her Sorry, I was looking for something vegetarian to eat. 

Ah, no problem, I will give you a 'samosa' she said, without batting an eyelid.
My face brightened. I took the samosa paid for it, thanked the lady and ran towards the bus. 

And yes, the samosa was priced at 2 Canadain dollars, had a good stuffing of peas and potatoes and tasted good. 

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

'Rajma -Chawal at Bhopal railway station, India'- by K.J.S.Chatrath


I was at the Bhopal railway station in central India two nights back.  The train  was at 7.30 pm and I decided to have a quick dinner. The dish I ordered came after a few minutes of wait but was piping hot, in a clean tray and did not have a high dose of chillies. And yes, it looked colourfully pretty. All for Rs.50 only!

Rājmā is a popular Indian vegetarian dish consisting of red kidney beans in a thick gravy with many Indian whole spices and usually served with rice and roti. Although rajma bean is not of Indian origin, it is a part of regular diet in Northern India. The dish developed after the red kidney bean was brought to India from Mexico

 

…………………………………..
May I invite you to visit my blogs & websites?

 


 

Saturday, September 26, 2015

'Nasi goreng, the popular Indonesian rice dish' by K.J.S.Chatrath


Photo source: 
http://architectureofbuddhism.com/books/borobudur-yogyakarta-nearby-7-day-itinerary/

Today it is the turn of  Nasi goreng. Though it is an Indonesian popular dish , it does look a little like Indian fried rice pulav


Photo source: Nasi Goreng Sosis Breakfast Savoy Homann Hotel" by Gunawan Kartapranata 




Nasi goreng, literally meaning "fried rice" in Indonesian and Malay, can refer simply to fried pre-cooked rice, a meal including stir fried rice in small amount of cooking oil or margarine, typically spiced with kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), shallot, garlic, tamarind and chilli and accompanied by other ingredients, particularly egg, chicken and prawns.

There is also another kind of nasi goreng which is made with ikan asin (salted dried fish) which is also popular across Indonesia.


* * *
***