Heart of India » chai

Wanderfood Wednesday, Bengali Breakfast

Dianne Sharma-Winter - Heart of India — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:24:00 +0000

A short ferry ride along the smoothly flowing Ganga ji led us to our breakfast stop. A small nondescript chai shop, spotlessly clean. One US dollar fed two grownups.

Masala Omlette, fresh bread and spicy channa (chickpeas)

Chai

Chai Chai, hello tea?

Dianne Sharma-Winter - Heart of India — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 01:07:02 +0000

The constant call of the chai walla is imprinted in the memory banks of many a traveler. The call will jostle you out of a railway carriage sleep, draw you from bed in the morning and act as the saving grace of an entire nation. Of all the Wanderfood in the world, sweet chai reigns supreme. Sweet milky spiced up chai is a drink and a meal, invitations to “Come, sit, take chai” are many and some can change your life. Village chai shops are the local information centre. In Pushkar the Techno chai shop has become the meeting point for tourists as well as the locals who sit in the darkened interior rattling newspapers and exchanging the real news of the day. It’s my personal belief that chai is the cornerstone of the Rajasthan economy and an integral part of the social fabric of their life. There, to refuse to sit over chai with someone is akin to telling your mother that you won’t be home for Christmas. The best chai in all of Rajasthan is made by one of my rakhi brothers and here is the original uncut version of chai, Rajasthani style.

The mix is 70/30 milk and water. First boil the milk. Crush as much fresh ginger and you can bear and throw it into the milk, this infuses the milk with ginger as it heats. Crush a cardamon seed so that the fragrance releases and throw that in as well. Then throw in some tealeaves – just enough to turn the mix the color of the Ganges in the pre-monsoon heat. Add sugar and let it come to the boil. Take the pot off the boil let the froth subside. Put it on the heat and boil again. You can also stir but if you want to be a real chai walla you have to get the boil and lift technique going. In the winter time, fresh black pepper corns are added to the chai. One sip of this heavenly nectar and you never look at a chai latte in quite the same way ever again.

God and Toffee and Dentists

Dianne Sharma-Winter - Heart of India — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 10:03:06 +0000

Bubli is one of the kids in my street in Pushkar. I love her because of her ability to hold a conversation with an adult. She is like most Indian children, quite confident in her ability to express herself which is encouraged by the local adults. I bribe the local kids shamelessly, Bubli is only one of my gang of junior girlfriends in the street. They have taken to calling me Rosie Miss, a name i was given by another of the Girlfriend Gang, Sanu.

Today Bubli arrived at the gate at lunchtime looking to see if Rosie Miss had any spare toffee ( I told you, I am shameless; in my journey to the Heart of India, there are no holds barred!) Instead I gave her puri and kicheree. She gobbled it up after telling me that it wasn’t proper kicheree because I had added Vegetables.

She is quite happy to chat to me in my appalling Hindi and correct my pronunciation and grammer, anyway I just add all the verbal encouragers to let her freestyle conversation develop. Talking about a cat who has become a nuisance, here is her conversational stream of today.

“If the cat is bad it has to be taken out, nothing is really good or bad because God made everything. But if you are naughty then its not good. So you have to go Out.”

“Did God also make you Bubli?”

“Yes, God made hair and teeth and ears and eyes and skin and me. God made everything in my body.”

“If you eat too many toffee then God might take your teeth back,” I suggest to her.

She thinks about that for a minute and agrees but adds;

“God wont come and get the teeth, you have to go to Ajmer and a dentist man takes them out for God.”