DISCOVERY: Tastes that shaped me (Part 2)
Very few experience match the satisfaction of really good food (well, to some extent it depends on your taste and outlook) and its even better if it something you stumble upon. As I mentioned in part one that most of my good food experience had been in the most unlikely of places.
Lunia and I had gone to IT-BHU to present a paper, as a part of a national level competition. On our way back to Varanasi station, we grabbed a quick snack from a small eatery near the station. I resented the distinct lack of non-veg (I really feel sorry for vegetarians - half the world is shut out for them!) but the experience was really worthwhile. We had chhole bature and some sweet dish, which was remarkable. It was rich, creamy, studded with saffron and pista. It considerably improved our spirits and nearly made up for the lack of sleep and other hardships (the journey from Mughalsarai to BHU in a cramped 3 wheeler that was about to fall apart on the Grand Trunk road, yet capable of carrying about 20 people - thats UP for you!). As a matter of fact it gave us the energy to jostle with cows for space to stand on the platform, waiting for a train that came out 2 and a half hours late from the carshed!
I am fond of sweets and it is a habit that I developed quite early in my life. This is partly because we have always had a Marwari family as our neighbour - and I was really fond of their Gajar ka Halwa. I sampled the best version at a marriage reception. Different parts of Bengal have rich sweet tradition but these days very few places serve authentic local sweets. Also I am skeptical about trying the local shops because most of them are not hygienic at all. But I remember one incident from December 2006. During a return journey from Siliguri - I was stranded in the middle of nowhere due to an accident on NH 34. An overloaded truck had tumbled and an oil tanker had exploded on colliding with it. It was an excruciating 9 hour wait for the fire brigade to come to that place and clear up the mess (due to the clogged roads the only way for the fire fighters to approach the place was through the river). It was at around 7 in the morning that the bus reached Krishnanagar - famous for its Sharbhaja. I had devoured around half a kg of the stuff but not JUST because I was hungry.
But sweet is not the only thing I am fond of. I have a weakness for sour as well - especially achars or pickle. I remember the time that I had spent at our farmhouse (gram er bari) after JEE. It was total fun - bathing in the ponds, relishing the fresh mangoes and the catch from the pond, the brilliant pickles and the view of the night sky through the eye-piece of a ten-inch telescope. I can't recall the sheer variety of pickle that I tasted during that period but each an every one of them was distinct - the subtle combination of spices, oil and ingredients like mango, olives, amla, lemon, carrot, stem of lotus, bamboo shoots, cucumber, created a whole range of flavour and some very complex tastes. They indeed had a lasting influence on my taste buds!
Traveling is a great opportunity to experiment with food. I remember a certain variety of flavored(I think it was combination of elaichi and badam) sweetened lassi (buttermilk) that I had on my way from Mumbai to Goa. It was extremely warm and the drink greatly refreshed me. My experience of Goa is .... well, was while traveling with parents. So it doesn't take much intellect to guess the things that I missed out! Nevertheless, I had some very good food at Panjim and Margao. Of them fish feature very prominently - steamed, fried and grilled. One of the best dishes resembled Chingri Malakari, though it was more spicy and the tiger prawns were really good. I also liked a form of grilled fish where the fish was sliced and stuffed with spices before grilling it. After it is done, the spices are removed and the fish is served with a salad.
There is a particular bakery in Guwahati called Sheikh Brothers and I am a great fan of their cakes. Whenever, some of my relatives come down from that place, I make it a point to tell them to get me some nice stuff from that place. Talking of cakes - I am generally not very fond of pastry. But with Glenary's in Darjeeling, its a very different story. Not only are the pastries very good, the decor and the view complements the food perfectly.
One of the very few culinary discoveries made during IIT days were from dhabas. Firstly, the dal fry from Billoo's. This is as simple as food can get (dal fry and roti) but it is still a meal that I greatly relish. The other one is the Paneer Bharta from PD. What can taste better than panner bharta and aloo paratha, after a hard days work! It is at PD that I have had some of the most fulfilling meals of my life.
Before wrapping up, its worth mentioning about two street food that I am greatly fond of. One is phuchka (gol gappa or panipuri) - the best one I had was near Shyambazar in north Kolkata, near the Town School. And the other one is the egg roll - an ingenious snack, consisting of paratha with an inner lining of egg, wrapped into a cylindrical shape with onion, cucumber, carrot and ketchup. The end result is simply divine!
But whatever kind of food it may be, as far as my personal tastes go, nothing compares to a very simple stuff that most of us have daily - eggs! I love simple things and my love for eggs stems from this fact. Very few foodstuff has the qualities possessed by eggs - highly nutritious and highly palatable in almost any form. Though I relish eggs in all forms, I am particularly fond of poached eggs. They taste best when the yolk is still liquid (though people say its not a very healthy practice). I usually put the entire yolk in my mouth in one go and the warm, reassuring slightly salty feeling in my mouth, makes me close my eyes every time I have it. Very few feelings comparable to that!