Punjab – The Land and its Food

       Punjab the land of the Five Rivers is a beautiful fertile land. The charm and richness of this bountiful land is reflected in its people. They are warm and friendly and make a tourist feel very welcome. Most important, they are very respectful – respect others, no pushing and shoving in public places; respect the community, no littering or rather not much; respect rules, follow all road rules,; respect the public, roads are well maintained. All this makes travelling in Punjab a pleasure.

       Punjab being a fertile land watered by five rivers and their many tributaries has been inhabited from pre-historic times. This was the land of the Indus Valley Civilzation. This land has been mentioned in the Vedas and the Upanishads, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. This rich land has attracted invaders throughout history.  Punjab can be broadly divided into three geographic regions and our itinerary took us through all these three.

       

       The Majha – Amritsar and Pathankot fall in this region. This region is between the rivers Ravi, Beas and Sutluj. It is known as the heartland of Punjab and the cradle of Sikhism.

      The Doaba – as the name suggest lies between the Sutluj and Beas. This part of Punjab formed by the deposition of rich alluvial soil, is said to be one of the most fertile regions of the world. Hoshiarpur is one of the important towns of the Punjab doaba.

       The Malwa region lies to the south of river Sutluj. Ludhiana, Patiala and Chandigarh are all located.

       

         We began our tour of Punjab from the Malwa region.  First impressions are lasting impressions and that is exactly how Chandigarh influenced us. We were amazed by the cleanliness and the orderliness of Chandigarh. The roads as stated earlier are wide and uncongested and most important clean. Other than the Rock Garden and the Rose Garden, we also visited Lake Sukhna. This is a large water body near the Rock Garden. It offers the usual recreational facilities like boating, rides on the lake shore and of course food courts.

      Our driver Mr. Devi Singh was very keen that we visit the Elante Mall the largest mall in Chandigarh. It has a number of multiplex cinemas, fast food corners and large range of fine dining. The world’s leading brands – electronic, apparels and accessories as well as personal care, have   their showrooms here alongside India’s premium brand stores. All this of course makes this the costliest mall too – for both the businessmen and the clientele. But you must go at least once to Elante Mall even though you do not have a budget for shopping there.

        The other shopping area we went to was the Sector 17 market known as the City Centre. It is said to be the heart of Chandigarh and there is no doubt as to the truth of this as it is the busiest and most crowded areas. Shoppers –local as well as tourists - head here to buy a wide range of goods-branded, traditional as well as handicrafts.  It goes without saying that there are many eating places here too inlding street joints. Yet the place is litter free. 

       The most fascinating part of the City Centre was the musical fountain. What made this musical fountain different from the rest of its kind was that along with the songs      ( Bollywood songs), the scenes were projected on the fountain. The water spraying from the fountain was used as a screen and the scene was projected on it. This was       innovative technology at its best.  

       From Chandigarh we went to Patiala. Patiala is famous for ‘peg’ ‘pagri’ ‘paranda’ ‘jutti’ and ‘salwar’. Here on can see a perfect blend of modernity and tradition - old world charm alongside modern consumerism. One can still sense the grandeur of royalty as one wanders through the narrow streets of the markets of Patiala.

        Being the wedding season we were able to view magnificent wedding finery. Richly embroidered lehengas which appeared to weigh a ton, grand kurtas and bandagalas and pagris for the groom, mind boggling jewelry sets, footwear and other accessories filled the shop windows. There were shops that catered only to ‘shagoon’ thalis. Thalis of various sizes- from modest dinner plate size to huge monstrous ones were on display. These thalis were filled with chocolates, desi and imported, dry fruits, variety of sweets etc. Most fascinating was that these shops were selling ‘ruppyion ki mala’ –garlands of Rs 50/-, Rs100/_ and Rs 500/- notes.  Garlands of Rs 1000/- notes were made to order. These garlands were to bedeck the bridegroom. We fascinated and dumbstruck by all these sights. Unfortunately, we could not capture these sights as we did not have our cameras. Thinking that we were just visiting the market, we had, much to our regret, left our cameras behind in the car. Once again we noticed that in spite of the roads being narrow and in the old part of the city, there was no traffic congestion, no corners overflowing with garbage and no stench (of you know what) like namma Bengaluru City market/ Avenue Road area. 

     From Patiala we travelled to Hoshiarpur in the Doaba region. The road was broad and the tall trees on either side, with their intertwining branches created a cool, green canopy overhead. In the words of Devi Singh it was ‘driving through a green tunnel.’  The sky was clear and blue and stretched on either side, as far as eye could see, were fields  of wheat, sugar and mustard. Orchards of mango, lithchi, guava, pear and orange flourished in this region.  While the blue sky, the green and yellow land, the fruit laden orange trees provided a visual treat, the scent of ‘gur’ being prepared in the roadside ‘bhatties’ that wafted on the fresh breeze, delighted our noses.

Agricultural & Industrial development

Wheat field

 Driving through the doaba region was a pleasant experience and one could easily realize that this is really a most fertile area and how the green revolution started and became a success here. (The Geography teacher in me missed her students in this region and in the Kangra valley.)

      

Finally, we reached the Mecca of Sikhs – Amritsar.  The city of Amritsar was founded by the fourth Sikh Guru Ram Das on land bought by him from the owners of the village of Tung.  As the city was built around the lake he had excavated, it followed that the city too be named Amritsar. (The lake was called Amritsar as it was believed that the water of the original lake had the miraculous power of curing all kinds of skin ailments).

      

        The Hindus too believed in the healing powers of the lake and also called it Amritsar. The legend behind this, according to them goes back to the days of the Ramayana. During the war against Ravana, Lakshmana had been grievously wounded by Indrajeet. He had slipped into coma. Only the juice of the ‘sanjeevini’ could revive him .So Hanuman was sent to get this herb. Unable to identify it, Hanuman picked up the entire hill, and carried it to Lanka. His route took him over present day Punjab, and a sprig of the sanjeevini fell into a small pond of water. The water being infused with sanjeevini turned miraculous and this lake began to be called ‘amritsar’.

          Amritsar is a city where tradition and modernity, religion and commercialism go hand in hand. It is a busy town, bustling with pilgrims, tourists and traders. Yet, it is not a noisy or a chaotic place. Though the scene around the temple and the markets is hectic it is not disorganized. Construction of flyovers, road widening works and round-about beautification works is going on in the city, yet there is no confusion or congestion. Traffic moved steadily in an orderly manner. Again, we noticed that in spite of the heavy influx of people to the city, it was relatively clean, no mounds of garbage at street corners. This aspect of Punjab impressed us a lot. Namma Bengaluru, Mayors and Corporators, and MLAs and Ministers should go to Punjab rather than Singapore, Europe and Australia to learn about traffic and garbage management.

       The Amritsar market is very much like our city market area. Just like we have specific areas catering to particular needs, so too in Amritsar. There are areas which house only clothes –all kind, and furnishings, then areas for groceries, another for plastic goods etc. Dotted amongst all these shops in every area are dhabhas. It was quite fascinating wandering through these lanes and window shopping. All shops had end of season sales going on as it was the end of winter. They wanted to get rid of the warm clothes and materials and stock up on cottons and muslins for summer. As we wanted only cottons, we did not have much selection. We were told that we would get a wide range and variety of cottons after Shivaratri.

       No visit to Amritsar is complete without visiting the many dhabhas dotting  the town. Amritsar offers food not just for the soul, but food for the body too!. Driving through the fertile countryside of Punjab brings to mind the idiom “land of milk and honey” while eating at Amritsar makes on realize that Punjab is a land of ‘ghee and butter’. Everything is served with dollops of butter or ghee.  Most of the dhabhas are small place with no ambience to write about. But the food they serve ahaaa……, that’s the stuff legends are made of.

       Before leaving for Punjab, Nagendra had given us a printout of the ‘10 must eat at’ places in Amritsar, excluding ‘Guru ka Langar’. Well I am glad to mention that our gastronomical journey took us to five of these places as well as ‘Guru ka Langar’ in two and a half days. Result of this – Mohan’s system went on strike at being overburdened.

       The butter chicken at Pal’s Dhabbha was soft and succulent, the gravy subtly spicy without being chilli hot. The soft, creamy paneer in the paneer sagwalla, just melted in the mouth. The hot rotis were crisp yet soft, a perfect foil for the curries. 

     Kesar ka Dhabbha (vegetarian) is in its centenary year.  The maa-ki-dal (they follow the original, 100 year old secret recipe)  simmered for 24 hours, was mouth watering. The paneer sagwalla again rich and creamy, and the flavor of the gravy was completely different from what we had at Pal’s. The laccha parathas were crisp yet tender, fried in ghee and smeared with butter. The lassi served in thick brass glasses was so thick and creamy that they had to dig through the top layer to get at the lassi. The phirni, served in mud bowls was out of this world.

       At All India Famous Amritsari Kulcha Dhabbha, we were served piping hot kulchas, fresh from the tandoor, with dollops of butter. The kulchas were crisp on the outside and soft and flaky inside. A big bowl of chole was kept on the table for us to help ourselves as we needed. The kulchas just kept coming until we said enough and we had to keep count of the number we had eaten.

       Amritsari Fish, fresh boneless sole coated with a spicy batter and fried till crisp and golden, and soft and moist on the inside is a must eat delicacy. Makhan’s Fish and Chicken Corner is the place for this. Along with the fish, we also tried out their Mutton tikka. It was so soft and tender that it practically dissolved in the mouth before we could chew. The naans were soft and tasty.

    On the Amritsar- Pathanakot highway, we lunched makki-ki–roti with sarson ka sag and paneer bhurji at No 1 Dhabba.  A trip to Punjab is incomplete if one has not partaken of these signature dishes of Punjab. The dishes more than lived up to our expectations. The makki rotis were smothered in butter and the sarson ka sag had globs of butter in it.

     Amritsar is known for its jalebis and of course we had to taste this too. So off we went ot Guru Ram Das Jalebiwalla.  It was a small roadside joint. Khadais were kept ready, and jalebis were fried after we placed the order. Clients were served fresh piping hot jalebis, crips and golden, straight from the kadai of pure ghee. They also served gulab jamuns so soft and succulent that they just melted in the mouth.

   The food at Guru ka Langar was simple yet flavourful and tasty. The kheer was thick and creamy and I just could not resist having a second helping.

    Breakfast every day was alu parathas served with pickle and thick, creamy curds. The parathas at each place had a different taste and flavor.

       A trip to Punjab is a completely satisfying trip –one that satisfies the spirit, the mind and the body.