Through all the chaos and life in Varanasi, food is something definitely given a lot of importance to. Food and sweets. I believe sweets can fall under a whole new category all together.
I couldn't believe a friend when I work up one early morning when she told me of the Jalebis we'd be getting for breakfast. I come from a place where jalebis are had almost once in almost a month, as a special sweet. Hot jalebis with rabadi was a treat. A nice large juicy jalebi and I'd walk back home happy and overfull. And yet, here they were, two plates with two different kinds of jalebis, both yellow and orange, placed in front of us for our first meal along with hot puris and bhaji. From this day I knew that we'd be feasting on great Banarasi food at the guest house, along with treats from the streets! Oh the joys of those juicy jalebis, how they'd moisten the inside of my mouth with their warm wholesome sugary taste!
My sweet tooth was treated with a little too much sweet. The sweet paan, the thick sugary rejuvenating lassi after a hard days work, the jalebis...but there was always the kachori and aloo tikki to counter that!
The Banrasi paan I had heard of was one of my most fun things that I enjoyed having. I often stopped when I got a chance, towards the end of the day to pop in a sweet paan and munch on it for the next ten minutes, like I was told to do.
Food at our guest house was delicious! It was simple home food made with love. The cooks would often get upset when fellow students skipped meals, showing that they wanted their food to be enjoyed. It was wholesome and healthy, unhealthy even with the excess mouthwatering jalebis and gulab jamuns we got as dessert.
Food was a whole new experience here. To quote the chai wala I once heard talking to a friend, "Can you believe it's hard to arrange for sweets for my nieces wedding!? A shortage of sweets in Banares, impossible!"
I couldn't believe a friend when I work up one early morning when she told me of the Jalebis we'd be getting for breakfast. I come from a place where jalebis are had almost once in almost a month, as a special sweet. Hot jalebis with rabadi was a treat. A nice large juicy jalebi and I'd walk back home happy and overfull. And yet, here they were, two plates with two different kinds of jalebis, both yellow and orange, placed in front of us for our first meal along with hot puris and bhaji. From this day I knew that we'd be feasting on great Banarasi food at the guest house, along with treats from the streets! Oh the joys of those juicy jalebis, how they'd moisten the inside of my mouth with their warm wholesome sugary taste!
My sweet tooth was treated with a little too much sweet. The sweet paan, the thick sugary rejuvenating lassi after a hard days work, the jalebis...but there was always the kachori and aloo tikki to counter that!
The Banrasi paan I had heard of was one of my most fun things that I enjoyed having. I often stopped when I got a chance, towards the end of the day to pop in a sweet paan and munch on it for the next ten minutes, like I was told to do.
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| A Banarasi Paan Walla. |
Food was a whole new experience here. To quote the chai wala I once heard talking to a friend, "Can you believe it's hard to arrange for sweets for my nieces wedding!? A shortage of sweets in Banares, impossible!"
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