Day one,in the evning, we visited an area called Chhappan Dukan, a short 10-min walk from our hotel. It had rained in the afternoon,causing puddles and slush everywhere. This, combined with the crazytraffic (believe me, Pune traffic seemed well-ordered, disciplined andquiet in comparison - and as for the traffic in Bombay, it was like an impossible dream, existing only in my imagination!) made the short walk fraught with terror. No kidding - what with bikes, scooters, cars, cycles,dogs, cows and pedestrians crowding the narrow roads (no footpaths!)and with everyone with a motorized vehicle insisting on whirling downthe roads at breakneck speeds, cutting lanes in a dizzying fashion along with blaring horns, walking by the roaside was as scary andadrenaline-inducing as bungee jumping!
Anyhow, we made it to Chhappan Dukan in one piece. This area is linedwith shops selling snacks and mithai -and oddly, there was even ashop which sold clothes with lovely smocking work done - and at VERYattractive prices! We visited Dad's shrine - a shop called Om Ke Namkeen (http://www.omkenamkeen.com/) which has about 200 varieties of namkeen on offer. The vast array of chips, sev, chivda,khakras, papads wasmouth-watering! Some varieties with intriguing names like "KachoriSev", "Nimbu Achaar ki Papdi", "IT mixture" (I kid you not!) invited a closer look - and a taste!
At Om, they insist on your tasting anythingbefore buying it. Plus, they feed you any new item they've invented (there are 'Nariyal -Paani flavoued peanuts" and the like!) After shopping enough to feed a small town, we embarked on a wild rickshawride to Saraafaa.
Saraafaa is an old quarter of Indore with impossibly narrow streets,twisting and winding out of sight. Its called Saraafa because it's the jewelry district, like our Zaveri Bazaar. Come night-time, and the whole place is a veritable carnival of food shops - brightly lit and with sigs like "Tasty Kachori Corner", "Vijay Chaat House" "Famous Mawa Wala" etc. We went on a weekday, but all the stalls and shopswere packed! We sampled some some goodies like Khopra Pattice, Batlapattice, Kachori and Lassi at Vijay Chat House. Everything isdeep-fried, steaming hot, very tasty and comes smothered in chutneys -and the chutneys are dynamite! Every bite is an explosion of taste and sensation in your mouth - hot (temperaure-wise!), crisp,spicy, sweet,sour, .....indescribable! The whole experience was surreal - what with the stifling heat, warm air laden with delicious aromas, kids bawling in the background, women gossiping away, waiters and cooks yelling out orders - -all overwritten with the taste of the delicious chaat! Next we moved on to a shop selling gulab jamuns, rabadi, kalakand, moong halwa and the like. The fact that the serving dishes and kadhaais were mounted atop old scooter tires (using the tires like dish-holders) did little to dissuade us from trying them out. Piping hot gulab jamuns,cool rabadi was bliss after the hot-and-spicy assault of the chaat we'd had before. This was where I saw kalaakand being sold as a dessert (liquid form) rather than the barfi we normally associate it with.
After this we sampled an unual dish being sold at a neighbouring stall - aloo tikki, served with a slathering of ragda,sliced onion,sev and - believe it or not -tomato ketchup, all piled inside a burger bun! I HAD to try this concotion - only because it was so differentfrom whatever I'd seen till date! It was yummy, if a bit weird. :) Dad then went on to try Sabudana Khichadi - but cooked with onion,garlic, and other spices, garnished with sev-papdi! :) The simple upwaas dish had disappeared under the attack of sugar-and-spice! In Indore, there are food carts selling this khichadi ....like our thelawaalas who sell chaat... :)
Next day, we hired a car and drove to Mandu, about 120 kms fromIndore. Mandu has some ancient ruins of palaces and mosques and the like. The road was bad, but the beautiful architecture made up for the bumpy ride! We visited Rupamati's Pavilion located atop a hill, which was constructed by BaazBahaddur so she could get spectacular views of the Narmada.
The pavilion is all walkways and corridors lined with graceful arched windows rising from the floor - each one offering panoramic vistas of the valley below. Its also a palce where cool breezes blow. I could imagine the beautiful Rupamati strolling along the corridors, with her pallu blowing in the breeze - pausing now and then to savour the beauty around her!
After exploring Mandu (other treats are the Ashrafi mahal, Jami masjidetc, but none of them have the splendour of Rupamati's Palace,probably because they do not command gorgeous views, being located in the valley below), we headed back to Indore. On the way back, thanks to the rumbling of our tummies, we took a lunch halt at a small,nondescript dhaba by the roadside. Nothing about it seemed inviting -it was grimy and fly-infested - but we were hungry, and there wasnt any other restaurant for miles around. A little scared as to what kind of food to expect from such a dubious joint, we stuck to basic dal-and roti and aloo paratha. And when the food came, it was such a pleasant surprise! Piping-hot daal,redolent with a smoky tadka and crisp tandoori rotis...bliss! It just went on to prove that great food is ingrained in the MP psyche. I can go on to describe other tantaliziing meals - tasty buffet breakfast spreads at our 3-star hotel, shikanji and paranthas from Madhuram Sweets Store...but I think whatever I have described till now will suffice to tempt you to visitIndore!
Indore has a bit of history,a bit of culture to offer to conventional tourists - but for dedicated foodies, Indore is THE place for a VFM foodie holiday! The food is tasty, inexpensive and all-pervasive - you can find food shops on almost every street! So do go for a weekend and pamper the foodie in you!!
After exploring Mandu (other treats are the Ashrafi mahal, Jami masjidetc, but none of them have the splendour of Rupamati's Palace,probably because they do not command gorgeous views, being located in the valley below), we headed back to Indore. On the way back, thanks to the rumbling of our tummies, we took a lunch halt at a small,nondescript dhaba by the roadside. Nothing about it seemed inviting -it was grimy and fly-infested - but we were hungry, and there wasnt any other restaurant for miles around. A little scared as to what kind of food to expect from such a dubious joint, we stuck to basic dal-and roti and aloo paratha. And when the food came, it was such a pleasant surprise! Piping-hot daal,redolent with a smoky tadka and crisp tandoori rotis...bliss! It just went on to prove that great food is ingrained in the MP psyche. I can go on to describe other tantaliziing meals - tasty buffet breakfast spreads at our 3-star hotel, shikanji and paranthas from Madhuram Sweets Store...but I think whatever I have described till now will suffice to tempt you to visitIndore!
Indore has a bit of history,a bit of culture to offer to conventional tourists - but for dedicated foodies, Indore is THE place for a VFM foodie holiday! The food is tasty, inexpensive and all-pervasive - you can find food shops on almost every street! So do go for a weekend and pamper the foodie in you!!
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