I had an affair today, yep I confess, it was an affair, a
rocking glorious affair with food. Wondering how it came about? It all started
when I happened to see an invite for a food walk from a facebook group I belong
to. I was intrigued with the concept of a walk just for sampling the street food and decided to join in
immediately, although I had absolutely no idea what to expect there on that day
and didn’t know anyone else who had registered too. But hey, what’s life if we
always do what we are comfortable with, shouldn’t we step out of our comfort
zone now and then and have a little excitement? That’s the motto I live by and I
almost never say no to new experiences even if they give me the scare of my
life. After all, I don’t have a wife/kids/family/commitments or any other
reason that my friends use to avoid doing risky stuff. If I can’t do it now,
when will I ever do it? So after this big build-up let me move onto the actual
food walk.
After bantering for a week on the event page with the organizers
Madam Pratibha Jain and Tanmay Chordia, Saturday finally came up. As my luck
would have it, events were conspiring against me all day with work piling up. But
I put my foot down at last, told them at the hospital that there was no way I was
going to be there from 5pm to 7pm as I had informed them earlier itself and
then I made my way to Mint Street, the venue of the Food Trail start-up point,
dressed in Red as Aditi Jain had specified earlier.
When I reached Kakada Sweets the assemble point- there was already
a large crowd of people milling about waiting for the organizers to declare the
meet open. I finally found Aditi, after asking around, and she, would you believe
it, was wearing a maroon Kurta, after specifying to me particularly about
wearing Red. Well, she was busy volunteering with the group then, so I let her
go, intending to have out the color-code issue with her later. Tanmay Chordia,
my FB friend, joined us then and taking charge of one of the groups he made a
push off from the start point. I joined the next group, spearheaded by Bhavna Nahar and we hit the sugarcane stall outside Chotu-Motu, which has awesome fresh
sugarcane juice, all natural and so sweet. In the hot and humid evening (for it
rained later on) and after the long walk up Mint Street, the sugarcane juice
was the perfect appetizer.
We next hit, Ajab Mitha Ghar, for some kachoris and hot, hot
jalebis. Pooja bought us all a plate of
jalebis gratis and after sampling the taste, we all ordered a round. And then
we reached Maya Chats, where Bhavna vouched that the Masal Kachori with Mint
chutney was something to die for. So then it was Kachori time for me and yes,
it was tangy, spicy, sweet all at the same time and the mint chutney combo
rocked. Spot on Bhavna.
The next pit stop on the tour was at Maharaja Ice Cream for
the original Rajasthani flavored Malai Kulfis. Pooja, our ever smiling guide
bought a plate of kulfis and passed it around for tasting (thanks again Pooja,
you rock) and nobody who tasted it could escape buying a large plate of kulfis
for themselves. It was perfect. I savoured a stick of malai kulfi and was
tempted to order another immediately. It was a battle between my tongue and my dieter’s
conscience, especially as the final highlight was still to come.
Having conquered
my temptations, I went along with Pooja to the last venue on the food trail,
the Pani Poori stall outside the Jain temple. Pooja vouched that if there is a
better pani poori being served in Chennai anywhere, she was yet to find it. This
was it. The original of originals. Pani poori heaven and my, did the group
gorge. The pooris were disappearing as fast as the guy could make it. And the
more I tried to stop myself, the more I felt tempted to indulge in one last
fling.
Fortunately, for my waist line, Pratibha Jain, the organizer
turned up with the last batch and leaving them to sample the goodies I made my
bye-byes and promising to return for more (part-2/3/4 and all-like a bad action
movie), I bade everyone their my adieus and made my way back to the hospital
and neglected duties. I hope my patients were a bit understanding if I wasn’t really
very attentive today, it was all that chat food working its way up my system.
So, there it was my first affair with north Indian food,
courtesy the Mint food trail. Like all affairs it was brief and glorious while
it lasted and the aftereffects will be seen only when I step on the weighing scales
tomorrow.
(P.S. a big thanks to all the volunteers- Pooja, Aditi, Tanmay,
Bhavna , Tara..you did a fantastic job)
