When you take the name Punjab, you are reminded of the rich heritage of Punjab and the ever welcoming people of Punjab, but on the other hand, you will be awestruck when you get to taste their Punjabi cuisine which makes the experience of Punjab complete to say the least. During partition Punjab was divided into two regions (if we want to understand the things in simpler manner), the one of half which is in Pakistan today and the better half (I could say it, as I am proud Indian but our friends in Pakistan might rightfully argue) of it is India, but the food and culture cannot be divided with borders and the same happened with Punjabi culture and their food. Lahore (Pakistan) and Amritsar (India) are just less than 40kms away from each other signifies or gives testament to this bond of culture and food which makes Punjab undivided at least in terms of its heritage and cuisine.
so, all that said, our Punjab/Rajasthan tour of 2 weeks was no different. Along with interesting places to visit, we also had done our small plans to make sure we get a experience of the cuisine of Punjab & Rajasthan. So, this short blog or to be honest this would be a pictorial blog rather than with detailed writing will give a glimpse of some of the dishes we tried while we were touring in Punjab/Rajasthan.
If you are interested please read our Blog on Punjab/Rajasthan to get more details on our Itinerary.
Chandigarh:
The mix of Punjabi and Haryanvi cuisine can be found in Chandigarh.
We got time to visit and taste sumptuous punjabi cuisine frrom Pal Dhabha.
We had lunch as well as dinner at Pal Dhabha as we liked the food.
Patiala:
In Patiala, we had plans to visit the Patiala Quila Mubarak fort, but it was closed for renovations. Thus we spent locating a good place to eat and we could not get any better than Sahni Dhabha.
It's an old Dhaba of Patiala, situated in Adalat Bazaar (heritage site of Patiala) and famous for their Chicken RaRa and Dal Makhni.
On the way to Patiala, we stopped mid way to have our breakfast in the middle of a Wheat Field in the rural punjab (Sirhind). And we could not get any crispier Gobi Paranthe and the taste was really good when it goes with lots of Dahi and Pickle.
Amritsar:
Amritsar is one of the most heritage places of Punjab and well known for its amazing Amritsari cuisines and delicacies like Amritsari Chole and Amritsari Kulche.
On the way to Golden Teample, you can see plenty of eateries serving fresh Chole Kulche and We were lucky enough to get our Guru ka Langar meal at Golden Temple, during our visit to the Harmandir Sahib Gurudwara.
Also, next to the Partition Museum we got opportunity to try the "Bharawan da Dhaba" famous for their simple no-frills punjabi food.
In the evening, we planned to try the most famous punjabi restaurant "Kesar Da Dhaba" for dinner on our last night in Amritsar. It was very hard to get a table at this restaurant and there was no advance table booking and it was a first come first serve system, which made us wait for at least 30 mins before we could get inside. The food was average, maybe we had the similar food throughout our last 3 days in Punjab. Though the ambiance was good, but the service was poor and the restaurant needed a revamp or change of location due to the packed road condition around the restaurant.
Bikaner:
On the way out from Punjab, into Rajasthan, we witnessed how the cuisine changed and how our taste buds where getting used to Punjabi food, and now need to get used to the Rajasthani food. We had tried the traditional rajasthani thali's in Bikaner. But we were also craving for some city style food, all along our way through the Thar Desert.
And on one occasion, we were surprised to see a small sleepy town of Suratgarh having a restaurant which can give run for their money for any up-class restaurant in any of the cities. We munched on some cutlets and burgers and shake in the Suratgarh restaraunt.
Jaipur:
Once we reached Jaipur, we got ourselves stuck in a precarious curfew situation (Due to a local religious issue), where we could not access the market areas of the city and we took calculated decision to stick to city central areas and well known restaurants like Kanha Restaraunt and munched on the South Indian Cuisines as we were itching for some dosa's and Uttapam's and we were also intrigued to see, how the dosa's tasted in the extreme North India.
And we were not disappointed as the traditionally south Indian cuisines like dosa's and Idli's tasted good in Jaipur too :P
All in all, our adventurous bike tour across Heritage Punjab and Rajasthan, had given us enough opportunity to experience and taste the Punjabi and Rajasthani cuisines and made us crave a little more, which we will surely do, once we get another shot at visiting Punjab and Rajasthan.
For more detailed information or itinerary on Punjab & Rajasthan Tour or other awesome places in India, please contact HillTrotters@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page "HillTrotters", also subscribe to us on YouTube channel with "HillTrotters Travelogues".
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With Thanks,
HillTrotters Team