Kahaani Mirch-Pakode ki

Its not just the place but also the people that we experience when we visit a place. Its so much fun to explore different cultures, different lifestyle, their clothes, the look, the food. It all makes a difference when you go places and see it for yourself.

Recently we visited Rajasthan and although it was not a culture research oriented visit, its hard to ignore the vast difference you see when you visit the local market, the people around, the way they talk. 

I am a foodie and it gave me that one more reason to visit Rajasthan, the place for foodies. If you are travelling to Rajasthan, its not necessary to get there to start experiencing their "foodie behavior". Get into the train and you 'll find yourself in between a big Rajasthani family. How much ever you try to ignore them, you will end up making friends with them. Thats what I did, not just once but twice. It happened while travelling from Mumbai to Rajasthan and back that we were in the middle of Rajasthani family. In such cases, you need not worry about food. You need to follow just one rule ... "Aanedo" (read in hindi) :-)

But it actually made my trip complete. :-) While we were returning from Jodhpur to Mumbai, we boarded the train and me and my wife, all happy discussing how good was our trip!! Train left and we soon again .... found ourselves in the middle of a family from Jodhpur. Businessman as he was, he introduced us to his entire family and asked about us. Well after all that introduction and our trip details, the bahu of the family started opening some packets. I could smell the garma garam pakoda in it!!! :-) and soon ... the uncle said ... 

"Khaya hai aapne mirch pakoda Rajasthan me?

and I was like ... ahhhh ... instead of asking ... 'Did you visit Umed Palace in Jodhpur', why's he asking me about a pakoda!!!

and I replied .... " he he he ... No. mauka nahi mila" .... and I knew what is coming next !!!

Next was ... Pakoda coming our way .... with uncle coming up with ..."Rajasthan me aake mirch pakoda nahi khaya .. to kya khaya" ... and the bahu of the family said to my wife ... "Lijiye ... khayiye na garam hai" ...

and I was like ... 'garm kyo na ho .. yaha to har family keliye ek chaat wala hota hai" ..

and we (me n my wife) just looked at each other ... but mera reply to decided tha ... "Nahi rehne do, we already had snacks" .... which actually meant .... "bahut achha lag raha hai ... aane do pakoda" :P

..... and then we had lots of Mirch Pakoda and Onion wali Kachori !! :D

But with all this interaction ... we really had a good time chatting with the family, nice people, which made me think .... "Our trip would have been really incomplete, had we not tasted those mirch pakodas and kachoris!!! not joking .. they really tasted different and very nice, which meant, we enjoyed it a lot!!! So thanks to our Rajasthani businessman family who really prevented me from missing one of the important aspect of Rajasthan ... FOOD!!!"

Thanks again ... :-) ... and yessss ... we really enjoyed the trip !!!

For all my non-foodie readers ... sorry for boring you through this blog, but it really made my trip complete ;-)


For more details of our trip - http://www.meetthenature.blogspot.com/