Foodie Tales Of Amritsar -

A foodie’s journey of culinary delight starts right at the heart of Amritsar, at Gurdwara Harmandir Sahib or Golden temple, the gurdwara of highest order for the Sikh community. As you visit the gurdwara for the first time you keep expecting it to be near a roadside as most gurdwaras are. However, here you have to wade through few passages and climb down few steps before you can see this marvel. Once you complete this journey it appears right in front of you calmly resting in the middle of a lake and leaves you mesmerised. For me this feeling was similar to how I felt when I had seen Taj Mahal for the first time.

The Golden Temple mesmerises when you set your eyes upon it

After taking in the unencumbered beauty of this place and marvelling at the peace it has to offer and once you have visited the shrine where the Guru Granth Sahib resides you will be offered the “Kadha Prasad”. This finger licking sweet is made of wheat flour, sugar and loads of ghee. Having savoured this you can head to the kitchen on the gurdwara premises where “Langar” is offered free to all. Here you will find multitude of devotees doing Seva; a voluntary service spanning across various activities like cleaning floors or steps, serving water, making chappatis, washing vessels, serving food etc. You will be asked to sit on the floor irrespective of your status, caste or creed and served the simple yet delicious meal. If it is late hours after the meal do check out the ceremony of escorting Guru Granth Sahib to its night quarters for resting. It’s a wonderful experience that you should not miss.

 Escorting the Guru Granth Sahib to its night quarters

Before leaving this area do walk around the local market and head to Bazar Kathian. Check out Ujagar Singh and Karam Singh’s shop for the famous Amritsari Warian (sundried lentil dumplings), Papad and Rumali Sevian. They stock innumerable variety of Papad and Warian. You can choose both as per how much spice you can stomach.  

Amritsar is quite famous for its Amritsari Kulchey and Chole. To experience this head to Maqbool road where you will find yourself at an inconspicuous road-side ‘dhaba’ that serves kulchey dripping ghee and choley with a mint and onion chutney. From here you can take a ride in a cycle rickshaw to Lawrence road, one of the happening roads of Amritsar.  Here you will find the college crowd hanging out at the Café Coffee Day or Pizza Hut. This is also where you will find the famous Novelty and Kanha sweets, rightly so for their mouth-watering Chola Bhatura.

Chole Bhature

Outside BBK DAV College of Women you will find the very popular Lubhaya Ram Aam papad wala. Aam Papad is a digestive made from mango pulp mixed with concentrated sugar solution and then sun dried. Here on a hand cart you will find about 10-15 varieties of Aam Papad and various other digestive concoctions. The owner boasts of his fame and popularity and also has a visiting card to offer.

Your food experience in Amritsar is incomplete if you do not visit Kesar da dhaba in Shastri Bazar. This hotel dates back to 1916 and serves you a sumptuous meal of lachha paranthas, famous Maa ki dal accompanied by choley, raita and pickle. However if you are too calorie conscious then this place is not meant for you as the paranthas are loaded with ghee.

Kesar da Dhaba

Having visited these places you would have experienced some of the lip-smacking, mouth-watering vegetarian food of Amritsar, food that will bring you back to the city umpteen numbers of times.