Twenty- five Seven

Travels to the North East : Guwahati

November 17, 2021

Even though a holiday was not on the cards, I was always fascinated by the North East and was glad of the opportunity to refresh my memories of verdant fields, lush forests, delicious pineapples and gorgeous wild rhododendrons.

Our driver Anil who had decided to take the long and scenic route to avoid the traffic did not account for the two Railway Crossings en route. I felt a jolt of familiarity as I spotted the long-forgotten road sign and my heart thundered along with the train as it sped past.

A large number of concrete buildings and several car dealerships lining the road leading to the city was a sure sign that the city was growing but what really impressed me were the amazing skywalks that were slick and extremely user friendly.

I was impressed with these skywalks that were accessible by both stairs and escalators . They were good to look at and easy to use .

Despite Prima Donna’s insistence on a chicken wrap Immediately , the waiter insisted on handing it only when it was “gorom, gorom”

The sign in the elevator that brought a smile

Sadly, I was misled by the wonder of the skywalk and was terribly disappointed with the hotel :The Gateway Grandeur was far from grand. It looked more like a grande dame who was tottering on her last legs. Predominantly red, with furnishing that had seen better days, I was glad that we were there for just the night .

Anil who was representing our tour operator Mr Rajkumar of Kaziranga Travels mumbled that we had to be ready by 5.30 so that we could catch the Brahmaputra river cruise organised on the Alfresco Grand. This was undoubtedly the redeeming feature of the day.

Would I return home as a dead body or a happy traveller?

At the Jahaz Ghat, we met the mysterious Mr Raj Kumar who welcomed us with the traditional Gamosa, a rectangular white cloth red woven borders on the side . As we sat on the deck of the boat, Raj Kumar and regaled us with stories of his clients: the story of how he shipped home the body of a dead tourist failed to bring a smile to our faces and which actually chilled me to the bone.

The Gamosa with an intricate woven border on the side .

Though it was pitch dark and we couldn’t see any sights on the river banks we were entertained by a troupe of dancers who performed the Bihu dance.

We also watched a short presentation of the story of Lachit Borphukan, the brave Assamese warrior who stopped the mighty Mughal armies from claiming the North East as part of their empire.

The short audio visual on board is both informative and entertaining.

And enjoying the slight breeze, listening to old Bollywood songs while we sailed along the Brahmaputra, we officially began our trip

Ciao
The Perfect Chello Kebab

November 8, 2021

Rice is an integral part of Asian and South Asian Cuisine. This modified grass has a special significance to all of us who have been weaned on a soft gruel of rice, Gradually as the palate developed along with the gut, salt, aromatic spices and other ingredients were added to make the simple rice dish into something wholesome and more nutritious than pure starch.

Thus rice with vegetarian or non vegetarian additions became the staple of all Asians. We Indians were introduced to the non-vegetarian rice by the Muslims who invaded our country.

A one pot meal was the most convenient way to eat food for an army that was mostly on the hoof either as invaders or on the run.

Copper Chimney was an upgrade on Khyber and Kwality, the two restaurants that made up the Indian dining scene in Mumbai of the 1960’s. Among its signature dishes was the creamy chicken pulao called “Chello Kebab”.

The long fragrant grains of basmaati mixed with a lightly spiced aromatic boneless chicken that melted in your mouth was rounded off with a thick creamy sauce of : well , pure cream.

It was no wonder then that almost anytime we visited this restaurant, one of us would order this dish.

During the Pandemic, the restaurant would deliver this dish as a Takeaway but sadly two of our attempts resulted in disaster with the delivery boys going to the wrong place. Naturally I decided to make this myself….. especially since the restaurant charged an enormous amount only to face disappointment.

After several attempts, I finally chanced upon the perfect recipe which can easily be made at home with the simplest of equipment and ingredients.

So what I did was defrost 500 g of boneless chicken overnight.

In the morning, I marinated it in a paste of 2 tspns garlic ginger paste, I tbspn of garam masala, 1 tspn of salt and 1/2 cup of whipped curd.

An hour or so later, I browned One large onion thinly sliced in some oil which was tempered with 1 bay leaf, 1 ” piece of cinamon, 4 cloves.

In the meawhile I had kept aside 200 g of rice, nicely rinsed for around 10 minutes.

Once the onion wasbrowned, I added the rice and let it fry for 2-3 mins. I then added some strands of saffron and the chicken.

I quickly added some hot water, gave the pot a good stir, covered it with a well fitting lid and lowered the heat.

I allowed the rice to cook on simmer for at least 20 minutes or till the water dried up.

Before serving, I added 200 ml of cream and mixed the entire aromatic pulao thoroughly so that all the grains and meat were evenly blanketed with cream.

The meat was tender and luscious retaining its moisture and flavour…….
Travels to the North East

November 8, 2021

It was the middle of October and Diwali was round the corner . Travelling was the last thing on my mind especially since we still hadn’t seen the last of CoVid .

Besides, my head was filled with menu options for the Diwali party that Prima Donna had organised for the extended family.

With thoughts of Chicken Curry and Kadai Panir swimming in my head I paid scant regard to Prima Donna’s prattle about her itinerary to the North East . After all she was travelling with a friend and I was by now grappling with a new spoke in the wheel – Anna Shetty’s suggestion to serve a pan Asian meal .

However, there is Someone Upstairs who is looking down and making sure that all my plans go for a toss.

So there I was on Thursday morning ( 29th November ) making my way down the Sea Link towards Mumbai’s CSIA to catch the early morning flight to Guwahati .

Believe it or not, this was my first time at the Domestic terminal and I was quite surprised to see it match up to its international cousin.

The airport was buzzing with activity and once inside it was more like a train station with literally hundreds of passengers ready to take off . While it was heartening to see so many people travel, the Security couldn’t cope with the crowd especially since the additional step of lowering the mask for identification slowed down the process , so it was quite a long wait till I could get my morning fix of coffee.

The flight was full and we had the last seats in the cabin . It didn’t matter much even though it was a three hour flight. But seeing the constant trips to the loo made me realise that coffee before flying is a bad idea unless you are wearing an adult diaper .

As promised, the IndiGo flight was on time and we landed smoothly at the LGB ( poor Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi after whom the airport is named would have been shocked that LGB has a queer connotation these days! ).

It had a charming old world air about it even though it was being upgraded and had cordoned off areas under construction. But it was awarded the prize for the Best Improved Airport. Yet somethings, like attitude, cannot be upgraded that easily and we had a brief introduction to a local time that literally differed from ours. After an unduly long wait at the luggage belt, we stepped out to meet our driver Anil who held our name on a scrappy sheet of paper and welcomed us with a friendly grin that brought back memories of the childhood song ‘Never smile at a crocodile’.

Stuffing our luggage in the back, he took the long way back to the city and in almost half the time it took us to reach Guwahati, he traveled the next 22km to the hotel ! But this, he claimed was a more scenic route and less crowded though as the sun began to set we could see less and less of the landscape rolling by.

But finally we did reach Guwahati .

Ciao