From the city of lights – Streets and Street food in Banaras !
Alright this is going to be the final part of the series ” From the city of lights” , and in this one we will take a sneak peak at the streets and the street food in Banaras !!! Someone said that its wonderful to get lost in the streets of Varanasi…Close your eyes .. turn around..open your eyes and just start walking ! This is absolutely true !! The never ending narrow alleys of the city are a treat to walk through . The narrower the alley the bigger cows you find in them blocking your way ! 🙂
Street Scenes
For a typical amature travel photographer the streets of Banaras throw a plethora of photo opportunities. Street performances , graffiti , hawkers , tourists , cats ,dogs, cows !!! PHEW !! The list is endless !
A Street performance !!
Vintage collection on display ! This 1950 model Yezdi motorcycle was actually in running condition !!
I found this 1950 model Yezdi motorbike parked inside a printing press in one of those never ending streets. When I approached the owner he was more than happy to show me the bike. The bike belonged to his father which was later passed on to him ! Some legacy ha !!
A cow rests inside a garment shop in Banaras ! ehhh what can I say !! It happens only in India !!!
HOLY COW !!!! That was my exact expression when I entered this garment shop !!! Incidently one fine day this bull just walked into the shop and ever since he has been a resident of this shop.The shopkeepers believe that the Lord himself has sent the bull to them.They feed the bull , clean him and take good care of him. The owners say that the bulls presence is like a blessing to them !! Now this is what we call blind faith in India !
Cycle rickshaw wallas waiting for a sawaari at 5 am !
As a city dweller I always felt bad when I saw these cycle-rickshaws, I never used to sit on one as I felt really bad for the person who was pedaling the cycle-rickshaw.It was only in Banaras that I realized that the best way to help these guys out was to travel in their cycle-rickshaws and by paying them. Not only are they the fastest way to travel (that’s if you are travelling for short distances within the city) as taking an auto or a taxi would take a long time due to the narrow congested roads , they are also very economical if you are on a budget vacation !!!
Hmmm …now speaking about food ..yeah lets talk bout food now… The food in Banaras is awwwweesoomme !!! Well there is a disclaimer to it.. You should be accustomed to the Indian Spicy food !! As for me a gentle dose of 1 Norflox 200mg a day kept me and my tummy happy 🙂
A typical breakfast in Uttar Pradesh is something like this… Supeer Hot Puris ( which by the way are super oily too 🙂 ) , allo / channa (potato / gram ) gravy (Which is also nice and spicy ) and to go with it there is hot Jalebis (sorry no english word for it.. see the pic below..those golden brown sweets that are stacked up..yeah those are the ones im talking about ).
Now once you are done with the super heavy meal , I’m saying meal because trust me ..this cant be called a breakfast !!! You have two options.. 1) Hot Tea or 2) Nice cold flavored milk or popularly called the Thandai in UP.
Hot Puris and Jalebis for breakfast !
If you want to go the south indian way, no worries there are plenty of options. One can easily get dosas , iddlies and steaming hot vadas as well 🙂
Dosas are no more "South Indian" !!
Now the real speciality of Uttar Pradesh are the CHAATS ! ( CHAATs are spicy street food which are considered as snacks ). The golgappas , aalu tikki chat , samosa chat , tamatar chat , palak pakoda chat and there is an unending list of chaats which I had never heard of till now. Now seeing all this the foodie in me woke up … and boy was he HUNGRY !!! There sure was a small fear at the back of my mind which said I might upset my tummy.. but the Norflox in my bag gave me confidence to go ahead and devour all those yummy stuff !! If you are travelling to INDIA and especially to BANARAS make sure you dont miss out on these yummy stuff. Well of course you do need to make sure that you dont upset your stomach in the process. Oh hey unfortunately I dont have any photographs to Illustrate any CHAAT here as ..hmm.ehh… well you know what I was doing.. soo… 😉
For those with a sweet tooth , Varanasi offers the choicest of pure milk sweets.
Ok now for all those people out there with a sweet tooth , this city does offers the best of the Milk sweets. Milk production is in plenty in UP , and Banaras being a pilgrim center people buy sweets all the time.There are festivals all over the year and so the supply of sweets never ends. Well with so much milk around there is bound to be a good production in dahi / yogurt as well. The dahi here is set in earthern pots which absorbs all the water content and resulting in the finest dahi ever !! Now here is a tip to keep you stomach happy. After eating spicy food make sure you have big cup of fresh yogurt. This really cools the system down and saves you from acidity and gasteritis !!
The local street dairy !
Surprisingly large part of the street food in Banaras is still cooked on coal.Infact even tea is. Coal gives a completely different aroma to the food which I found was missing when I ate at places where the food was not cooked on coal. Coal burns slowly and in turn cooking the food slowly which keeps the flavour intact . They even have custom made coal stoves on which the food is cooked.
A man breaking coal for his stove on the streets of Varanasi.
If I am talking about food in Banaras and if I dont mention the Banarasi paan then it would be a crime. For the first timers in India people chewing paan is the most common sight you get to see. So what is this paan and why is it so famous in Banaras ? Paan is nothing but betel leaf onto which slaked lime paste is applied then some cured tobacco is added (which is optional) , then some crushed areca nut. This is the masala paan. Now a better variant is the meetha paan or the sweet paan which does not contain the tobacco but contains candied fruits or fruit preserves , cherries , grated cocunut , cloves , cardamom and an assortment of other sweet things. The paan has to be chewed before one spits it out or if you are like me you would swallow it 🙂 Chewing a nice meetha paan after a heavy meal helps in digestion and defenitely keeps your tummy happy !!! 🙂
A masala paan
The banarasi paan is famous in particular because the betel leaf used is grown only in Banaras. The leaf is very tender and soft as compared to a normal betel leaf. This special betel leaf is available only for a few months ie: from Dec to June.If one is travelling during this time then the Banarasi paan is a must have !! 🙂
Hmmm.. all this food talk has made me really hungry now ! I’m going to wrap up this post right here and go grab a bite ! I hope you enjoyed the series and will be really glad to hear from you. 🙂
Hooolycow ! 
Nice post Vignesh, well written.
Great narration,… Great photography !!!!
thank you varun 🙂