Paradise in Punjab

Punjabis have the reputation of being the greatest producers of good food and being the still greater consumers of it. Punjab has bequeathed the institution of Dhaba-originally a wayside eating joint to the world. The Dhaba moves wherever a Punjabi goes.

There are vaishno dhabas where only vegetarian food is cooked in pure ghee or clarified white butter. Dal Makhni, a shining blackish lentil named Urd or Maha of the Dhaba has become world famous and is served in Punjab on all ceremonial occasions.

Pranthas, stuffed with seasonal vegetables, fried on a pan, baked in the tandoor, a barrel shaped oven fashioned out of alluvial soil, curds, sometimes mixed with khoya-a kind of fudge made by boiling the milk on slow fire-with chunks of white butter floating on top; spinach of mustard mixed with other leaves and special tongue-tingling spices which is cooked in an earthen vessel on slow fire and chappatis made out of the flour of maize, panir-cottage cheese-stuffed with different sumptuous fillings have also become commodities of export.

The saffron-mixed buttermilk(lassi) of Amritsar, milk boiled with almonds, pistachio and dry-dates in winters and the same mix boiled into a thick liquid and then solidified in a banana shaped mould in the form a Kulfi are unmatched in taste. Panjiri, whole wheat flour fried in sugar and ghee, heavily laced with dry-fruits and herbal gums in eaten in the winters to ward off cold.

The Bazaars of the towns of Punjab are always loaded with sweetmeats, seasonal fruits and other foodstuffs.

It will need a handbook to describe all the savories of Punjab. Old towns like Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala also manufactures exotic sherbets.

Punjabi fried and tandoori-baked fish, tandoori baked and butter chicken, kababs baked on charcoal, Patiala's Shahjahani Palao and a variety of chicken and mutton curries and vegetable and meat baryanis are relished the world over.

The British were astonished to see, when they conquered Punjab that on the periphery of every village there was a special Dera or Takia where hospitality was offered to every wayfarer.

Even today you can not come out of a Punjabi home without having had enjoyed its hospitality. There are denominational institutions all over Punjab, specially the Sikh historical gurudwaras where free board and lodging is offered through out day and night.