Stock image used for representation purposes only. Image by Saahib via pixabay.com.
The city of Amritsar is well-known for its Golden Temple - an eminent Sikh religious site that is visited by tens of thousands of people every day. While the site itself is the main attraction, it is not the only thing that attracts tourists. For food lovers across the country, Amritsar usually finds itself a great spot in various lists of ‘to be visited’ cities.
The city treats visitors to a variety of meals that range from large loaded kulchas prepared with a generous stuffing of vegetables, to finely crafted Satpura - a seven-layered snack puff made up of flour, green peas, and potatoes. Staples like these, which now seem synonymous with the city, have been adapted to its cuisine over the centuries.
As the city is located where two main historical roads come together - the Silk Road and the Grand Trunk Road - it has had merchants and travellers from all over the world pass through. Along with their commodities, these people also introduced Amritsar to their local dishes, ingredients, and cooking techniques.
Tandoor, which is now an integral part of Punjabi cuisine, was actually brought by travellers from Central Asia. The technique of making leavened bread on this traditional-style oven has inspired many new dishes, including an all-time favourite Peshawari Khameeri Roti. This roti was later filled with potato and all kinds of stuffings, making way for the creation of another legendary bread, Amritsari Kulcha - a dish that is now an indispensable part of the city’s culture and cuisine.
The existence of dhabas in every nook and corner of Amritsar tells yet another historical tale. While dhabas had existed in India earlier on, it was only during the Partition of India that these small food joints started expanding rapidly. Serving an array of home-style items like sarson da saag, makke di roti, and kaali daal, these joints became a source of both livelihood and nourishment for many people who came from the other side of the border.
Another dish that was inspired by the city’s travellers is ‘Satpura’ - a seven-layered puff eaten as a snack, that is laboriously prepared by layering and folding seven pooris over seven times. The intricate recipe involves beating and layering long sheets of dough, then combining that with potatoes and green peas to add more flavour. In the crowded lanes of Amritsar, an unnamed shop has been making this delicacy for over half a century now. When asked, they say that the recipe came to them via a cook from Chittagong (a place now officially known as Chattogram, located in Bangladesh).
Much like its home state, Amritsar’s cuisine is known for its rich, hearty, and wholesome meals. Here, the metrics used in the other parts of the country do not hold true - ghee or makhan is used in dollops rather than drops, kulfi becomes kulfa, and a glass of lassi makes for a meal in itself.
Perhaps the adaptation of kulfi to a supersized kulfa owes its existence to this tradition. For the unversed, Kulfa is the Amritsari version of kulfi that is prepared using generous amounts of falooda, phirni, and kulfi, and is much richer and heavier than what you get in other cities of India.
On top of all these rich indulgences is the simple, hearty meal served at the Golden Temple throughout the day. Here, people from diverse backgrounds sit together on the floor to enjoy the simple roti and daal that is served and prepared by volunteers, with love.
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