A strong, cold wind will greet you in January when you land at the Chandigarh International Airport. You would soon find out it could only get colder.
The winter is at its peak in northern India. If Shimla has slipped into the sub zero temperature, in Mohali — some 128 km away, from the much-loved tourist destination in Himachal Pradesh —it hovers between 2 and 14 degree Celsius for most of the days.
The freezing temperature in Mohali, however, doesn’t stop people from coming out in the nights to taste the excellent spread offered by the street vendors. At Phase 10, Sector 64 — places in India’s only planned city Chandigarh (and the neighbouring Mohali) — you will get to eat an astonishing variety of food.
Besides the Punjabi delights like Sikri chicken and aloo tikki , you will also be tempted by some delicious Chinese and South Indian cuisine. Pastas, spring rolls of different flavours, piping hot jalebis…. and you get all this at truly mouth-watering prices.
I decide to try the breakfast from the Bihari woman who sells her tasty masala tea beneath one of those trees, just outside my hotel.
Rani is a rather friendly woman. On the previous morning, when I told her my name, she had smiled broadly and said, “This is your own city, saab .”
She said it because Mohali’s official name is Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar. She had also suggested I should try her roti some time.
This morning, she has prepared dal makhani as the curry to go with the roti , of which I ate five (I would have stopped with three or four, but she kept on putting them on plate). Then I had her masala tea, too. All that cost just ₹40.
Rani isn’t the only Bihari cook at this food market. A few meters away from her shop is Lalan Mandal, who specialises in South Indian food.
His crispy dosa — as large as the ghee roast— is splendid. “It is a favourite with people here,” says the 70-year-old. “There are also many takers for rava masala dosa and, of course, idli .”
The hottest selling dish at Sukhraj Singh’s shop is sikri chicken, which is cooked by skewering chicken pieces over charcoal. There is also a mutton variety of the same dish. You could also try his crispy fish fry.
For Sukhraj, food is not just a business. It is his passion. He has an M.A. in Political Science and used to work in the sales department of an air-conditioner company.
He then left his job to set up a shop that serviced and sold air-conditioners. He still runs it, but for the last three years, he has been cooking and selling food in the evening.
“The profit from my AC business might be more, but I enjoy this better,” he says. “I love to cook. There are many people who make a lot of money from selling food here. I reckon there would be a business of ₹ 3 lakh every day. I have customers who come to me even from outside Mohali.”
One of his regular customers is Lovish Dureja, a software engineer who works at an IT firm in Mohali. “I have chicken sikri from here regularly,” he says. “The food in this market is not just tasty, but is incredibly cheap.”
You get fresh fruit juices at reasonable prices, too. But make sure to ask vendors like Hareender Kuswa not to put salt into your kinnow, orange or pineapple juices, unless you want to.
One has to be careful about the sauces. There could be too much of different types of sauces in just about everything here.
Not surprisingly, you would find lots of people selling soups. A hot chicken or vegetable soup is certainly a good option to begin your dinner on a chilly night.
