Places to eat in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

So! In the quest to taste the diverse famous delicacies of India, some people will go even in places where there is high adulteration and nothing really special in food. But because of my two-year stay in this zilla (district) called Ghaziabad, I had to find time for one road trip dedicated to its food. Thanks bansal saab for the company and driving Ghaziabad’s local boy Bahu-Balli’s public transport (Activa). Other participants include Emraan #me, Chota Bheem.

In no specific order, some of the ones which can generously put under “known foods of Ghaziabad” are here.

Chemical Burger @ Kavi Nagar –

Man! The name itself ignites that curiosity in you – what on earth are its’ ingredients? These burgers can give quite a stiff competition to branded names. Yours truly once waited 30 min to get a couple of them. The preparation is quite simple (click on the pic for better view) –

Switch on the stove for a metre diameter pan. Melt some butter and fry the red (pink/purple) coloured filling. Keep on mashing the filling, melt some more butter (Do this iteration atleast 2-3 times). Keep aside the filling. For buns, melt bricks of butter and with specialized artistic skills start the assembly line for producing these chemical burgers. Butter should be added as when required. Garnish with a paneer slice, a tomato slice and jaate jaate squeeze some lemon over it and pour some purple coloured liquid! Jai ho! Utterly Butterly delicious...

Now a lot of people including yours truly are quite sceptical about the red/pink/purple coloured filling. Some even honour it by chanting ‘The Dirty Burger’ (still in their hearts they love its taste). The maker says it’s the natural colour of beetroot but dil hai ki manta nahi. The end product is quite popular and tastes awesome.

The name ‘chemical burger’ is a courtesy a child who quite cutely ordered “bhaiya ek chemical burger”.

Place to be found – Kavi Nagar market, opposite one of India’s best MBA schools. Rate Card – Rs 20 per burger.

Lalman Lassi Wale @ Old Ghaziabad Bus Stand –

Just behind the Old Ghaziabad bus stand, you will find this shop. Surprisingly, it IS a full-fledged cement shop and NOT a lassi stand (Ghaziabad is not famous of milk products; rather it is quite notorious when it comes to availability of pure milk here). The sweet lassi @ Rs 20 is very standard and I can’t find any motivation with me to have it again. No comparison with lassi available at Kota/Amristar/Banaras. Better than ones sold in Chandani Chowk (Old Delhi) just because of a thicker malai layer! Shop is opened till late night. 

Pastry @ Madhurima Bakery –

Madhurima Bakery, Ghaziabad

One of best located eateries I have came across till date. It is damn famous (everybody we asked was able to tell the place). It is situated near Ghantaghar on the side of Vijaynagar. You will need to show some special effort to find this place. It is located inside a motor service station with blacksmith, carpenters using their tools with full Decibel impact. Even then, people will encourage you by saying ‘wahin hai, aage’ (its there, ahead). And all you see is a door – welcome to Madhurima bakery. Bakery is actually a wholesaler and manufacturers bakery products in bulk. Consequently, many line up for their bulk daily purchase.

Courageously ask the guys behind the counters for pastry and they will ask you numbers – 6,8,10 (A.P. series with a = 6 and d = 2). I bought a trial pack of standard Pineapple ones @ Rs 35 (6 piece). Pastries are standard and the taste shows the economies of scale motive in it. Keeping the taste! By its shear popularity among locals and business volume, it can be visited. I like the way he tells you his popularity being a wholesaler in the Ghaziabad district. 

Pahalwan Dhaba, Ghaziabad

Parathas @ Dhabas –

Throughout North India, they are everywhere. Even in South Delhi, they emerge in an ad-hoc fashion at nights (Yusuf Sarai, Moolchand, IIT D Gate). Paranthas in North India are staple. For their makers, its preparation is easy, fast and requires very less working capital. Ghaziabad has few famous ones (Pahalwan Dhaba, Shubham Dhaba).

I suggest you go to Shubhams. Parantha are pretty much the same but the real USP and the taste lies in Dahi Fry. Dahi Fry – it is a mixture of curd with tomatoes, onions boiled with adequate quantity oil. Paranthas are served with eraser-sized butter bricks and are a delight to eat, especially in winters. God bless the man/woman who invented the circular disks.

Location – 2-3 kms from Old Bus Stand

Madan Sweets, Ghaziabad

Madan Halwai –

Nice neat AC place located quite far from Old Bus Stand. No extraordinary dish I can think of. Pyaas Khachori will be my only recommendation. Among its peers with similar ambiance (Gulab@Kavi Nagar, etc), Madan is the cheapest.

More in the Zila - Don’t know much about non-veg items. One of them is Zaika rolls @ Kavi Nagar (right opposite Chemical Burger stall) - decent enough (hearsay). Then, stalls selling Chole Kulche outside Kachari are also popular (I recommend to avoid them). Nearby RDC too has many QSRs (nothing exceptional though, every city/town/zila have those AC chambers).

Places suggested by gamer n coder Vineet, native of Ghaziabad who went on to become a Gold medallist in his & mine graduation.  

Please note: Ghaziabad in the article is ‘Old Ghaziabad’ only!

Lucknow - City of Nawabs

Lucknow is the capital of India’s largest state Uttar Pradesh and is known as ‘City of Nawabs’. It is associated with words like ‘adab’ and ‘tehzeeb’ and they will be mentioned later in the article.

My adventure with Lucknow:
My adventure with Lucknow was a memorable one and UNIQUE as it demanded sacrifice of materialistic pleasures, tested my stamina, my emotions and lasted for over 3 months. Consequently the write up will include more than just a traveler’s review.

From a traveler’s perceptive, you need just two days to absorb the best of city.

How to reach Lucknow?
Distance from Delhi is approx 600 km and it takes around 14 hours to complete it by non-deluxe state transport buses. A very strong suggestion - if somebody is traveling from Delhi to Lucknow by rail, kindly make use of Lucknow Mail (an ISO 9000 certified train; to be separately reviewed) or Lucknow Duplicate. Having slept 8 Friday and 8 Sunday nights in LM, I believe it is one of the best trains currently running in the country.
Rate Card for LM – Rs 594 (3AC), Rs 222 (Sleeper)

Start:
We boarded Shatabdi (morning edition) from New Delhi Railway Station and landed in Lucknow at 12:30 A.M. Unlike my earlier journey, this ended normally and within time. It was a comfortable ride as expected from Shatabdi. Cost per ticket - Rs 610

Sites:Bara Imambara and Bhool Bhulaiya – It is a complex man-made structure. On ground floor you have Imambara, which has some artifacts from past and photographs of the time when Lucknow was flooded by river Gomti.
Above floors have been named Bhool Bhulaiya (Lost by mistake). For first timers, it’s advisable to take a guide along. Puzzle inside is quite simple. You have to start from one hall and end at another. At every crossing, there are 4 ways to go, out of which 3 are wrong. And the correct one leads to Delhi, Agra, Faizabad (as per our guide). Apart of these, there are other facts too (like building’s material made up of organic stuff, etc). As you reach higher floors, view of the city is majestic. City looks charming from the top galleries and you can see other nearby monuments too.
Disclaimer – many Nawabs of Lucknow do not agree with the information provided by guide and consider them false.
Rate Card: Entry ticket (Rs 20), Guide rate (Rs 75 for Bhool Bhulaiya/ Rs 150 for Bhool Bhulaiya + Imambara + a nearby Baouri). If you are going for guide kindly go for Bhool Bhulaiya only.

Nearby monuments include – Chota Imambara, Clock Tower, Rumi Darwaza and more of Mughal architecture. They all are worth one look and not much spectacular.



Next day early morning we went to Lohia Park and Ambedkar Park since it was close to our Gomti Nagar guesthouse. These parks are huge. They are not parks, they are fields. They are fields in which money has been invested like water. There are no bulls here for tilling, but there are arrogant elephants everywhere. Sadly, there are no crops for these fields. Fields (parks) are good, still in harvest (maintenance) but when you see the cost for making them; you can’t appreciate them. May be thatswhy, crowd wasn’t there. If the concept is extended to the ciiy and these fields starts coming up everywhere with those elephants, City of Nawabs will soon turn to 'City of Elephants'.

Next places to visit where malls. Lucknow malls are quite different from that of metros. These malls have many ‘budget’ outlets rather snobbish showrooms. Consequently, buying percentage in Lucknow’s malls exceeds malls of a metro like Delhi. Two of the famous ones are Saharagunj (Hazratganj) and Fun Republic (Gomti Nagar).






Markets:

Hazratgunj market near Vidhan Sabha is the best market of the city. Aminabad and Chowk are considered cheaper and are famous for there Chicken Suits shops (Chicken is some type of embroidery which ladies like).

Food:
One thing you love about this place. Awadh-lucknowvi andaaz is best on platter and food here is relatively quite cheap. Some places which you have to try –

Ram Aasrey Sweet Shop – This shop belongs to Ram Aasrey Halwai. The first branch was opened at Chowk. Besides Chowk you have branches at Hazratganj too. The best community which is served here is Malai Paan (also known as Malai Ki Dori). Instead of beetle leaf, Malai is used to make the paan. Inside stuffing has dry fruits in liquid sugar. The taste is quite unique and lovable.
Rate Card – Malai Paan @ Rs 8
.
Royal café @ Saharaganj mall – This shop is located in the food court of Sahaganj Mall. It is quite popular among localities and serves Indian dishes. There USP is availability of taste at very low prices. I was a regular here and am a big fan of there Thalli. Servings in Thalli include – 4 combinations of dals/vegetable (including paneer items), veg biryani, 1 naan, 1 lachha parantha, sweet curd (mouthwatering) and 1 sweet with salad and papad. 1 Thalli per person can serve the purpose of Breakfast and Lunch. Mouthwatering is the term I use for there food and the Thalli here is definitely one of best North Dishes items available in Lucknow.
Rate Card – Thalli @ Rs 76 (taxes extra)

Burma bakery @ Aliganj – I used to buy my snacks from this place. Building itself is quite multi-functional – Bakery is on the first floor while first floor hosts mosque. Try there chocolate cookies.
Rate Card – Choc Cookies @ Rs 76/kg.

Worst place to eat in Lucknow is Tunde Kababi @ Aminabad. Now this place is very very hyped. Ambience is horrible. This place is equivalent to Hell if you are a hardcore veggi. I was accompanied by some of my Lucknow acquaintances and the review of non-veg written below is heresay from them. Kababs are in the form of circular soaps and there top surfaces are burnt in already over-burned oil. Chicken Butter Masala was one more dish which was ordered. According to my understanding of Chicken dishes it was a ‘gravy-wala-chicken’. People with me thought it was killed twice before being cooked and must be a victim of malnutrition. Gravy was mixture of yellow oil and red oil and had a disgusting smell in already disgusted environment. Now about the veg items which I tried. Menu has only 3 veg items – raita, biryani and kheer. Biryani was boiled rice with non-veg smell. Raita was a chemical mixture of 30 ml ‘beakerfull’ of white colured diluted liquid and 2-3 spatulas of Boondi balls floating in it. Roti were inspired from chewing gums ads. We weren’t that brave to try Kheer.
Rate Card – 1 Kabab soap @ Rs 10, Gravy-wala-chicken @ Rs 50 (approx), Raita @ Rs 15, Rice @ Rs 20.

Also, Lucknow also gets quite a lot variety of Mangoes. Langda and Dehseri are found in abundance and are quite cheap here.

Finding a room in Lucknow with adab and tehzeeb –
This should not be extended to all of Lucknow localities.
Lucknow doesn’t boost much IT or much industry and therefore number of migrants are quite less. Single Employed Bachelors find really difficult to get a room on rent. Searching 1 BHK in a locality nearby office is not an easy job. I finally managed to adjust myself in the city but the landlords screwed me up totally. Forcing a new rent agreement, thorough scrutiny of ‘yours truly’ and 50% increment in rent, it was all bestowed on us with all Lucknowvi adab and tehzeeb.

Return from an Ordeal –
After being on receiving end of all adabs and tehzeebs, we were finally returning back. We boarded Shatabdi (evening edition) from Charbagh Railway Station at 3:30 pm and were scheduled to reach New Delhi around 10 pm. Just when I was thanking God for my long journey, a surprise came on the way. AC wasn’t functioning in the train (we had crossed Kanpur at this juncture). The Lucknow crowd with all their adabs and tehzeebs went for a manhunt for T.T. and Superintendent, who in turn where somewhere on train but not visible. God must have given the helpless people some hidden powers. Some passengers decided to halt the train and wait till the railways send a different one. GOD BLESS THEM for this INSANE idea (at this point we were 2 hours away from Lucknow). Thankfully sanity prevailed and we finally decided to continue with the journey with open doors. Shatabdi soon turned into an interstate local with a fare of Rs 785. Some IIT Kanpur students figured out the fault was with generator and gave up. Superintendent turned up and another cruel reality came out. He wasn’t able to communicate with driver. What would happen incase of a hijack or a burning train? Will Vinod Khanna, Jeetu and Dharmendra turn up as savior as they did in the movie? God save us. Just before Etawah, some pantry guy fixed the generator and it worked till Delhi.

Thank you God (dil se re).

"Keventers" pe Cheers

“Mummy, meri class mein ek ladka tha...vo har roj doodh peetatha....bechara fail ho gaya”
(mom...there used to be a BOND in my class...a milk addict...and guess what, he achieved the status of a failure)

This above-mentioned line was said by a little girl in a TV commercial for a milk-products company. So, what moral it gives to you....I got it...”doodh jahan se bhi piyo, tasty piyo” and in that sense Keventer is the place to buy it from.

Keventer, established somewhere in 1940s offers the best milk-shakes at the most nominal prices. Taste is not the point to talk about here. Queue outside the counter will speak about its glory. Apart from the taste, its the location – CP (central Delhi), that too in the inner circle.

Apart from the milk-shakes, the menu-board also has some timepass snacks (so-so), ice-shakes and some simple ice-creams. A trivia - the shop is more than 60 yrs old and 40 yrs back, the shakes were priced at Rs 5. Another thing which I like about Keventer is the usage of DMS bottle for its servings; transfers memory back to the kiddish way of drinking a full glass milk ;)...so
“CHEERS” drinkers :-)

"IIT ki Ice-Tea"...Cheers

I consider IIT-D (Indian Institute of Tech, Delhi) campus apt for genius creations as it provides a great ambience for exceptional acumen skills. A part from being one of the major landmarks for Engg, IITD also acts as a heaven for thoughts. Inspite of its location (prime South Delhi), you can make out the massive difference in atmospheric noise b/t outside n inside campus.

As you enter, you encounter a tall cum mighty wide building (somewhat like the UN building in Geneva). 5 min walk from the main gate amidst some majestic architecture and grass painted lawns, the institution has its canteen. Adjacent to the canteen, lies the Nescafe…the provider of Ice-Tea…thanks to Neel for introducing IIT ki Ice-Tea to me.

With ample sitting space (USP of the whole experience), chop down prizes and availability of silence, it’s a place to calm down. The mood sets up the mind to think and being in IIT, its influence comes in your thoughts too…suddenly those wasteful incomplete thoughts find the missing solutions and bang!! rationality is achieved to satisfaction. The ‘round-tables’ design of the eating joint itself promotes debating...convenient for gossiping...lol.

But this calm place is too being corrupted by the ‘couple’ culture, another consequence of our ever increasing population syndrome. GOSH, this is the condition when IIT D lies adjacent to Rose Garden, Deer Park and PVR-Priya cineplex..
Also, the place can have its toll on you sometimes as you may encounter IITians having a discussion on fat pay-packets.

Lastly, some words about the ‘Ice-Tea’ itself. It comes in two flavours: Apple n Lemon. Your eyes and nose might say that it looks and smells somewhat similar to chilled fruit beer. And I can write hundred more words BUT “You have taste it” to know more...

“CHEERS” drinkers :-)