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----- Pleasures of the Plate ----- Every morning, after a dip in the lianga and darshan at Vishwanath Temple, the hungry pilgrim heads for the nearby Kachauri Ciali. As you stroll down this lane, a whiff of the tempting bouquet of spices and the his of trying puris are sure to make you feel terribly hungry. The food shops line the narrow lane, and the cooks sit beside huge pans of smoking oil, balanced on earthen ovens. The paris. kacliaurts and pakocoras are fried and served hot with spicy vegetables and pickles. Dessert could be jalebis or a glass of cool lassi made of fresh curd. When a city names its lanes after food, you know that it treats eating as a serious business however, Varanasi cannot really claim to have a cuisine of its own. What it has done is blend the cuisine of the region and that of the communities settled in the city to create a superlative menu of vegetarian fare. What Varanasi can truly call its own are the milk and curd-based drinks, the famous lassi and thandai, and, of course, he banarasi pan.varansi has stirng of special dishes connectied to various rituals ,and festivals. the ritual offerings to the gods, tienaiivdyam, include milk-based sweets.ghee, honey, grain, fruit and vegetables. You can see them being carried into the temples on huge trays. The most elaborate meal to be offered to the gods is the legendary chhappan bhog, with fiffty six sweet and savoury dishes offered to Lord Krishna on Janamashtami. On Makara Sankranti, women add sesame seeds to sweets. On Deepavali, the sweet shops sell candy animals, and a variety of laddua are ubiquitous on Ganesh Chaturthi. The biggest pile of sweets can be seen during the Annakut festival at the Annapurna Temple. Every gali in the city has its own halwai or food shop that prepares tempting spread of alcoholic drinks. The most pupular sanck i9s kachauri- tried pastry puffs stuffed with spicy lentils served with also bhaji, a spicy potato curry or ghughani, chick peas in a tangy gravy. them there are puris fried and puffed wheat bread and crunchy pakoras, chaunks of seasonal vegetables dipped in gram-flour batter and deep fried. And, of course, there are the samosas, flour triangles stuffed with cooked potatoes and peas. Besan of gram flour is used to create an inspired selction of crunchies like papad chura, bhujia and dalmoth And then there is the supreme snack of north India - chaat, a variety of flour and lentil puffs and fruits with a topping of very hot spices, and a sweet-and-sour chuteney. In traditional homes, during meals, people sit on the floor or on low wooden stools and the food is served on a shiny brass plate, the thali, surrounded by small bowls, katoris. A variety of lentils, fries, vegetables and curd dishes are eaten with wheat rotis, paranthas and puris. The whole accompanied by a range of vegetable and fruit preserves - the tangy achar and the syrupy morabbas. Well-off homes often have a Brahmin cook called the maharaj who is the real monarch of the kitchen. In strict vegetarian homes, the food is satvik. that is it is cooked without onions or garlic and, traditionally, the cooking medium is ghee- golden sopoonfuls of clarified butter. the god and goddess. Varanasi olviously adove sweet because kilos of barfi. peda and laddu are offered to them every day. One look at the shelves of sweet shops shows thr inspired range of the cooks of the city. The Bengalis have given some of the best cottage cheese sweets like the creamy round rosogollas chamcham and sandesh. Thick, sweetened milk called rabri is served in earthen bowls and is the favoured dessert after a round of spicy hot. street-side snacks also worth a taste are the peda, malpua khaja balushahi mohan blog, spirals of jalebi and creamy malai gujiya. Sweets in a melange of tastes crunchy, creamy or dripping with sugar syrup. Khoa Call is where the sweet-makers of the city come to buy khoa,cheese-like rounds of condensed milk that is used to make the barfi and pedas. Here cooks labour over huge pans of thickening milk to make khoa, rabri, paneer (cotage cheese) and serve curds in chilled earthen bowls Varanasi also offers a delectable choice ot non alcoholic drinks. The colourful sherbets are made with fruit and aromatics like rose petals and khus. Panna is a delicious seasonal drink made with raw mangoes. The lassi is a fragrant mix of milk and curd, churned smooth and frothy, topped with spices, dry fruits and served in clay cups. The thandai is rich with saffron and dry fruits. During celebrations and the festival of Holi, the thandai is spiked with intoxicating bhang or opium. After all, this is Shiva's city and bhang is his favourite intoxicant. In summer there is also the incomparable langra mangoes -eaten chilled, added to drinks and as a dessert in thickened milk. The green-skinned fruit has an orange-gold pulp with an irresistible flavour. Connoisseurs rate the Banarasi langra as among the best mangoes in India
ETHNIC DELICACIES
OF VARANASI :
Morning Mazaa:
Doodh hi Doodh:
Samosas,
Kachauris and Sohals:
Sweets
The shop introduced special sweets on the eve of Independence and continues the tradition. These include rashtriya or tri-coloured burfi, Jawahar laddu, Ballabh sands and Gandhi aura. Rajbandhu is yet another famous sweet shop of the city. Located in Kachauri Gali, it boasts of sweet delicacies like rasmadhuri, rasmallai and malai gilauri, besides munchy Allahabad! samosas. Lavanglatas and imarti of Gopi Sweets at Piplani Katra and Pahalwan's shop at Lanka are famous. Raswanti is based in the Nandan Sahu Lane and boasts of unique delicacies like angoor burfi, santara burfi, bel ka rot, raswanti special, malai paan, badam bhog, petha ka roll and milk peda. Shiv Bhandar at Neelkanth is a 75-year-old shop that boasts of having served PM Atal Behari Vajpayee and many other celebrities. The shop is famous for its miniature pedas and khirmohans. The yellow peda, nick- named chandrakala is yet another stellar offering of this shop, whose khoa sweets are the most popular. Kuber Bhandaar, is perhaps the lone sweet shop in India that exclusively sells sweet-meats for those on vrat (religious fasts). Rasra/and rasmadhuri, are just two of the specialties of this 50-year-old shop. Madhur Jalpan, another old sweet shop located A near tne Bansphatak, specialises in maal Pua and JaletJas (tne big brother gal Sweet House, Basant Bahar, Brindavan, Vaishali Sweets, Vishwanath Bhandaar and Kamdhenu Sweets.
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city. The summer season offers
frothing Lassi as the ul- timate cooler to soothe the senses. There are
many Lassi shops in the city, the leaders of the pack be- ing Chunna
Sardar of Chetganj, Dwarikapuri at Chowk, Punna Sardar at Thatheri
Bazaar, Pahalvan at Lanka and the Lassi stall at Ramnagar. Another desi
drink of the city is the thandai. The real Benar- si thandhai is spiced
with kesar, malai, curd and al- monds, all mixed with shira. Thandhai
has been the prime cold drink of the Bahari Alang, which is pic- nicking
Varanasi style, along with another culinary delight called the bati chokha.
It is still commonly found in Gujarati families of the city, and is a must
at all their functions, be it a birthday or a marriage. The
bitter heat of summers is staved by a refresh- ing saunf and
nimboo thandhai, sometimes spiked with bhang. In the monsoons, mango
and of jamun are in demand. Thandhai is also an inseparable part of the
nightlife of the city, as visitors generally walk in to savour these
delights after sundown.The main thandhai shops of the city are located at
Godulai crossing and Bansphatak. Milmade delicacies in winters take the
shape of malai and ruton that are made by thickening milk. The shops
selling Lassi and curd in summer, switch to rabri and malai in winter.
But one of the most unique preparations of milk in the winters is the
mallaiyo. Yellow in colour, it is pre- pared by first thickening milk
over fire and then leav- ing it to be foamed in contact with dew during
the night. In the morning the same foam is taken in a kadhai and then
sold as mallaiyo. 
besides hundreds of other sweets,
tickle your taste buds long after you've had them. The area spanning Thatheri Bazaar, Nandan Sahu Lane and Chaukhambha, to the areas of Pukka
Mahal and Bramhanal, is the best place to have these delicacies. Ram
Bhandaar, is perhaps the most renowned sweet shop of the city that has
catered to locals as well as tourists for about a century. A unique blend
of premium sweets made of khoa, mewa and pista, makes up the menu of the
shop that is located in Chaukhambha and has also another branch at
Rathyatra. Most popular among the sweetmeats available here are butter
burfi, karanshahi burfi and mango burfi. Besides, radhaphya, malai
sandwich, malai gilauri, Daas Ka laddu, and coconut, almond and pista
chooda are also popular.