Amritsari kulche waali gali
Geetu Vaid
“I want to taste authentic and traditional Chandigarh food.” My friend clean bowled me with this simple request recently. How do you explain Chandigarh’s empty ‘traditional’ platter, unlike city specific cuisine of Lucknow, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Delhi or Bangalore? At 65, City Beautiful is too young to have a signature dish or drink that has become a part of the folklore. But other than the tangy paanch paani golgappas and delectable chaat, the quest for traditional taste remains for people who have moved from other towns to the city.
It was this ‘hunger’ for authentic Punjabi food that made brothers Tejinder Singh and Rohit Chadha sell Amritsari kulchas in the Tricity. Moving here from the Mecca of street food, Amritsar, Tejinder realised that what was being served in the name of regional cuisine also lacked the original touch. They filled this gap by setting up Brothers’ Kulcha Hub in Sector 4, Mansa Devi Complex, in 2010.
Since then, they have scripted a success story by serving crispy, layered, succulent and stuffed flatbread with golden butter melting on top, accompanied by spicy Punjabi chholey and tangy tamarind and anardana chutney. And this is not all: the eating joint has been a trendsetter of sorts — it has transformed the lane of shops leading to Chandigarh IT Park after the railway underpass at MDC into a virtual ‘kulcha street’, with more kulcha outlets springing up there, offering this delicacy in its myriad avatars. A fleet of vehicles of kulcha fans dot the roadside around lunch time every day.
Authentic Amritsari flavour combined with innovation as per the demand of customers has been the winning recipe for Tejinder and Rohit. The original taste comes from three hours of preparing the dough and different types of stuffings for the soft and luscious kulchas each morning. “The dough is prepared with butter and ghee till it has over fifty layers. It is these layers that make the kulchas crispy and the texture doesn’t become rubbery even after these get cold,” says Rohit. The cooks, from Amritsar, also prepare the spices themselves. The chickpeas have to be soaked for over 12 hours and are cooked on slow fire with only spices and no onions. The tandoor (mud oven) has to have the right temperature. “Each day, almost 100 kg wood is burnt in the tandoor and it takes almost two hours for it to come to the right temperature as the wood turns to coal and the kulchas can be cooked perfectly,” informs Tejinder, adding that utmost care is taken to maintain hygiene of the food served.
The over 50 types of stuffings to choose include the conventional aloo-pyaz, mix veg, cheese, methi-paneer, veg garlic, mushroom, the double dose of choor-choor kulcha which has double the amount of butter and stuffing that makes it melt-in-your-mouth. Catering to popular demand, there is the pizza variation, with veggies (beetroot, capsicum, carrots, beans, onions) arranged on the kulcha, a la a pizza. The jumbo kulcha is a sumptuous option for a family nd then there is atta kulcha too for the health conscious. And all of this for just Rs 50 to Rs 100. Our vote is for choor-choor, paneer and methi-paneer kulchas topped with a glass of malai lassi (sweet).
For those in Chandigarh, there is a sister outlet in Sector 9.
Takeaways
- Though there are around 70 seats, getting kulchas packed is a better choice. Two kulchas, chanas, chutney, salad + lassi cost around Rs 180.
- With over 700-800 kulchas being sold on a weekend morning, be prepared to wait for at least 15 minutes for your order.
- Also, check out Amritsari special dal makhani, lachcha parantha, special veg nutri with rumali roti/butter naan.
