Bazaars of flavours
Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu
My visit to Patiala, with regards to the book mentioned in an earlier column, was as much a nostalgic walk down memory lane as it was a hunt for gastronomic treasures. Having grown up and completed my schooling in this once patrician city, I delighted in leisurely reacquainting with its bustling bazaars. My earliest recollection of the busy bylanes is that of an old Sikh gentleman in a turlewali pag and pothwari salwar briskly doling out portion after loaded portion of spicy chhole-kulche. The tiny hole-in-the-wall at the top end of Tope Khana Mor no longer exists. Yet, each time I walk past the yards of expertly spilled efflorescent fabric that displaced it, my mouth never fails to water in a Pavlovian sort of way!
Another indelible imprint was of massive martbaans brimming with glossy murabbas and assorted pickles at the two attar shops in Sadar Bazaar. They, thankfully, remain. Housed in erstwhile stables fringing the defensive wall of Qila Mubarak, these hakims relocated from Sirhind on the invite of the maharaja some 175 years ago. One of them is simply known as Babbey Wale Hakim Di Dukan, because of a bobble-head likeness of a sadhu parked in their display window for the past 50-odd years. I strongly suspect it is the wellness nuskhas of Hakim Prem Nath Gupta & Sons and its neighbour Bharat Bhushan & Sons that have kept Patiala robust. Never mind how much and how long we Patialvis swear by our legendary peg.
Patiala winters had unfailingly meant stocking up at Arjan Sweets. Their shop in Qila Chowk was long frequented for a variety of soft and hard gachak, cardamom-flavoured sheera (molasses) rewris, and roasted groundnuts. It still is, but they appear to be steadily ceding their crunch to newer sweet treats flooding the space. Personally though, I still look forward to visits from friends and family bearing many kilos of the stuff to round off my winter repasts in a more satisfying manner. Charan Juice, in the old Sabzi Mandi, came as a refreshing surprise. I recall it started out life as a juice cart manned by one Charan Das outside a fruit-seller’s shop. Some five decades later, his two sons are in charge, and this brightly-lit and cheerful space, evidently popular, churns out hygienically prepared shakes and mixed fruit juice specials.
The 125-year-old Malhotra Sweets Corner at Anardana Chowk has built up quite the reputation for steaming pakoras and steamier chai. The sweets, though well-prepared, are firmly on the back-burner while their paneer and vegetable fritters wok the talk nowadays. I was also quite taken with their thin crispy jalebis ordered on a whim, to accompany that quite unnecessary second round of tea, so I could people watch at leisure. Across the road from this tasty old war-horse is Babu Singh Fish Centre. It’s the kind of blink-and-miss place first-timers are likely to pass by even with their eyes wide open. But not die-hard Patialvis in the know of its fried malhi and tandoori sole, specialties that have drawn beelines for 70 years. Another such culinary legacy is being ably furthered by a young Bittu. His father was reputed for the most delicious chole-bhature ever dished out of a poky little place near Sheranwala Gate. The place is still as poky, the specialty just as special, the lines almost as long, but Mahinder Singh, sadly, no more.
