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| Ramdan Food Walk Through Zakaria Street |
It's astonishing sometimes to find a place in your city that hides itself in course of time. It's finding a cityscape within a city. Zakaria street is such a kaleidoscope. Located in the heart of the regular dean and bustle of the city life the narrow lanes, galis and muhallahs decorates themselves in a different hue during the RAMDAN days.
Situated between C.R Avenue and Rabindra Sarani Zakaria Street is a must go destination for them who explores the world through stomach. As a food lover I started my journey with my friend Sumit. At the entrance of the muhalla we find make shift stalls of Ramdan special Semai(vermicelli ). The clatter of people around, the flavour of fresh semai soaked in ghee and the ambience was just amazing.
Amidst the crowd we find this lonely shopkeeper middle aged lady, some how her thought was away from here, a feel of agony was clear in her face. As we progressed our stroll we find fruit sellers with jackfruit, pineapple, pomegranates,guava,papaya,apple,grapes, berries, dates, bananas. Its was as colourful as it could be. Some enthusiastic shopkeepers finding us with a video camera approached and showed his prized possession some australian dates.
Fried chops made of vegetables like potatoes, eggplant, onions, and different leafs could work as a starter of a Ramdan evening fast breaking.
Breads come in variety during the festive seasons. Buns come in different shapes and sizes. Bakharkhani is the king of Ramdan bread. Flour, mawa(chopped dry fruits), ghee and milk is mixed to prepare the dough for Bakharkhani Roti. Huge in shape and size this bread is served with chopped pieces of cherry. The bread muhalla at Zakaria street yes yummy.
As my gastronomical behaviour is little bit inclined to Non-veg platters so I went on searching for some fishy and some meaty dishes. Some of my friend told me about a special kebab named as KHIREE KEBAB. We went on searching for khree kabab (it's a kebab made out of mammary glands of herbivorous animals). In the narrow galli we at first went to a little shop named Muradabadi Lazeez Kabab centre. Skinned chicken marinated in typical Mughal cuisine ingredients were being prepared. Whole of chicken and parts like breast and legs were also being deep fried in boiling oil in iron and copper kadhai.
Out of sheer surprise we find a whole of a katla fish ready to be fried up. Other than that Maach er Muro (head of fish) was also being fried. We headed our journey little much further, the road. A rich smell of fried chicken and sheek kebab came to the olfactory lobe. It was Taskeen Resturant, a maestro of mughal and afgani cuisine in this area. whole marinated chicken was being weighed according to the requirement of the customers the chicken is dip-fried in hot oil. After that it's chopped and packed .
The old fashioned copper made utensils of Taskeen Resturant is a must that will catch your eyes. Mahi Akhbari & Murg Changazee are the must try at Taskeen. Our next destination was The famous ISLAMIA Hotel. Ramdan special Halim(meat coocked in numerous herbs, spices and lentils) is a speciality here other than tasty Biriyanis. Halim comes in 3 variety Mutton, Chicken and Beef. After that in a narrow gully we find the khree kebab.
After completing the main course we went for the desserts. The burfees and firnis are some unavoidable delicacies one should try for. Colourful Jelabes are the dessert that could tickle your taste buds. You could find thelas selling colourful kulfi faluda soacked in ruh-afza , rose or khuss syrup.
In Zakaria Street you could also find some glittering utensils being sold for for offering the iftar, the ritual to break the day long fast.
At the end of the day we returned with a realisation. That is a mingling of the cultures, tastes, cuisine not only enriches us as a human race but also opens our receptors as an individual. And this variety of cultures, colours, tastes, races, religion makes our beautiful country so diversified. Happy Ramdan and Best Wishes of upcoming Eid to friends.
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