Pancakes in Pushkar

One thing that is never missing in India is the element of surprise. You could have arrived here a few hours ago or lived here your entire life, yet there is always something unusual or bizarre to see each day. Many of these events are noted and forgotten in an instant. The average Indian has a lot more on her mind than recording a bizarre occurrence. As one would say “Its Kalyug after all so anything is possible”. 

If the occurrence is pleasant, the modern Indian might savour it for a few moments and glow with pride: “Ahh look at this 6-lane tolled expressway, just like DC no?!”. If it is not that tasteful, the urbanite will moan “Why do these damn drivers keep spitting on the road? All those social adverts saying that gutka gives you mouth cancer are no use !!”

Recently, on a road trip to Rajasthan with my family, I found a lot of things to put in the ‘pleasant surprise’ list and a few in the ‘not-that-cool’ category. As this is my feel-good post I shall ignore the 2nd category for now.

It's easy to guess from the title that Pancakes top my list here. Now I have to admit that I never actually got around to trying one of these mouth-watering pancakes of Pushkar (!!). However my elation at discovering their very existence still brings a wide smile to my face. We had been walking along the little bazaar street in Pushkar’s old town, busy absorbing the bright natural powder heaps, summer dresses, camel leather bags, trendy shoes, temple sweet shops and t-shirts that said ‘I love India’ and ‘I love Rajasthan’. Then out of the blue, we encountered a large board with this:

Pancakes
- Hershey’s Chocolate
- Hershey’s Chocolate and Banana
- Hershey’s Chocolate and real strawberry & cream
- Maple Syrup and Nuts
- Lemon Cream
- Honey and Fruits………etc.

The list was more exhaustive than an upmarket café in Mumbai, Delhi or any Indian metro city where many well-heeled and widely-travelled Indians have discovered a passion for European cafés and crêperies. The pancakes were being prepared in a small road side shack on a large open tawa.  The bottles of Hershey’s chocolate syrup and Canadian maple syrup looked authentic. The satisfied look on the faces of overseas tourists was enough to vouch for their taste.

This surprise was small in comparison to what we saw at the next shop, a large signboard with the menu written in, believe or not, Hebrew. My sister recalled a piece of random information she had come across, and exclaimed in surprise, “That story about Israeli tourists must be true".  I looked ahead and the adjacent shop  had gone even further. There were four identical menu boards describing the same dishes in English, Spanish, Hebrew and Korean! We read the English version, which offered:

- Humus and Pita, With or Without cheese
- Falafel
- Tacos
- Burritos
- Pancakes
- Penne Arabiatta
- Spaghetti
- Avocado Sandwich...

The list went on.

Wow, I thought, this is the Indian equivalent of Giraffe (https://www.giraffe.net/ ),  all done in this little cubby hole of a kitchen, using a large tawa on the road side with seating made up of plastic chairs and tables. The syrup and sauce supplies, we were told, are imported from abroad and come via Delhi. The avocados grow in Karnataka and are delivered with care.

We then moved on from culinary delights to sight-seeing.

It's worth noting that the town of Pushkar is purely vegetarian. We gathered that the reason for this is the presence of the Brahma Temple, India’s only Brahma temple, and one of the world’s three Brahma temples as per a signboard. In Hinduism, Brahma is the creator of the Universe, hence it would not do to destroy any living being here. Eggs are banned in city limits, as are alcohol and drugs. Milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products are not banned as veganism  is not a traditional Indian concept.

Continuing with the 'food hunt' that is inevitable part of any holiday,  that evening we were drawn by a curious sign that said ‘Israeli Thaali’. Intrigued, we made our way towards this open-terrace restaurant near our hotel . A thaali as many of you will know is a large platter with several tapas-sized preparations, usually accompanied by local Indian bread and/ or rice and a dessert to make it a complete meal. It is immensely popular across India and each state/ region/ sub-region often has its own version of a thaali with no two thaalis ever tasting the same.

But an Israeli Thaali, now that was a first! We ordered one and found that it contained excellent humus, reasonable pita, fried spicy potato, fried carrot, sweet yogurt, two nice salad portions, chips (French fries) and a few pieces of falafel. I would say that the composition of the thaali was ok but there was a tendency to deep fry the veggies and the chips Indian-style leaving them a bit too oily for my taste.

In the end we never made it to the pancakes place for breakfast (they opened at 9 AM and we had to leave the hotel earlier for the road trip). However, we did manage to get some falafel, humus and salad wrapped in pita from one of the road-side vendors. The owner was friendly and knowledgeable. The quality of the falafel was better than the sit-down restaurant. Their default option was ‘with French fries inside’ which actually tasted quite good and made it filling although probably not very healthy. The stall owner, noting that we were Indians, sprinkled a fair bit of red chilli powder on the humus before we could stop him. Typical!

Such were the unexpected culinary delights to be found in Pushkar- a popular tourist destination for Israelis (after their 1 year mandatory military training, I gather), for French-speaking and Spanish-speaking tourists (we naughtily eavesdropped on several groups), for the Koreans (no idea why!) and the odd British traveller who looked completely stoned but declared loudly to his Israeli companion “I hate Goa! Its all drugs and loud music there now. The Free Parties are horrible! I’m going to stay in Pushkar for the next two months. I've got a room for just Rs 100 (GBP 1.30) a day with my own bed and washbasin. What more do I want ??” Hmm a detox tourist and an erstwhile hippy then.......

[Note: The average Non A/C double room rate in a RTDC State Tourism-run clean budget hotel is Rs 1200 (~GBP 10) per night.  When the camel fair is on this can be about Rs 3500 (~GBP 35) per night.]