Trip to Chail

                                  Getaway to the Mountains

                                 Noida-Chail

It had been almost four months since I went for my last road trip to Lansdowne. The ‘Rider’ inside me was itching to go for another road trip. But When, Where & with whom? My usual road trip partner Sujit was not available this time, so I asked Utkarsh aka CHAK. He agreed (as if he had any other option :P). So, the toughest question among three was sorted out. Utkarsh was keen to go to Kasauli. I was also ok with it. To spice up the affair in the hills, I added Chail to the list. Initially, I was dicey about Chail but when I saw the pics of “Kali ka Tibba”, my target shifted to visit Chail.

I booked the hotel “Chail Residency”. The bike was well serviced and everything was in place. The twist in the tale came when I went to the petrol station for filling up my tank. My debit card was not there in the wallet. I was like, what?? Anyways, Utkarsh had some cash with him, so we did manage to get the fuel. We were all set for Chail.

30th September 2015 03:00 hours:

I took a quick nap of 3 hours and woke up at 2 AM. CHAK and I got ready quickly and we were ready to roll. After some googling the route which was in my mind was:

                                     Noida—Delhi—Karnal—Ambala—Chandigarh—Kasauli—Chail

Delhi traffic was quite smooth as expected. There was a little traffic at Karnal bypass as we took NH-1. I drove at an average speed of 80kmph. In an hour or so we were crossing Panipat. I used to visit Panipat quite often last year. So, the route till Panipat was very well known to me. I continued driving till Karnal. We stopped for a tea break at road side dhaba near Karnal.

CHAK and I switched seats and CHAK took the riding seat. This was the first instance when I was sitting pillion while CHAK was driving. To be very frank, I was nervous to the core. The driving of CHAK added woes to my nervousness. He thrives on speed. He drove at 90kmph continuously. After half an hour, there was sun light all around. We reached Ambala around 6:30AM. We again switched seats and I was driving again. We touched Chandigarh around 7:30AM. I was little confused about the route, so I preferred to ask some locals about the route to Kasauli.

Driving in the hills was never this easy!

As soon as we left Chandigarh, the beautiful view of hills welcomed us. The roads were pitch perfect. Who would imagine a four lane road in hills? I continued driving and was loving every bit of it. We crossed Pinjore and Parwanoo. After crossing Parwanoo, we stopped for refueling. I asked the petrol pump vendor that which is the way to Chail. He replied: -”Yaha se 35km Dharampur aur phir waha se right turn me aage 35km Chail”. I was like “screw you google maps”. Nevertheless, I continued driving as guided by that gentleman. After few minutes, we were there in the beautiful city Solan.

In Solan, the traffic was quite busy. After few ups and downs, we left Solan. The condition of road started to deteriorate as soon as we left Solan. Then we reached a T point. The left road led to Shimla and the the right one to Chail. We took the right turn towards Chail. The road became narrower and worse. Sometimes it was going downhill and sometimes it was going up. I was confused.

Kalka to Shimla narrow gauge line.

I was driving with full focus despite of having empty stomach. Then came a point where a board was indicating that “for Chail take diversion”. I simply ignored it because the condition of that diverted road was not convincing at all. We kept moving forward and then out of nowhere the road came to a dead end. I started laughing because of sheer frustration. We asked people around there and they told we have to take “that diversion”. I drove back to that particular diversion.

Trust me!! This is a freaking national highway.

Without any doubt, this has to be the worst road which I have driven upon till date! Road made of sand and big stones. I prayed to the God for help and drove with my full attention. CHAK had other ideas. He asked one of the workers there “Bhaiya surang khod rahe ho kya (Brother, are you digging a tunnel). WTF!  I was out of humor at that time, but it made me smile. We crossed that pathetic road and were back to track again. But, the God had other plans. We took a wrong turn and drove almost 10kms on it.

Tunnel wale bhaiya :P

After realizing that we are on wrong track, we decided to ask some people around there. But, guess what?? There was no sign of any living being. Finally, we saw some people who were repairing road and asked them. They first laughed at us and then they guided us properly.

Somewhere before Chail.

And then, I saw the board of “Hotel Chail residency”. I was like “Thank you God”. We checked in at precisely 12:05PM. The hotel was fabulous.

For me this has to be the best budget hotel in Chail. It is 4 Kms before the main Chail city. The view from the balcony was sublime. Courteous staff, clean room, tasty food, what else you can expect from a budget hotel. Highly recommended if you are going to Chail.For me this has to be the best budget hotel in Chail. It is 4 Kms before the main Chail city. The view from the balcony was sublime. Courteous staff, clean room, tasty food, what else you can expect from a budget hotel. Highly recommended if you are going to Chail.

View from the balcony

After taking a quick nap, we were set to explore Chail. We first visited “Kali ka Tibba”. One word “Awesome”. What view!! It is a temple atop a small hill dedicated to goddess Kali. Effortlessly beautiful. I was intrigued by the architecture, so I wanted to know when it was built and by whom. But, to my disappointment, the locals had no idea about it. If you are in Chail and have missed this place then you have missed everything.

Kali ka Tibba

No caption needed

This was some view!!

Reaching Kali ka Tibba was no cake walk!!

We then visited “world highest cricket ground”. Nothing much special about this place, anyways stats are stats. We were late so we missed the opportunity to visit Chail Palace. We then decided to go back to hotel and take rest and enjoy the serenity of this place.

Sunset

You guys have no idea how much Chak & I waited to see this board :P

P.S.: - Next day we planned to go to Kasauli. I will try to write about it and our journey in next blog.

Paneer Butter Masala

                                Paneer Butter Masala

Paneer butter masala, this dish is probably the most common dish in the history of mankind or at least in India for sure. Be it the wedding, get-together, birthday parties or any sort of family function, paneer butter masala has to be there in the menu. Most of the vegetarian people go gaga over this dish, the reason behind this is they have the only handful of variety, unlike non-vegetarians. Poor souls!

Cooking this dish doesn’t take that much of time. All you need is the right ingredients and you are good to go. As mentioned in my previous posts, I am no expert in making vegetarian dishes. So, I have to pull in my cooking expert sister Aparna aka Honey di for this dish. Despite her busy schedule, she was generous enough to take some time out and make this dish and share the recipe on top of that.

Now then, giving all possible credit to her, let’s get on to the dish.

Ingredients:

• 250 grams of Paneer.

• 4-5 medium sized tomatoes.

• 3-4 Teaspoon Ginger-Garlic paste.

• 18-20 Cashew nuts.

• 2-3 Teaspoons Chili Powder.

• 2-3 Teaspoons Kasoori Meethi.

• Salt to taste.

• 2-3 Bay leaves (Tez Patta).

• 2-3 Teaspoon Garam Masala.

• Coriander leaves for garnishing.

• Amul Fresh Cream.

• Butter or refined oil as per requirement.

• Ginger and Green Chili.

Procedure:

• Take the tomatoes and make a thick puree of them. Remember, onions are not needed for this recipe. So, it is the tomato puree which has to take care of the gravy. Make sure the puree is thick enough.Take the tomatoes and make a thick puree of them. Remember, onions are not needed for this recipe. So, it is the tomato puree which has to take care of the gravy. Make sure the puree is thick enough.

Tomato Puree

• If you are not able to get hold of paneer cubes, then cut the block of paneer in cubical shape. Now, there can be two ways to use Paneer: a) Use it as raw b) Shallow fry it and put it in warm water so that it doesn’t get hard after frying.

• Soak in the cashew nuts in warm water for 15-20 minutes. Then make a paste of it using mixer grinder.

Cashew nuts soaked in lukewarm water

Make a thick paste of the soaked cashew nuts.

• Heat the wok and add oil or butter as per requirement.

Pour in some butter when wok is heated.

• When the oil is heated add the bay leaves and ginger garlic paste to it.

Bay leaves give a nice flavor.

Add some ginger garlic paste.

• Sauté it till the raw smell of ginger garlic paste is gone.

• Add the tomato puree to the wok.

Add tomato puree to the wok.

• Sauté it for a while and then add chili powder or Kashmiri Mirch powder to it. It will help to add flavor and good texture to the dish.

• Sauté the mixture till the oil started to separate from the sides.

Make sure you don't burn it.

Note:  The tomato and ginger garlic paste should not be overcooked. Do not let them burn.

• Add the cashew nut paste to the wok.

Adding cashew nut paste.

• Sauté the mixture till the oil started to separate from the sides.

• Add salt as per taste and a little bit of water. Be careful while adding water, more water will turn the gravy watery. Trust me, you don't want your gravy to be watery.

Keep the mixture as thick as possible.

• Cut the ginger and green chilies vertically and add it to the gravy. Restaurant style swagJ

• Add paneer cubes to it. Mix it well and let it boil for 2-3 minutes.

• Add a Teaspoon of crushed Kasoori Meethi leaves. Mix it well.

This is how it should look after adding Kasoori Meethi.

• Turn off the flame. Add Garam masala to the dish.

• Take Amul fresh cream in a small bowl. Add a pinch of sugar and whip the mixture well.

• Add the whipped cream to the dish and mix it well. Cover the wok with a lid and after sometime add the chopped coriander leaves to it.

There you go!!

• Garnish the dish with coriander leave and cream.

     Your Paneer Butter Masala is ready. Enjoy it with Nan, Roti or tawa paratha.

Rendezvous in the City of Mastani

         

                   Rendezvous in the city of Mastani

I still remember my first visit to Pune way back in 2012 and to be very honest I didn’t like the city at all. Horrible traffic, no proper public transportation, over charging auto walas and what not. The weather was decent but not at all close to Bangalore. J

Three years later I got an opportunity to visit the city again. This time an official business trip. I was a bit excited because I had a couple of great friends waiting there. Paresh and Ashutosh Ji. Paresh and I are big foodies, so my target this time was to explore the famous as well as not so famous food joints of Pune in whatever time left after getting grilled from office.

So, here is the list of restaurant, cafes and several other food joints which we explored and I will recommend it to anyone who are having plans for Pune in near future.

Let’s start off!

• Cafe Goodluck

Cafe Goodluck for you!

This Irani café-restaurant is located in the area naming Deccan. Established in 1935, it is one of the oldest Irani places in Pune. The place was crowded like anything. We had to wait around 30-40 minutes for our turn to come. I have never waited this much to get into any restaurant my entire life. Meanwhile, we had Bun Maska and chai, and I was like WOW! A bun cannot be any softer than this and chai was brilliant too. After waiting for a while, our turn came, and we got a table.

Maska Bun and Chai

We ordered Tangdi Kabab for starters and Mutton Liver masala and Tawa chicken for the main course. The food was awesome. The flavor was different and perfect. We ordered some chapattis to go with our gravy item. Perfectly cooked spices and nicely tendered meat, what can you expect more. We ordered Caramel pudding for deserts and, needless to say, that was great too. The total bill was around Rs600 (This is not a typo :P).

Tangdi Kabab.

Mutton Liver Masala

Tawa Chicken.

Finally some desert! Caramel Pudding.

• Marrakesh

Marrakesh is the name of a famous city in Morroco

This is a famous Middle East cuisine chain in Pune. We went to the one located in Aundh. Ordered Lamb Shawarma and Makarana kabab. Finally after 3 long years I had an authentic shawarma, and the taste was amazing. Makarana kabab was also good. We then ordered Dajaj Bhuna for the main course. It looked like tawa chicken, but it has a different taste. Overall a bill of Rs645. Oh Yeah!

For the people of Delhi, This is what authentic Shawarma looks like!

Makarana Kabab

Dajaj Bhuna & Tandoori Roti

• Delhi Kitchen

Living up to its name!

I can explain this restaurant in one line. “One of the best butter chicken I ever had.” Butter chicken was mind blowing. We ordered Chicken Biryrani and Shami kabab too, but the taste was no different than what you get in other restaurants. Lost the bill J but it was quite pocket friendly. A must try specially for butter chicken lovers.

Shami Kabab

Butter Chicken. Yumm!!

This is what you are served with your bill.

• Eatsome

Eatsome!

A small food joint opposite Medi-point Hospital in Aundh. We ordered Chicken masala and basmati rice. Nice hot and spicy taste. Ashutosh ji ordered matar paneer masala and basmati rice. I have no idea how it tastes, but the look was good. Overall a decent food joint.

Chicken Masala and Basmati Rice.

Mutter Paneer Masala with Basmati Rice.

• Kadhai

Kadhai.

Now it’s time for some deserts. A sweet corner located in the basement of Crossword Aundh. We had Rabri Jalebi. Quite good but for me Muthal’s rabri jalebi tastes better. But if you are in Aundh by any chance then it is a must try.

Rabri Jalebi.

• Natural’s Ice Cream

Natural Ice Cream Corner.

Never been to this ice cream chain before, but this has to be the place if you are an ice cream lover. Located in the premise of Crossword Aundh, this joint has unique flavors, and all tastes equally good. Coconut Ice cream and malai ice cream are must try. We went a couple of times there, and our choices go as - Coconut, Malai, Anjeer, roasted Almond, and Choco Almond.

Coconut Ice Cream.

Anjeer!

Malai. Need i say more!!

• Kayani bakery

Kayani Bakery.

Due to my tight schedule and awkward office timings, I was not able to visit this bakery. But, Paresh found some xyz website which home delivers the bakery items. I ordered famous Shrewsbury biscuits, Choco Almond Cake, Chocolate cake and Mawa cake. Biscuits were amazing, you cannot stop yourself once you have one. Mawa cake was good but not that awesome. Choco Almond cake was impressive.

Famous Shrewsbury

In four days, I was able to explore this much flavors of Pune. My impression about city remains same as it was in 2012, but the variety and taste of food won me this time. I hope that someday I will get another chance to visit Pune and explore the remaining food joints which were left unexplored this time.

Special thanks to Paresh and Ashutosh Ji for making this short trip a memorable one. Cheers!!

Ashutosh JI

Paresh

Credits:

Editing: Sujit