In today's episode we along with our host Saransh from Parindon Ka Safar will be taking you on an immersive food tour in city of Bundi which is around 36 km away form our last destination Kota. It is a beautiful small city located in the Hadoti region of Rajasthan and is famous for its old architecture, step wells and royal heritage.
We started by visiting Gurdwara Agamgarh Sahib on Kota Bundi Highway and reached our first destination Shekhawati Dhaba in Ballop. As the name suggests they specialize in traditional Rajasthani fare. Our pick was the three grains bejad roti, bejad ka churma, dal and sev bhaji.
The next stop was Krishna Chai which is the coolest chai place in Bundi. Since the shop was under renovation, the genteel and smiling owner Krishna Ji took us to his home for a cup of masala chai. After having chai we went to see his colourful shop that attracts lots of tourists. Both the owner, the chai and the inside of the shop won our hearts.
Then we went to Gadh Mal Babulal Jain shop for some sweet treats. There we tried three things of which the rabri malpua was the best. The freshly made components resulted in a gratifying experience.
From there we reached Mangilal Samosa Center which was bustling with customers waiting for their orders. It was so busy that as soon as a batch of samosa got ready it simply vanished in no time and people jostled with each other to grab their orders. No wonder the taste was great but due to the high heat based frying, the inner layers of the one we got was a little undercooked.
Next we visited Kailash Mishthan Bhandar for puri aalu. The taste of the cold puri and the runny non onion garlic potato curry reminded us of the same combo that we carried with us during long train journeys. This was followed by some jaggery and sesame seeds based til gak from a famous roadside cart. It was fresh and addictive.
Soon we reached Manohar pani puri stall and were fascinated by the automatic pani dispenser that dispensed 4 different flavours of water. Since Anubhav was having an upset stomach, our host Saransh gave it a try. He opted for the lentil pani puri and it was quite good.
Next he tried some mixed pakoda from Punjabi Pakode among which he liked the moong dal ones the most. From there we reached Morgan's Place which is a contemporary eatery in the city that draws lots tourists and locals alike. Here we tried the thin crust Siciliana pizza which was amazing. The relaxing and colorful ambience too felt great.
Next were the turn of two sweet things. One was the rasgulla paan from Shri Ji Paan Bhandar and the other was a kesar pista kulfi Shri Mahaveer Kulfi. Both are items are the respective best sellers. Meeting the talented owner of Shri Mahaveer Kulfi was indeed memorable.
Our final destination of this tour was Sikar Shekhawati Bhojnalaya which is one of the favourite places of our host Saransh. They serve traditional Rajasthani thali with mostly simple dishes like kadi dal, sabzi etc. Everything on the platter including the hot rotis was toothsome.