After the breakfast and non veg food tour in Kota we are out for a brunch tour with our host Saransh from Parindon Ka Safar, a youth centric group that is engaged in travel, tours and arts based activities in the city. This gastronomic journey was an opportunity to explore some more favourite eateries in the city that caters to the common masses.
The first place was Babu Bhai Poha, a small food cart that is ever crowded during breakfast hours. Prepared in a simple manner, their poha is a filling, tasty and pocket friendly option for breakfast.
From there we went to Babu Tea Stall, a contemporary tea cafe that serves a wide range of traditional and new age tea. The latter category includes some mind boggling entries like kaju chai etc. We settled for the jaggery and ginger chai. It was pretty decent yet a little overpriced because of the set up.
The third stop was a 70 plus year old Sangam restaurant whose dal pakwaan has a loyal fan base. So we had to try it. The dal was creamy and mildly spiced. While departing we chanced upon mawa mishri which is a sweet very similar to kalakand.
Next stop was Jodhpur Namkeens whose pyaz kachori are super famous. The potato-tomato stuffing was well spiced and slightly tangy while the outer covering was crisp and flaky.
After this brilliant kachori, we went to SS Dairy for some sweetmeat. Their chhena based sweets looked quite tempting so we tried a gupchup, rasgulla and kheer mohan. Among these, we liked rasgulla the most because it was optimally sweet, soft and spongy.
Next was the turn of some South Indian flavours at New Madras Hotel which dates back to 1985. This place has a homelike ambience and at one time it was bustling with diners because it was the only spacious eatery in the city and the food too was amazing. We loved their crisp plain paper dosa that was served with smabar and chutney.
The penultimate stop was Amar Punjabi Dhaba, a iconic family restaurant serving North Indian food. They have an elaborate menu with amusing dish names. Our choice was the chota ballu which was Manchurian balls in makhni gravy and sev tamatar which was a spicy and tangy sev based curry. The former one was quite satisfying.
We ended the tour with a strong cutting tea from Thakur tea stall. The vibe of this place was quite a things.