After the morning street food tour of Ranchi, we are out on an evening snacks tour with our host Shrey Jain who is a member of Food Ranchi, a popular Instagram blog from the city. The 3hrs long exploration was full of some popular treats and lovely interactions.
We started the sojourn from Ma Saraswati Tea Stall near Morabadi Ground. This place is frequented by college students and office goers and hence has a good number of food carts. The strong milky tea was prepared in a clay pot and served in a clay tumbler.
From there we went to Hari Om Tower complex in Lalpur. It is a commercial building that houses some eateries. Our destination was the renowned sweet shop Gangaur Next. The brand is an old one but this shop has been operational since 2015. At the owner's recommendation we tried rasmadhuri, herbal ladoo, kaju katli, and gur ka rasgulla. Due to the optimum sweetness and the use of good quality ingredients, all the four sweets were quite delicious. The herbal ladoo was named so because it is totally made of natural and healthy things like figs, honey, holy basil, pumpkin seeds etc.
After the sweet rush, we indulged in some hot and spicy tikiya chaat and sweet and sour mixture chaat at Ramu Chaat Stall and Amit Chaat stall respectively. The former one, a combination of crisp potato patty, chickpea curry, yogurt, bhujia, and spices was hot and spicy. The latter one, a potpourri of boiled potato, some veggies, snacks, and chutneys was sweet, sour, and crunchy. But both of them were pure satisfaction.
The penultimate destination for the day was Tribong eatery, a place serving popular fast dishes like noodles and momo. We decided to try the chicken steamed momo and to our surprise, the soup accompanying it was simply amazing. The spicy soup perfectly complements the mildly flavored momo.
The final stop of the tour was Punjabi Food Express. It's another preferred fast food place where you get some really irresistible stuff. The father and son duo who run the place are Punjabis whose family have been here since Independence. The genial owner told us how much he loved the state and the people. After the heartwarming conversation, we went inside to try cheese chilli. It is a dish made of batter-fried cheese cubes. Although it was decent, the surfeit of cheese and sauces didn't result in any magic.
Overall it was another great evening exploring these eating stops in the bustling city.