Sunday, September 7, 2014

My Adventures in the near shore Motherland!

So I took the summer off from blogging!  And now I'm back!

I want to tell you all about my latest trip to NY.. well on second thought everyone knows what New York is all about.. right? Wall street, Statue of liberty, Central Park, Manhattan sky line, expensive shopping - you can google it or even better Youtube it. Seach for "What to see in NY" and you will be flooded with thousands of videos. So let me tell you about the hidden gem that is New Jersey- specifically Jersey City.

After being in there I have decided I no longer need to buy super expensive tickets and fly for 22 hours to visit the motherland. I can just visit Newark Avenue in NJ. Don't believe me? Fine take a look at the picture below:


.. Yes it is not some gali in Mumbai, Kolkata or Delhi this is Uniter States of America.

The sights, the sounds and the smell reminded me of India... my cousin took us to this amazing biriyani place called the Paradise Biriyani and the moment we stepped in, we knew we were teleported to Biriyani Paradise. 
We ordered Chicken Biriyani, Mutton Biriyani, Mutton Chap and something else...  and off course Thumbs Up to wash it all down.. 


We ordered so much food because for some weird reason it felt like doom's day is upon us and we need eat as much biriyani as we can! Pictures you ask? In our frenzy to chow down this Regal dish fit for  BadShahi courts I forgot all about documenting it. 

Don't you dare start talking about carbs and all that!! When you are pretending to be in Shah Jahan's court you don't care about your carbohydrate intake.. 
First of all you have been transported back into the 1600s, people don't know about the Atkin's diet or carbohydrates and secondly you already made it to the royal court.. who cares about how you look?? Anyway.. no regal meal can be finished without paan. So off we went into our Indian street into a store called "Mithai" which had paan and they even had the expensive silver foil thing that you see in expensive mishtis back home. Check out the expression of my fellow travellers by just the smell of paan.


Next morning started with Masala Dosa and Masala tea with finger licking good coconut chutney and sambar. They had more delicious food just looking at us from the show case - stuff like pakora, vada, lots and lots and lot colourful mishti.. although the choices seemed to be infinite, my stomach's holding capacity is finite.. well, I could have packed it.. However, I was supposed to do all the touristy things in New York right after and carrying sambar around isn't that easy. However, I did not leave Newark street without some paan from the store that actually looked like a pan store - tiny store, that you can't get into. The shopkeeper was standing at what looked like a window and you had to yell out the order in a very typical Indian style and he would make the fresh paan right in front of you eyes. 

It felt like we were visiting Kolkata during Durga Pujo! 
It was like India had made a near shore support centre for the Street food deprived Indians who live out side of India. It was in essence my near shore Motherland!!!!! Jai New Jersey.



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