Experiences at Kasauli : Part 3 (Food!!!)

Now comes the most interesting part, isn't it ;) Hehehe... 

Well, i want to be honest and frank here that Kasauli is not a food-place but every hill station adds their own taste to the even-so-common dishes! Guess as they say, the ingredients, climate, water everything adds to the taste of food and it hence differs from place to place.

The chana chaat

So a normal chana daal chaat with just onions, green chillies, chaat masala and lime juice would also taste so flavourful that you wouldn't want to stop at one serving! 

Street food is what i love to gorge on when on a trip keeping all the hygiene issues at bay! And kasauli gave a lot of food sights for the same. Everywhere on the highway, we could see "thelas" of Chole-kulche on the way from Kalka railway station to Dharmpur (a centre hub for buses and taxis). 

A typical thela(cart) selling Chole-Kulche

There were also the famous "Meat-chawal" dhabas, selling meat gravy with rice. Hubby wanted to try it, but everytime we crossed passed any dhaba, we had already finished our meal :) 

A Meat-chawal dhaba popular in hills

We mostly dined at the awesome Rooftop restaurant in our Hotel-Hangout... But when we went for a walk during the day, we didn't miss eating the much-recommended Burger on the show HOMP (Highway on my plate, which comes on television, which we used to follow regularly until now) from the shop Better Deals right before the Christ Church on the mall road. When i spoke to the owner, he mentioned that this is the 5th generation since the shop has started and is running successfully due to their natural homemade stuff like chutneys and pickles. Reminiscing the past, he mentioned that those good old days were great as compared to the tourism now, since he felt things are getting commercialized now.

The paneer and chicken burger...Yumm is the word!

Up north, indianised sandwiches (with heaps of mayonnaise ;)) are quite popular. So, to say, they add stuffing/filling in between the breads and serve (and it does taste awesome!). So when we went to the Heritage market, we tried the spicy bun samosa from Narinder sweet house. Their gulab jamuns and jalebis are also famous, but we didn't have a sweet craving that time, hence gave it a skip. Everything at his shop looked so delicious...

Narinder sweet house at Heritagemarket

The Bun-samosa

And while strolling down the mall road, we also tasted momos, that the place is famous for, due to a lot of Tibetan population residing there. Couldn't click pictures as it was already dark and was a small little stall. Then we met a very interesting local old man who runs a small tea shop. He had stories to tell about his good old days, and we sat listening to them all over a cup of a nice strong aromatic coffee he made for us. 

We also dropped in at the very famous "Giani da dhaba", and felt guilty for not listening to one of the friends to avoid it. This was one of our wishlist places and with high hopes, we wanted to eat there just to put a tickmark on our "Been there, done that" places, but the food was quite dissapointing and the service pathetic (too rude i must say). There is just nothing to write about the kadhai chicken and paneer that we ordered. 

We also tried their famous local fruit beer - Apple beer which was too sweet for our taste. 

Himachal Pradesh has booming fruit wine industry and the excise laws there are very liberal as compared to other states in India. Retaining the original fruit flavours, there were almost 14 different types of wines apart from the regular red wine. These wines have to be consumed young, as thy don't age as grape wine. The Cherry wine makes for a perfect desert wine, the Rhodo wine is made of a local flower considered good for heart. We loved the Peach and plum wine too which we got a bottle of each back home! 

And how can we not come back home with a bag of goodies... I always love to carry some local food back home! So, as the place was known for, we got some herbal green teas, some homemade chutneys and pickles (which are very unique and tasty), and some bottles of wine! :)

And so, a wonderful trip ended ! Cookininpajamas team definitely wants to visit this place again :)

Hope you all enjoyed reading my 3 part-kasauli trip!

Experiences at Kasauli: A slice of heaven on Earth! Part 2 - The place!

A place to unwind, Kasauli already had started growing on us on Day 2. We decided to trek to the market and a few touristic places, to get a feel of the place. And we realized that this place was an abode of romantic walks.

An old couple enjoying the walk

Our romantic walk turned into a thrill when we lost ourselves strolling in the Heritage market and it was already past 7 pm. It does get pitch dark and the narrow 900 mts trek down the hill with no streetlights and wierd sounds of the monkeys seemed as much scary as thrilling. Thankfully, the Moon was shining for us and cellphone lights really come handy at times. Giving a deeper meaning to it, the walk made us realize that "Nature is a friend and fear is only in the mind".

Well, so the day went by catching glimpses of some lovely flowers along the way, paying a visit to the famous Christ Church which was inaugurated on 24th july 1853, the Monkey Point and Sunset point.

A beautiful residential property

To be honest, more than seeing the points i was enjoying the walks and that's what makes Kasauli beautiful. You don't have to rush here to see the famous places, you don't have to worry about missing going to point XYZ... The purpose of being there was just to be there! To feel the place, relax and "Feel good". 

Monkey-ing around

Established on 24th july 1853 by the same British family who established the town of Kasauli, this Christ Church contains imported Italian and Spanish stained glass windows. (we were not allowed to click pictures inside and fortunately when we went, there was a "Mass" going on). In it's mystical atmosphere, you can sit for hours together as it's majestic aura takes you in a different world altogether.

The well known Kasauli Club established in 1880 is located within the Indian Army premises and unfortunately, we couldn't see it from inside as it's a member-only entry. But the walk cross past it to the Sunset point was thoroughly enjoyable with cool air brushing past our skin. Every hill station has a mall road and this colourful market is a good evening walk and if you want to pick up some local stuff. The heritage market is nice too and gets crowded in evenings as everyone comes there for a cup of chai or to eat some jalebis and samosas :)

And as i said before, i can't keep away from dogs even on vacations. The best thing i saw in Kasauli was that most of the pet dogs were not leashed and none of the dogs were a problem due to this. I wanted to go and talk to some pet owners about their beautiful Pahadi dogs, but somehow didn't (I am always bad at initiating conversations :( ) But we did pay a visit to the Central Research Institute of India. Of course the lab visits require permissions, but we got to know that established in 1905, it provides training in microbiology and production and quality control of vaccines such as rabies. So someone who wants to gain some expert knowledge on dog and snake bites treatment, this is the place!

My Journey continues in the last (And most important part- Food!!!) Part-3...

Experiences at Kasauli: A slice of heaven on Earth! Part 1- Introduction

Imagine yourself in a place overlooking hills, lush green forests of pine, oak and deodar trees, no unwanted or disturbing sounds, a pleasant "Nip in the air" atmosphere and some local beer and good food. That's exactly where we were and where we wanted to be on hubby's birthday!!! After doing a lot on R n D of the weekend getaways around, this not-so-commercial tourist place seemed like a treasure hunt for us when a friend recommended it's name. Kasauli falls in the Solan district of himachal pradesh and is a small town where everyone knows everyone. The people there are extremely humble and thankfully, the mindset is not like any other tourist destination locals.

A colonial hill station established by the British Raj in 1842, this cantonment still retains that architecture, and has a terrific old world charm. As much as road trips are fun, sitting by the window with the rays of sun falling on my lap, train journeys seem as exciting to enjoy the picturesque views outside. On the travelling day, while we were still waking up brushing the sleep from our eyes, the Sun God was already flaunting his brightness asking us to hurry to make it on time at the New Delhi railway station for the 7:40 am train. The taxi ride gave us some beautiful views of a father dropping a daughter to school on a sccoter, early office goers waiting for their public transport, cleaners brushing the dust off the road and with almost no traffic on the ever buzzing Delhi roads, we reached the station right on time!

The time in the train went in a jiffy as we were busy munching on the delicious breakfast served to us. From Kalka, we wanted to ride in the heritage toy train, but unfortunately it was already full. Ditching the taxi stand, we went to Dharmpur in a bus just to experience the local transport and we were not dissapointed. The bus was super packed and i made way to my seat climbing atop all boxes and bags. A very funny line i read written on the bus interior was :

Interior of the bus

And i jokingly commented to my husband - Check this, "As they say, men do, women don't ;)".

The bus ride

Well the small buses from Dharmpur to Kasauli are worth a ride. Loud punjabi music playing through the speakers, the locals chit-chatting, people savouring some "Chaat" (which i must say was spicy, tangy, crunchy... so flavourful), the ride was an experience! And the views....breathtaking!

The snack we had in the bus

After all this travel, all you need is a cosy room which makes you feel at home. Kasauli Regency provided just that! This is how our Deluxe room looked like:

WI-fi in the room (though, surfing internet was not on our priority list), calm surroundings, cleanliness and hygiene maintained and the USP of the hotel: Hangout, Roof top restaurant overlooking the Sanawar. We got the best corner seat for lunch and the food was lip-smacking too. After a little rest, we went for a small trek from the hotel to the market and the views didn't stop to fascinate us. Since it was hubby's birthday and we wanted to shake a leg, we went to their Saturday night party and we had to find a place to place a foot. Great music, great cocktails, this place is "the" place to be, if you want to groove to some music instead of watching tv in your room. 

And now comes the best part! Following European concept to cope with sound restrictions after 10 pm,this is the first Hotel in India to start "Silent parties" or "Headphone parties". Yes, you heard it right! So, you take a headphone and tune in to your favourite music (you have 3 options from trance, hindi bollywood and house music or hip hop) and you are the boss of the time! You can dance and party as late as you want to! We made some new friends there, as the second best policy they have of not allowing stags but only girls and couples. There were families sitting with babies grooving to the music and enjoying their dinner and there were couples getting cosy in the beautiful weather listening to some romantic songs! Doesn't this place sounds fun?

We also met the owner Rajesh Dogar who at the party who is an amazing human being, and so to say about his DJ brother Paras Sharma. Both are beautiful persons by heart and their warm friendship stole our heart. Hangout seemed like a family get together party, when we sat with strangers (now friends) chit chatting till 3 am in the morning.

This place is surely a must-visit for their amazing hospitality, good food, great music and out of the breath view. I joked asking the server whether he finds it funny seeing all people dance considering they hear no music, to which he laughed and said, "At first we used to find it funny, but now we have got used to". If you tend to sing along and get loud, they have these cardboard placards shown to you on which is written, "You are too loud" as a warning sign. 

Me and hubby enjoyed staying here, playing some pool, carrom and table tennis every evening and experiencing the relaxed atmosphere for 3 days....

My journey continues in Part 2....