High Tea Munchings @ Sambodhi Retreat, Dhanbad, India ☺

The funny thing about food is that it changes it’s character and flavor every few hundred kilometers that one travels.

While some like to monopolize food and like to believe that a particular type of food is copyright of only a particular set of people and only a particular set of eateries or households can churn it right, and rest all available is supposed to be subjected to nitpicking and mockery, I am always curious and excited about discovering the assorted flavors and fusions that one finds infused into the same set of food items, at different locations.

Recently, I attended a social event at Sambodhi Retreat, a luxurious resort in Dhanbad, Jharkhand.

Out there, some of the food items served at high tea caught my fancy. They were –

– Sweet Corn Soup: It was a desi version of the Sweet Corn Soup that we are otherwise used to. It had an excess of pepper and the accompanying bread sticks were served floating on the Soup!

Still, the Soup tasted nice in it’s own way and the floating bread sticks facilitated in delimiting the need of serving any quarter plate along with the Soup.

Since, it was a chilly winter night (read less than 10°C), the diners gulped off the throat warming hot soup before giving any chance to the bread sticks to turn soggy.

– Pastas in White and Red Sauce: They tasted like the ones you get in any local general cafe and were piously consumed by both youngsters and adults.

It’s amusing to see how in a span of the last few years, like the Chinese Noodles, the Italian Pastas have also travelled far and deep into our food system.

– Corn Fritters: Served with Tomato Ketchup, the Fritters were finger sized, made of grated corn and quite tasty.

No one could stop just at one!

– Kadhi Khandvi: In the past, I have had Kadhi Chawal, Kadhi Kachori and Kadhi Samosa, but never Kadhi Khandvi!

While the local upscale restaurants and home chefs are busy serving the humble Khandvi with variations of Pesto Sauce aka the desi-videsi fusion, here it was a true blue ‘desi se desi ka milan’, which was light on the stomach, aptly served super hot and gorged on merrily by both the health conscious folks, as well as, the ones with relatively weak digestion.