Navratri and Chawri Bazaar food walk

Yesterday was the end of Navratri, a week of fasting for Hindus. For the end  of the fast, my homestay mom prepared the typical special occasion meal of  channa (chickpeas), puri (fried bread),  halva (this dessert thing that isn't anything like Israeli halva), and  kir (amazing rice pudding stuff).  Before you end your fast you're supposed to feed some of this meal to 8 little girls, so people invite poorer kids in to have some  of the food. All morning, little girls, mostly the daughters of the women who work as maids in the neighborhood, were going from house to house being fed. The first group of four was so cute! When Lata (my homestay mom) put the food in front of them, they looked at it like they might burst if they ate another puri. She offered to pack it up for them so they could take it with them, which works out also because they are roaming around with boys, too,  and only the girls get invited in for the purpose of the holiday. When  they had eaten all they could, the leader of the group, who could not have been more than about 8 years old, took charge of packing everything up. Lata had given them each a bag but the girl collected all of their bags and plates and then devoted one bag to each food item. It was adorable. I was so impressed by her efficiency. I missed the second group of girls because I had to leave for class.

One of my IES professors keeps a blog about street food in Delhi. He and his friends go out once a week or so to sample street foods in different areas and then he reports on where the best places are for different types of food. Last night, they were all heading to Chawri Bazaar in Old  Delhi and he invited our class to come. I realize it was the only night of the year when it may have been inappropriate for me to go on a food walk, but I decided it was an opprtunity I didn't want to pass up. In retrospect, it was a great decision. So far I have not spent very much time in Old Delhi but it's amazing! I'm really excited to go back during the day and get some good pictures because  it's so cool looking. The shops are divided up by type, so the area where we were was all hardware stores. One entire street was filled with  stores selling only knobs and hooks. All of the roads are covered in a web of wires, which I think are power lines, mounted about a story and a half in the air. I have no idea why there are layers of power lines there. Tucked between the stores are all of these little tiny restaurants and then lining the roads are more carts and tables where people are selling all kinds of food. 

A few of us rode with Hemanshu (my professor) and got there a bit early so we headed into one of the more Muslim areas to taste what  is apparently the  world's best kir. I have not tasted that many kirs but it was excellent. Since its mostly Muslims in that  area, they also sell beef there. I did not expect to miss eating meat but I really do. After kir and some kabobs we went back to the metro stop to meet up with everyone else. It was a really cool group of people. We spent the next 3 hours or so walking from stand to stand, trying all different dishes, snacks and desserts, beginning and ending with dessert. At the outset we each put 200 rupees (about $5) into a common pot and then just shared everything. 200 rupees buys you a lot of street food! Our first stop was for this ice cream that they make by pouring milk flavored  with fruit on a spinning drum filled with dry ice.  Now that I think about it, I have no idea where they would get dry ice  and  I think they must just use regular ice but i guess it's possible. Either way I thought the process was brilliant and it tasted so good! 

Today is Dussehra, a holiday that involves burning giant paper mache demon heads. That should be pretty interesting.