The tea ceremony

I have gone around complaining to anyone with two working ears (even some  not so working) about my 20 years old idea of opening a dhabba called Da Dhabba (mafia shtyle) and selling unda tamater and parathas 4-evah!! Oooh yeahhh!

BUT no one would listen to my trend-spotting genius and NOW every tom, doodles and freakin harry has a chai ka dhabba and is merrily frying up chicken achari parathas at the speed of.... well as fast as the hot oil will permit really ☺☺

So The Feasting Saga continues unabated.. thanks to FT and his unending foodie generosity and we trooped off to find the rip-off (of my supremely original idea from 20 years ago) chai ka dhabbas.

Got to the place and I'm looking around trying to figure out which is which... coz.. get this! ... there are no less than THREE chai ka dhabbas within a 500 yards radius from each other.

So there was The Chai Point, Chai Shai and Chai Wala... we opted for Chai Wala.. found a table and made a stand ☺

I liked the truck art tables and the truck art graffitti on the walls. I REALLY liked the chicken achar paratha that we kinda breathed in, we ate it so fast. Once it was gone, i had an epiphany and realized that I'd forgotten to capture it for posterity in my camera. So for the sake of Art! (Indeed!) We ordered ANOTHER one! Somehow our appetite was still roaring and before I could remember to snap anything, round 2 had also disappeared into the endless abyss of our tummies... yee haw! Heheheh...

So now all u have to show for it is the picture of an empty table (quite apt!) And what the place looked like. The atmosphere was nice. It was a bit chilly. People from all areas and walks of life were there. Big cars, small cars... all squashed together, jostling to find parking.. the waiters running around with the parathas in straw chabas.. quaint, yummy, slightly reminescent of our Damascus days. 😊 fun.

At night we went to dadijans. Dania had cooked up a storm. Super yummy chicken handi and kashmiri chai. Met the Shah clan army and siddo and I hugged out in glee.

Then off to little mariam's mehndi. Met Javed uncle and aunty (khals in amsterdam with nasreen aunty). Mariam (MA) looked adorable and happy and her family was wonderful. The mehndi dinner rocked. They had gol gappas and chat, fresh jalebis being cooked right then and there and .. wait for it... BUN KABABS!! i was in desi food heaven. Mariam's friend Ainy had flown down from isloo. She's a pilot (MA). 😊 sky's the limit now literally 😊
It was a lovely time.
Thank u Allah mian... u made the world a nice place too...