Varanasi: Hajmola Chai and Caesarean Toast
After many years I got a chance to visit Varanasi to attend the wedding of my niece. The airport itself was a pleasant surprise, new and swanky, with wide and tarred roads leading to the city which looked the same as in the earlier visits, and as crowded. We checked in to a swanky hotel arranged for our stay. The first evening plan was to go for the famous Gangaji ki aarti in the evening. As we reached the Assi Ghat, we were again pleasantly surprised, this time, by the cleanliness. The Ganga cruise was on an airconditioned boat imported from Europe! After the divine and mesmerizing darshan of the Aarti, the boat cruised along the entire stretch of the river, which looked much cleaner, along the recently transformed ghats.
There was a nip in the air, being December, by the time we stepped back on land and we desired a hot cup of tea. The cousins espied tea vendors and visitors sipping hot tea dispensed from questionable flasks along the banks of the river. One vendor came up to us and asked us to taste the famous chatpata hajmola chai. The foodies in our group immediately decided to taste this special and famous beverage. I was still suspiciously eyeing the colour of the tea that matched the colour of the river water and abstained from consuming it. But the slurps and sounds of everyone sipping this tea gave me the courage to take a sip from my husband’s cup and I was blown away. The love story with this tea did not end here. Next day, the wedding festivities began and after a heavy lunch we returned to our hotel rooms and were catching up on news with each other. This winter afternoon called for a good cup of tea while lolling in the room.
My husband had a brainwave and sought out the auto driver who had befriended him, taken him to the temple and back that morning. He found the auto driver right where he had left him a few hours ago and asked him if we could get the same hajmola tea available on the ghats. The driver took this as his life mission! He was back in 25 minutes with 10 kulhads (terracotta cups) and an aluminium kettle with this precious tea. Word spread to a few other rooms, and suddenly our group of 10 became 20! We brought out all the extra cups and glasses that we could from the other rooms and shared this wonderful tea along with loud chatting and laughing.
After we returned to the hotel, our local host cousins were just finishing their dinner, and asked us if we had also been introduced to the famous toast of Varanasi. Another specialty not known to outsiders was the “Caesarian Toast”. All things suspect were coming to us the same day but even though it was such a short trip we did not want to miss the opportunity of finding out what was Caesarian about the toast. It was way past midnight when we piled into two cars and drove through the deserted streets and gallis to the old part of the city. Same gallis that are packed with people during the day, where one cannot walk normally without weaving ones way through people, vehicles and animals of all genres.
We parked on the side of the road and entered a galli which I would have otherwise been scared to enter during the day. We reached this stall, which was a little bigger than a hole in the wall and was crowded at midnight! However, most people were finishing and left soon after our arrival and so we had space to enter and plonk ourselves on benches along the back wall. Our curiosity was killing us, on what this dish was and why the name CT. We sat/stood at the entrance of the small area looking over the kitchen to observe the making of Caesarian Toast. Having stuffed ourselves with various goodies through the day, I was hesitant on eating bread with loads of butter and asked them not to order for me. But history repeated itself, and just like with the Hajmola tea, I had a bite and immediately asked for my order!
The secret was in the thick slice of bread from the fresh bakery loaves, with an incision through the center horizontally with a sharp knife. Salted or white butter, based on your choice, was slapped on and stuffed through this incision and toasted on hand-held wire sandwich toaster over red hot coals. Once toasted and browned, they were shaken out on a disposable paper plate and served with a generous sprinkling of chat masala and a cup of hot masala tea in terracotta kulhads. And then, we did not stop at one plate each! By the time we finished, it was way past 3am. After the last one from our group trooped out, they pulled the shutter down to rest for a couple of hours before they would open at again at 6 am to serve toast with morning tea!
