Lets talk about our first trip, after marriage, you can say: our honeymoon, was to Rajasthan. It was a cold morning of November 2015, we started our journey. This was the first big tour for both of us, all planned by us. I was super excited to make the itinerary, to book hotels and to make all travel arrangements. Our route was: Jaipur- Udaipur - Mount Abu - Udaipur - Jaisalmer - Jaipur. But as it was our own tour plan, at the end, we did some changes.
We reached Jaipur on 28th November 2015. It was a cloudy winter morning. We booked uber and went to our pre-booked hotel. The route from airport to hotel was beautiful, full of green and flowery plants . Loved the street lights and hanging flower pots on the road. It was a disappointment at first sight, as we saw the hotel. But the interior was okay. Anyway we stayed in Jaipur for less than 12hours. We went for a stroll, visited the nearby museum and had street food.
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Started our journey by morning flight |
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From left: our shadow stuck on the screen; hotel interior; science meuseum funny looking small observatory; Jaipur Airport garden; me in the uber cab mirror ;) |
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| Regional science meuseum photo shoot |
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| Early morning in train, just before reaching Udaipur |
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| Chhole Kulche in Jaipur, a street food |
Udaipur is a lovely city; royal palaces and artificial lakes are the attractions. But what I loved more was the street food, aloo paratha and sabji. Hot paratha and sabji on a winter morning made the journey memorable. After visiting almost all the famous places, we started for Mount Abu in the afternoon. The road passed through a hilly area, the driver was saying all the robbery and other accidents happened in that area before, ooooooo too much for a romantic gateway. Anyway reached Mount Abu hotel late night.
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| City of palaces and lakes |
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| City of gardens |
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| Dal bati churma in Udaipur |
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| Morning breakfast with aloo paratha |
We were shivering when we reached Mount Abu; the famous hill station of Rajasthan, was very cold. I must thank the hotel owner, who was very friendly and helpful. He sketched out the whole tour for Mount Abu for the next day. As we had our bus from Udaipur to Jaisalmer at 9PM so there was not much rush, at least that's what we thought. After enjoying the lovely hill station and after trekking till toad rock, we were done for the day. Oh, there in Mount Abu, we came to know about husband's promotion, so the joy was doubled.
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| Toad Rock and lake in Mount Abu |
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| Temple in the hill station |
We said our bye to Mount Abu and started for Udaipur, to catch the bus. We were supposed to reach by 8PM and so I started to check the tickets leisurely. This was the one booking, which my husband did and while we were on the way to Udaipur from Mount Abu, I found out, the bus time was actually 7PM!!! What the @#$%. So my dear R got tensed as well as the driver (so nice of him!!). He took the speedometer to highest possible point, we were checking the time after every 5 minutes and there was a tyre puncture, full movie style. At this point we were sure that the bus would go and we would not reach Jaisalmer on time. This first big trip, without any guidance, was full of events but not at all monotonous. Those were the time when we saw how helpful some strangers could be. Our cab driver talked to the no. given in our tickets, convinced the driver after a long discussion that, we would be waiting outside Udaipur, near high way, which would go towards Jaisalmer. Finally we reached there on time, the driver waited till we got onto the bus and finally we took a deep breath. The night passed with banana and bread and the sleeper bus reached on time to our destination Jaisalmer.
The time in Jaisalmer was one of the most surprising, beautiful, romantic, royal and memorable time. Why? Will tell you in my next post.
For this post, let me write a new recipe. It is about a very common vegetable, name Sim or Flat beans.
At our home, we had different recipes with sim: sim aloo bhaja/ flat beans potato stir fry, sim posto/ flat beans in poppy seeds, sim sorshe/ flat beans in mustard sauce and different mix vegetable things. But this time, at my home, here, I made sim bata or flat beans paste. The result was, my father was asking me after eating, what is it? It is tasty but I am unable to understand. My father is a very good food critic, as I have mentioned before also. Ao the recipe was a hit.
What you will need for this simple but tasty recipe:
Sim or flat beans - cleaned, cut in half size; you can use variety of flat beans together. You can take 1 bowl full.
Onion - 2, medium, peeled, cut in big pieces
Garlic - 4/5 , cleaned and cut
Green chilly - 2 chopped
Mustard oil
Salt as per taste
Kalo jeera or onion seeds
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Onion, garlic and gree chilly chopped |
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Turmeric powder, kalo jeera, salt |
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| Flat beans cut in half |
Now heat a kadai or pan. Pour mustard oil, 2 tables spoon, add kalo jeera. Once it starts to splatter, add onion garlic and chilly. Stir for 2mins. Add the vegetables, add salt. Now mix it, cover and fry for another 4mins max. It need not be fully fried.
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| Stir fry everything |
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| Once fried set it cool and then paste it |
Keep it aside and let it cool down. Now you can use a food processor or a shil-pata. Grind it and make a smooth paste.
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| Sim bata |
You can have with chapati or steamed rice. Just to increase the taste, add a little mustrad oil and green chilly before eating. Voila!
It is a very short recipe. Hope you try it and ahare your experience with me.
Just something more: yesterday Rahul, my hubby, prepared Angur or grapefruit chutney, as the fruit was too sour to eat. He cut the fruits in small pieces, added salt and chilly. It was superb. You can try this same way for any sour fruit.
Just something more: yesterday Rahul, my hubby, prepared Angur or grapefruit chutney, as the fruit was too sour to eat. He cut the fruits in small pieces, added salt and chilly. It was superb. You can try this same way for any sour fruit.
