This year today is the most important day in Diwali (the Festival of Light). This festival is celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs. Food is very important part of the festival - I heard on the radio that it lasts five days because you couldn't possibly eat all the good food in just one day!
There was an interesting article in the Guardian recently about the Five top London food experiences. They all looked good, and when I saw that Monisha Bharadwaj does Indian food walks of Southall I booked myself on one straight away.
I felt I'd gone somewhere different as soon as I got of the train (Welcome to Southall is also written in Punjabi). Our guide, Monisha Bharadwaj, met us at Southall station. Monisha has had an interesting and varied career. She was born in Mumbai (where she learnt Indian dance), she qualified as a chef and also trained as a journalist and now is a prolific writer of Indian cookery books. Her titles include Healthy Indian in Minutes and India's Vegetarian Cooking.
We went past the Glassy Junction public house - the first pub in the UK to accept ruppees as currency. We stopped outside a temple and even a marriage bureau, whilst Monisha explained the different religions and cultures. We were entertainingly told about the history of the area and of course its food. We learnt how Indian cuisine varies tremendously according to the region and the reasons for the foods of different regions.
We went into some great shops, like Quality Foods:
where she told us about different Indian foods. Your health is very important in Indian cookery, Monisha told us we should be eating Amla at this time of the year. Apparently Amla contains one of the highest percentages of natural Vitamin C present in any fruit.
The shops in Southall were selling fireworks and lights for Diwali:
and some very colourful Indian clothes:
We looked at Indian sweets:
For me, one of the highlights of the tour was the street food.
There were Pani Puri:
These were filled with chick peas, tamarind and jaljeera water:
and were an amazing combination of tastes:
In the picture below are betel leaves, which were stuffed with spices and rose jam.
The photos above were taken at :
Rita's Pan Centre
112-114 The Broadway
Southall
Middlesex
UB1 1QF
Tel: 020 8571 7224
Our group seemed to like the Jalebis best, which are very sweet .
We bought these at:
Jalebi Junction
93 The Broadway
Southall
Middlesex
UB1 1LN
Tel: 020 8571 6782
I had a fantastic afternoon and would thoroughly recommend this tour (you can't smell or taste it on the internet!). The only problem I had was deciding how to cook all the unusual vegetables I'd bought. Next time I'll have to book on one of Monisha's cookery courses....
Web: www.cookingwithmonisha.com
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