Returned for a Diwali weekend stroll today.
The only Indian sweet shop left in the neighborhood was in peak form: main shop shut down, tables arranged from end to end laden with a wide range of fresh sweets, and very orderly dealing out of the goodies. They’ve taken over the store next door, so today the main shop was just a line, and the adjacent (empty) space was where they were serving.
Some brave (non-Indian) tourists right in front me had decided they’d wait in the 30-odd minute line just to see what it was all about and took a 2lb assortment with them. Meanwhile some young ladies of Indian origin behind me decided they didn’t have patience to wait for the sweets their mothers had instructed them to buy – after getting past the halfway point, go figure.
I have a personal rule against lines at this point in my life, but it’s Diwali and it was the only thing so far that has made it feel that way, so I made an exception. Plus, this is the one time a year that the sweets are as good as they are in India (I wouldn’t be surprised if they flew specialists over.)
.
Grabbed a coffee and a meat-stuffed yucca croquette (I think it’s called a carimañola) on my way over at a Colombian cafe, which was good sustenance for the line.
.
Today’s take-home kabab items of choice were chargha (like tandoori chicken, not quite as flavorful as real tandoori chicken imo, but a lot better than most American tandoori chicken), two varieties of chicken seekh kabab, and malai kabab (like chicken tikka but white and a lot tastier).
