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Shadi wali coffee, caffeinated nostalgia

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  We had barely exited the Sunil's wax museum at a Mall in Lonavala when Mrs Katyal spotted a stall with this huge espresso machine placed right in the front. Just the sight of the machine and its whoosh made both of us want a cup of coffee. And it wasn't much later that an order was placed for two cups of   Shadi wali coffee ! In Hindustani,  Shadi  stands for a wedding and  Shadi wali coffee  translates to Coffee served at weddings.  Coffee at most North Indian homes wasn't a daily affair, well, at least not in the 90s, when I was growing up in Lucknow. Most people we knew were tea consumers. Consumers may be an understatement, more like tea guzzlers! And like tea, coffee too was prepared over a gas stove, with lots of milk and copious amounts of sugar. S ometimes we would pester our parents to treat us with some ' Machine wali coffee ' when it wasn't the weddings' season.  Another reason we stuck to nomenclatures such as  shadi wali coffee...
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Food hopping in Prayagraj

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I have been to Allahabad a few times, but this time around I decided to make the visit more productive. And by productive, I mean exploring a few food outlets and getting to know Allahabad through the food it had to offer. Sadly, the visit happened during peak winters and with Covid still making rounds, so I had to restrict the places I could visit. Like many of us would, I too turned to Google and YouTube. Went through a few videos and articles and prepared my list. Mrs Katyal was already in Allahabad, visiting her Mum, so took advantage of her knowledge of the local places to prioritise good places over my short trip. PS - I keep using Allahabad and not Prayagraj, only for the nostalgia the old name creates. I hope readers will be forgiving. Food experiences are not limited to the destination, they begin en route! First place on the itinerary was the famous Heera Halwai . One can gauge it's popularity by the fact that the intersection next to which its located takes its name fro...
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