71/ 100 Uttapams for Breakfast

Having woken very early and spent a few moments watching the ladies wrap coloured threads around a tree one morning in Varanasi we decided it was time for breakfast. I often find breakfast a little tricky in India – I am a big granola eater and that’s not something you’re going to find on the streets of Delhi. There was always plenty of food around to choose from though and browsing the food stalls each day is always a highlight for me. Typically, though, we couldn’t get everything we wanted in one place since each seller tended to specialise in one type of thing. There were usually folk who cooked anything made with eggs, for example, or fried vegetables, or sweets.

First things first, to wake us up, a cup of hot chai was needed. They make this by boiling a very large saucepan of milk to which they’ve added grated ginger root and, of course, large amounts of tea and sugar. From what we saw, the whole steaming mixture never seemed to be entirely used – they simply keep adding more of each of the four ingredients throughout the day. Since the saucepan is sat on top of a gas burner with enough power to smelt steel the milk inevitably boils up to the top of the tea-encrusted pot. Unlike when I try to heat milk at home they manage to stop it boiling over and down the sides of the pan by whacking the rim of the pot with a sieve. I’ve absolutely no idea how it works but it was quite effective.

After some warming tea we bought some fresh fruit from a different stall and then, although we were already quite happy with our breakfast, an alluring smell came wafting past us and we were being tempted to eat more than we needed yet again. Over-eating was always a problem for me when I was surrounded by such tasty food. Like a dog sniffing out a tennis ball in a hedge I traced the smell to a man making uttapams on a hotplate. These tasty delights are slightly puffy savoury leavened pancakes made from a mixture of rice and lentil flour.

When I went to order, the cheery guy making them asked if I wanted masala on it. I honestly had no idea so I went for it. He then asked if I wanted butter on it but again, I didn’t really know so I just said yes. What emerged was an enormous buttery glistening pancake, onto which he added just a bit more butter for good measure. Crispy but soft in the middle, covered with slightly spicy peppers and onions that had partly merged with the batter. I could feel my arteries trembling but my goodness it was tasty.

I took the uttapam and squeezed onto one of the bench seats made from an old plank of wood resting upon two cooking oil drums just as an older couple arrived. Being raised well (thanks Mum) I jumped up again and offered my seat to the lady. She accepted and then her husband, a businessman who had come to Varanasi to bathe in the Ganges river, insisted on buying our breakfast for us to say thank you. On this day, and so many others, we met a great many kind and generous people in India. It was just lovely.