In November of 2018, I embarked upon the most epic and most ambitious trip of my life: a 21-day trip back to India after my first visit to the country eleven months earlier. I fell in love with India the first time and my love for it has only grown in my time away. Instead of exploring the country solo like I did in January, this time I went with my buddy Sam, who I knew I would have tons of incredible experiences with as we traveled through this beautiful and magical country.
With the first two cities of our epic trip (Pune and Hyderabad) now in our rearview mirror, it was time for our adventures in city number three, Amritsar, to begin! Come along with us as we head out on a mind-blowing Punjabi breakfast street food tour!
Wearing my new turban, which I was given by a few new Sikh friends the previous night, I set out early on our first morning in Amritsar with Sam and my friend Deepak from Amritsar Walking Tours to have an amazing Punjabi breakfast street food tour.
Our first stop was at the 65-year-old Pehalwan Kulcha Shop, where we tried some Kulcha, which is a traditional mildly leavened flatbread made from maida flower and lots of spices, and is served with chole masala (chickpea masala) and a tamarind sauce that was loaded with onions. My kulcha was made with lots of green chilies, but my first taste was of Deepak’s kulcha, which was crispy, super buttery, and was bursting with the flavors of lots of delicious herbs and spices! My kulcha wasn’t super spicy, but it was still out of this world. I loved the flavor of the ghee (Indian clarified butter), and putting a bit of the chole and tamarind sauces made for a mouthwatering flavor and texture combination!
Then it was Sam’s turn to try the Kulcha. He said it’s the best flatbread he’s ever had in India, so I think that means he liked it!
After our incredible Kulcha breakfast, Deepak took us to a small shop called Tara Chand, which is located in the walled city known as Old Amritsar. There, we tried some paneer bhurji, another popular breakfast here in the city! This dish is made of cottage cheese, butter, vegetables, and a secret masala the cooks won’t share with anyone! It was served with two slices of bread, a mint chutney, a tamarind sauce, and onions, and contains an unreal amount of butter! It’s a super heavy and creamy dish, and is full of herbs and spices. But it tastes so good! The mint chutney was fantastic paired with it. The dish is almost like cheesy, buttery scrambled eggs, except there are no eggs in it!
Next, we went to two shops to try some Amritsari Lassi! Lassi is a creamy, yogurt-based drink that is typically enjoyed at the end of an Indian meal, and is the national drink of India. The dairy in the lassi really helps to cool down your mouth after dishes with lots of chilies and fiery spices! We stopped by Giani Punjabi Lassi, where we watched them make a traditional lassi by hand, which included a large dollop of cream and butter on top. My first spoonful of it was all butter, but once you sip it, it’s like a really thick, rich, and fatty milkshake. It was decadent and absolutely delicious, and I couldn’t get enough of it!
I hope you enjoyed our epic, buttery Punjabi breakfast tour! If you did, please give this video a thumbs up and leave me a comment below so we can chat! And please subscribe to my channel if you haven’t already so you don’t miss out on any of my upcoming food and travel content!
About Me: My name is David Hoffmann and for the last decade I have been traveling around the world in search of unique culture, food and history! Since starting Davidsbeenhere in 2008, I have traveled to 71 countries and over 1,000 destinations, which I welcome you to check out on my YouTube Channel, blog and social medias.
I focus a great deal on food and historic sites, as you probably have seen! I love to experience the different flavors that each destination has to offer, whether it’s casual Street food or gourmet restaurant dining. I’m also passionate about learning the local history and culture.
Yeah, oh
What do you think what are you saying? Oh my god, dude you taste the butter. It's so amazing
Oh
Good morning, everyone. This is David Hoffman from David's been here in beautiful Amritsar in the state of Punjab. I'm super excited
I'm here with my friend Deepak and Deepak is taking us on an ultimate
Breakfast food tour of Punjabi food right now. The time is breakfast time
So we will start our day with a breakfast and I'm going to taking you to the three different famous food
When we talk about the Amritsari breakfast
And I would like to take you the starting of a day with the Amritsari breakfast with Amritsari special kulcha
Then I will take you to the other spot like Amritsari paneer bhurji
Then I would like to take you the Anar puri chole. So three different very famous food of local
Yes. Oh my god. I'm so excited. We're gonna eat some kulche. Let's go inside. Let's do it
So the kulcha is going through the three different process
Firstly, they just collect all the ingredients and the ingredients what will be the ingredients?
It just depend upon one shop to another shop here. I just asked you the owners
15 to 20 different different kind of ingredients and special ingredient is of course the potato one
Okay, then he just put all the ingredients in a center of the dough
Right, then it just suppressed over there and you can see the tandoor over here
We are just put in into the tandoor. It will take one to two minutes to getting it ready
After that, it is a ready to eat Amritsari kulcha
After taking out from the tandoor
He just make it crush like this one, which already we haven't seen over there
After watching the whole process, we're ready to eat. I'm excited. This food looks so good
Oh, I'm gonna get the one with the green chilies. Look at that green chilies
Okay. So here we go. This is Amritsari kulcha. I got the green chilies kulcha
It's like really hot. He got like a more mild then next to we have the chickpeas
Which is a chole and this is like some onion
It's a kind of sauce actually
Tamarind sauce. Okay. So how do we do this? How do we start?
There are two options for you. You can mix it
together
Or simply you can take it, right?
Take it like this
What do you think?
What do you say? Oh my god, dude
You taste the butter. It's so amazing. I can smell it from here
You know
The sign of good kulcha is the good kulcha is always crispy from outside. Okay, very soft from inside
I mean, it's extremely crispy. There's so many herbs
delicious
Maybe we shouldn't have ordered the spiciest one
Then we get some
Wow, oh I can't wait
Most about it is the ghee. Like really you can taste the ghee throughout. It's so good
It will be crispy. Oh, yeah, which shows that this is perfect kulcha. Yeah. No, it has a little roasty taste to it as well
Wow, you can only find this here, huh? Uh-huh. Yeah, and then the other one the herbs
Yes, you can mix it together with the chickpeas. Okay, let's take it
See how that tastes
You can make it like this
Just mix it. Oh, you see the tamarind?
Mmm, the onions. This is my type of recipe. Yes. There's a whole different world for me in the south, you know
Yeah, the north is all about bread
Some more here
It's not like overbearing spicy, it's like just mild
And the taste of kulcha is different from one shop to another shop
It's just about the secret masala the secret ingredient
Which make the kulcha different from the other one and this shop is running from last 65 years
So now the third generation now in the business, especially the local people the tourists come from the different different places over here
Incredible the taste is the same how the people is changing the generation is changing but the taste is
Same from one generation to the third generation. That's that's how you know, like they already taught their kids well
If it stays the same
I can't tell you how good this breakfast is
Good
I'm gonna dream about this one for a while
This kulcha this indian flatbread is just wonderful. I honestly can say it's the best flatbread i've ever had in india
There's so much flavors
And I love taking the chickpeas with the chutney that features tamarind
you put a little bit of it on like this and it adds just a
Even an extra an extra amount of flavor and texture to it as you bite into it. Oh my god
So crispy on the outside and the ingredients are so
fresh on the inside
Just a wonderful wonderful thing to try here in amritsar
Hey, how you doing tell me your name
He's the owner's son and he's a big fan thank you for subscribing
So after having amritsari kulcha the traditional breakfast I would like to take you the second most favorable dish
Which is called paneer bhurji
It's a kind of indian cheese actually. Oh my god served with the bread. Okay, and it's inside of the bread
No, no, it's served with the outside. It just depends upon you. You can take make it inside as well. Okay. Yeah
And all the shops where i'm taking you it is located in a wall city, which is known as old amritsar
Where you are staying it is located in a new amritsar, but the kulcha shop the paneer bhurjiwala
It's all inside the wall city
Inside the 12 gates of amritsar
Here we go. Tara chand paneer bhurji paneer bhurji. Oh, I can't wait cottage cheese. So yummy
It is it is a cheese. This is a very veggie dish. Yes
All the way it is very delicious and very heavy of course. I'm so happy you brought me here. Yeah, let's go inside
It's a very small shop as you can see
Very very small. I can't wait. He's gonna make it right now
Oh paneer, that's my favorite thing about the veg dishes paneer. Yeah, i've never tried it before dude, I can't
Oh paneer. I thought no this this particular dish
That was your first time dude. This one for sure. Cool. My favorite paneer is paneer chili though. Yeah, I love paneer
I love it in the curry palak paneer. Oh, man, so good. So good. Are you ready?
I'm hungry
Thank you. Okay. So here we have paneer bhurji. That was amazing the way he made it
It looks like scrambled eggs. It's actually not it's a mix between butter. Yes vegetable. Yes cottage cheese
What else we have the secret masala and the secret?
I know he's his best friend and he's never told him anything
So, how do we eat it we eat it with bread with onion
It is served with two slices of bread with the onion one is a mint sauce
The second one is a tamarind sauce tamarind sauce. Okay, so just make one bite see you can see the quantity of butter
Yeah
It's most delicious yes full of herb sauce ever it's like a sauce basically a big sauce
I love how you put it with the bread and then so how do I do with the tamarind? I just go over here
Yeah, you just mix. Oh, you mix. Okay, perfect and you mix that. Oh, you mix it up. Yeah
Look at that. It is a very heavy dish actually because the quantity of butter you already see. Yeah, and it's all about the cheese
It's about the secret masala. So I just go like this
All the things make it very delicious as well as very heavy dish and the people love it
People love it. I can see why the people love it. It smells good easy though
Yeah, like it's like it's basically like a super the whole thing is like a melted cheese. Yeah
Full of all these herbs. Yeah
He put a lot of cheese on when they were preparing it
Yeah, I noticed the quantity of butter is a very high in the starting of the dish
You can see the quantity of butter which is just put it in that
Over there. It's amazing. Wow, and it's a very very heavy dish actually, but you know, the people of punjab the people of commerce are
Yeah, they're heavy. Don't like me. But yes, you got a doll. Yeah, I have a big people. Yeah
So they love it all the time this kind of very heavy dish. It is one of their favorite dishes
I mean i'm really in love with it and the aroma
Yes
It's amazing, it's blowing my taste buds like for real it's so many different flavors here
Yes, and I I really like how you break out the piece of bread
Get a little bit of this the tamarind sauce is really light. I feel like what is this?
This is the mint sauce and the mint chutney. This is a mint chutney mint chutney. Yes, you can make it
Get a little piece of bread here. Sorry. I'm doing my best here with a spoon
The mintiness is so good with that. It's a great combination. Yeah
Oh, yeah onions, I love how india there's always onions. Yeah, that means it's spicy. Yeah, it's not too spicy
It's just a regular white piece of bread. Yeah, very different. Yes. I haven't had any bread like this in india
Oh, it's really good with this
It almost feels like i'm having like crazy cheesy scrambled eggs full of herbs but there's no eggs in here it's just butter
I'm gonna gain a lot of weight on this trip
Oh my gosh, this has just been an amazing second dish. The thing I like most about well, I'm gonna take a bite for you guys
Um
It's the paneer as all the different vegetables and they have a secret masala sauce, which they will not share with anybody
Even deepak is a good friend with the guy best friends
That's our seal. That's what makes it this good. So we are going to the next
Which is one of the favorite drink of
Yeah
So what i've been hearing is that amritsari lassi is like the original lassi. I don't know how true that is
but
I'm sure it's really good. Actually the two
Two things which make amritsari lassi more favorable more favorite. The one is the quantity of you know
the quantity of lassi
Okay
The size of the glass will be very high very oh, so it's like a big glass very big but not second no ghee, right?
No, no ghee, but it's so with the butter with the cream at the top of the lassi
Oh my god, the second thing is the quality of the butter the milk which they add in on it. It's amazing
It's amazing. It's funny because after every meal in india you have lassi. Uh-huh. It's like a standard thing
Yes, it is. It is. I mean I told you it is a national drink if we call it national drink
It is not wrong to say that. Lassi is a national drink of india
Behind me. We have two lassi shops that have been in business for 50 years
Jhandi lassi and jhani punjabi lassi
We're going to jhani punjabi because this place is going to make the traditional version
So it's made two ways either through a machine or by hand. We're going to see how they make it by hand and try it
Let's go inside
Okay, so we saw the process. It's pretty incredible. I mean he basically made these balls
They start with the curd yogurt or we call it dahi
they add two cups of dahi for one glass of lassi and then they add some water and some part of a
Milk in it and then just making machine all the time. But for this I have seen I have shown you how they're making it
Traditionally like this
At the end they add some cream on the top of the lassi
Cream and butter with the lassi and we saw the way they've been making it for thousands of years, right?
Yeah, okay. Here we go
I'm gonna have to drink it. Yeah
It's like a super thick milkshake
Oh, it's super creamy
I love lassi every single day. I was in india earlier this year. I drank one right after a meal. It's perfect
I mean
It's super fatty super rich, but it's the perfect thing to have after meal to cool down the spice. Yes
I told you david. Lassi is a kind of national drink for the india
However, people love to drink this dish of lassi in a sub summer
Yeah, but the people of amritsar love it all the time all the time
They don't mind it is a winter or a summer. I mean it's winter right now, but it's not too cold
He's so ducking in I love the butter on top
Favorite thing ever, right? Yes. Yes. Hey my friend. Thank you so much
It's been an amazing adventure we've tried so many delicious things today we had amritsar
And then we had this traditional lassi such a thick decadent drink they drink it every day and I understand why
But i'll be a ball if I did that
Well guys, I hope you love this video
If you did give me a thumbs up leave a comment below subscribe to deepak's channel, which is right here
Just subscribe to sam and audrey's channel. Thank you
And subscribe to my channel for more awesome travel content, we'll see you on the next adventure in incredible india
Oh, it's more than great