Dosa and Pongal at Bilaspur :)

As we have started off on our ShikshaDaan Yatra and it is going to be long periods of time on the road we have decided to cook our own food rather than eat at restaurants everywhere. The Yeti has a rooftop box now and we have essentially the kitchen on the move. 

Our first stop on April 9th was ofcourse at Ahuja No. 1, Murthal and this time the place was almost squeaky clean (Swachh Bharat effect ?) and the Paranthas tasted even better than usual. Maybe competition maybe just overall improvement in sentiment thanks to our PM. 

Here’s a pic of me beaming because the food was so good. 

  

Here are a couple of pics on how the Yeti has been loaded – 

First, the rooftop box … Huge and really useful. Just a tip, pack smaller bags as it’s difficult to lift heavy stuff onto the box. Smaller bags also spread the weight around. There is no impact on the speed and stability of the vehicle. Anjani Plastics in Noida makes these for almost every car and their pricing is value-for-money range. 

  

The boot has some of the dry ration (provisions), the mixer-grinder and the clothes drying stand :):). My mother cannot be stopped from washing her clothes and for such a long trip, we need to wash as well. 

  

We have removed one seat and put in two large plastic bins that is the moving kitchen. One contains all the cookware, the induction stove and the other carries the urgently needed, easily reachable snacks and the plates, steel tumblers and spoons. A special thanks to whoever invented the induction stove and ziplock bags – God bless them as they have made cooking while travelling by road so much easier !

  

The inverted plastic stool is to reach the rooftop box :). 

Have got steel bottles because there is nothing harmful introduced when they are exposed to heat or cold unlike the plastic bottles. Ideally we should all switch to steel and copper bottles – energized the drinking water :). The only plastic that am ok to use are the ziplock bags because they can be recycled and they are handy to carry lots of food stuff. 

Yes, we have the car charger and the Bose system to play music… Yoga mats, walking shoes to ensure we get enough exercise. Ok another tip, please carry a box of rubber bands – super useful to keep things from spilling out. 

Today morning at Bilaspur, we had Dosa courtesy the batter that Shikha gave us yesterday and then in the afternoon I made Pongal – both made on the induction stove. We walked down to the main market and got some fruits and vegetables … Oh the vegetables are so fresh ! Lauki (bottle gourd?) almost melted in our mouths. 

Here’s mom making the dosa on the induction stove… Well, it’s the picture of “the” picture since the Vodafone 3G service is so poor that we couldn’t send the photo over email for nearly an hour !!

  

Digital India must start from HP !!