Food & Craft Walk of Old City of Amritsar

We start our walk from Shani Mandir i.e. 283 years old temple dedicated to Saturn God. Next to the temple you find a shop selling sumptuous Aloo wala Kulcha’ s i.e. the famous Punjabi bread stuffed with potatoes and cheese. The Kulcha is often served with Lassi – The yogurt drink which has become the identity of Punjab throughout the world. Proceeding further, we walk through the small old streets enjoying the view of sweet shops where sweets are being sold in wonderful shapes and colors. From here we take a walk to the tea market. When the British entered Punjab, they first started out as tea merchants before gradually taking over the empire. You see many shops here selling black, green, Darjeeling & Assam tea.

Stop At: Saddle market (Bazaar Kathian) Here the saddles for horses used to be made in the old times. Though not a proper profession any more, yet the market still exists to serve those who own horses and have managed to keep the culture alive. A couple of steps more and we entre vessel market which is the biggest one in the city. Hundreds of the shops selling vessels and utensils made of steel, Iron, Copper, Bras, Aluminum, Silver and what not. You can see many traditional utensils here. Choora – The wedding bangle. According to the tradition, every newlywed bride is supposed to keep it on for 40 days. You can see these Chooras here in all forms from Ivory to white gold. And also you can see the future brides with their families picking the one they need. They say a meal here is not complete without a Papad – The wafer thin crisps made from lentil flour and sun dried. They come in many flavors. The aroma in this market is a wonderful experience. Now we walk through a street famous for its sweetmeats and flavored syrups. Boiled fruits are preserved in sugar syrup to make sweetmeats. Also rose, sandal, almond, orange, lemon and many other flavored syrups are sold here. From here we come upon an old bakery. The old couple running this place is always very welcoming. Now we enter the Herb market. Different herbs are sold here for Ayurvedic and other purposes. You can find shops stacked with sandalwood, Basil, parsley, Jasmine, Mint and many other essential herbs and oils. Feeling over powered by a strong smell of spices? Right! We are now in the spice market. Chilies, cloves, cumin, cinnamon, dried coriander, sun flower seeds, sesame seeds and many more spices which form an important part of Indian cuisine are sold here. We finish off our walk at the Galiara – the encircling park of the magnificent Golden Temple.