Eat Like Ushi

One of most highly mentioned places in Jaipur is Handi. The clinching factor ended up being Vivek Singh's recommendation (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/india/10664858/Jaipurs-best-restaurants-by-Vivek-Singh.html) of it having the most authentic laal maas around and to eat it with roomali roti. I never ate at Cinnamon whilst in the UK, but it was certainly on my radar so I'd trust his opinion over random reviews.

It was a short Rs. 70 auto-tuktuk from Rawla Rawatsar there. Although it was only about 1km on Google maps, the sheer traffic (animal, human and auto), wet roads and general excrement meant the buzzing exciting scoot through town was necessary. The guesthouse owner and driver knew the place immediately - it's well known and rightly so. Parking out the front the first thing you notice is the wafting aroma of chargrilled meats luring you in.

Inside you'll find the bread man making continuous amounts of naan piled up in a basket. It's a beautiful human-type of machinery at work.

- Banana Lassi – fruit chunks embedded in blended diary and necessary for the impending tongue burning;
- Onion-Garlic Naan – outstanding version with visible garlic and onion pieces embedded and painted with butter. Delicious and the best I've ever had;
- Tandoori Platter – tandoori chicken (tender succulent leg, slight burnt crisp outside), seek kabab (glowing red soft mince), shammi kabab (fried chicken), chicken tikka (slightly chewy), mutton tikka (succulent tear apart with strong meat flavour), galouti kebab (minced mutton in a smooth mix);
- Jaisalmeri Laal Maas – an extremely hot curry with red chilli, green chilli and tabasco. It was flavoursome and reminded me of vindaloo. The waiter warned me it would be hot and my tongue, mouth, face, eyes and ears felt it;
- Roomali Roti - a thin wispy bread for the curry;
- Gulab Jamun - sweet but I honestly can't remember. The chilli burnt the memory out of me.

There are so many good looking dishes here from the grilled to the curries. I don't think I'd order the laal maas again as it was too painful to be truly enjoyable (unless I could get them to spice it down for me). Perhaps the Handi Meat or Handi Mutton Biryani next time.

In the heart of the Pink City, LMB is a well known institution. It is reasonably close to the tourist sites of the City Palace, Jantar Mantar and the Palace of Winds making it a convenient lunch place.

LMB is known for two things - a thali that has the largest number of components (16!!) and a sweet shop foyer before the restaurant that is known for paneer, tikkis and kulfa.

The dishes were fine without anything being particularly outstanding. It did allow me to try the Rajasthani combination of dal-bati-churma with allows a combination of a fried wheat ball, sugary dip and savoury dal. I will admit the main reason I ate here was for the impressively large variety of things and the meal was satisfactory enough.

After filling up there was only enough stomach room to try one thing from the sweet shop, so it had to be the paneer ghewar (honeycomb cake soaked in treacle). It was a room temperature crispy lattice soaked in syrup. They offered me a whole one (which is huge) but I'm happy they allowed me to purchase a weight-based small piece. The intense sugar meant that I was happy just to have two spoonfuls and leave the rest.

I didn't really find many good options online for eating in the Pink City. The only other on my list was Samrat Sweets which specialised in kachori and samosas. Given that you are generally there around lunch time, I think I would try there next time (as the reputation is extremely good) and just snack up.

This place is not in Agra or Jaipur, but the only reason you will stop here is because your driver takes you to eat, toilet and possibly buy things from the tourist gift shop. Walking into the dining room and seeing 5 different tables of 2-4 tourists each reaffirmed this. There are also much larger tables and a buffet cart (empty on this quiet day in January) so I assume it caters for the buses also.

The first thing that struck me about the menu was the prices. Rs. 130 for a plain naan, Rs. 60 for a tea... those are some extreme Indian prices especially for a roadside place in the middle of nowhere.

- Vegetable Kofta - surprisingly excellent little balls in a great curry. I'm unsure what vegetables they used but I never thought a meatball without meat could taste like this;
- Non-Vegetarian Thali (salad, curd, papad, pulses, seasonal vegetable, mutton curry served with rice & chapati) - laal mass curry lacked the real heat it's meant to have but was still nicely flavoured as were the pickles. It was a good mix albeit for Rs. 550.

I would plan accordingly next time and find somewhere else to eat. The real reason for this is that the prices are remarkably high for India and reflect the large tourist eating hall, the buffet option (most likely when it is busier) and the attached gift shop. It would also factor in the commission to the driver who brings you there. Having said that the food was actually very nice, so if you do end up here and the price doesn't bother you, you'll eat well.