There are expressions that don’t translate into English with the same oomph they have in Urdu. “Gari mein thhoosna” is one of them and it is a hallmark of the Pakistani experience. It basically means to stuff yourselves into the car, and I mean stuff. Somehow in English it doesn’t capture the enthusiasm of children piled onto adults as the 25 people in the house pack themselves into two cars to head out for Chinese food. We would arrive at a Chinese restaurant decorated in the traditional red and gold, places that always knew how to put together enormous tables in minutes. Then soon enough it would be time to inhale the mellow smells of the Chicken Corn Soup (a must) when it arrived and wait with considerable enthusiasm for the “sizzlers”, the beef dishes served on hot plates, literally sizzling and smoking as they make their way over. Someone always burnt their tongue sneaking in that extra charred piece. I may or may not be that someone trying to subtly steal a piece of the Beef Chilli Dry. 

Three. That is how many Kashmri Chai posts I have written and not published. It seems that every time I about to I find another recipe, another technique, something with a pink that pops far more than mine and I go back to the drawing board. I have played with the quanities of tea leaves, the time it takes to cook, etc and time and time again I find myself back here, happily sipping away at this incarnation.