Happy National Happiness Day people!

Um wait, don’t head towards Google now. It is actually National Waffles Day, and since waffles = happiness (at least in my dictionary), I took the liberty to bid that greeting!

And oh, other than that I also sort of announced the existence of this day at my workplace.

Result? This rainy morning, Lavanya, Avantika, Pallav, and I went waffle hogging (and learning) at the café which holds the pride of being the first one to serve waffles in Jaipur – .

Raunak Khandelwal and Kushal Sushil are two of the three owners that run the café. When I initially phoned them to discuss the activity, I may have omitted one very important detail which may have jeopardized our chances of executing the activity.

But eventually, they figured out. They witnessed our mighty clumsiness in all its glory.

The Oops moment happened when Kushal was teaching us how to make the batter for the waffles. He tossed in all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, cold milk, and melted butter in a mixing bowl and handed over the bowl to Lavanya.

To mix, you know.

Say about 12 seconds later, the table and Lavanya’s knees turned white. Courtesy: Spilling the batter all around.

“Now you know I don’t cook and have never cooked,” she said.

Call it the workplace connection, but I heard a different set of words coming from within her: “Someone, take away this bowl already. Better do it fast.”

And so I did. I took over the mixing. Needless to say, the bowl ended up in Kushal’s skillful hands, eventually. And just as the batter was thoroughly mixed with all lumps removed, it was sent to the refrigerator to chill for a half an hour or so.

Meanwhile, we couldn’t help but admire the artist-y feels of the cafe.

Avantika, for one, claimed the blue scooter’s back seat as her throne. Now, this was to enjoy the beautiful view outside or to evade the hands-on baking that was happening inside, I still do not know. *Speaks in Daya’s tone: ‘Kuch toh gadbad hai!’*

Lavanya is a huge fan of Frida Kahlo. That’s totally unrelated, but I suspect that is why she volunteered to take up the painting, err, brushing the waffle maker task. Some butter inside the maker, because no one wants the waffles to stick, right?

10-15 minutes later, the batter looked something like this…

Much as tempted I was to gobble this up, Raunak and Kaushal had another plan up their sleeve.

“Let’s chop some fruits for Waffle Kebab, shall we?” they said.

Okay. Let’s just say, none of us had ever heard or thought or dreamt of the words ‘waffle’ and ‘kebab’ to be placed hand in hand. So, it’s pretty apparent then that we were intrigued. Very, very intrigued.

Oh, midst the chopping and peeling, I sort of had a historic moment. For the first time in my twenty-something years, I ate kiwi.

And Lavanya displayed her exemplary expertise with the knife. And I thought she didn’t cook. What sorcery is this!?

Meanwhile, Raunak killed the waffles…

And later, we brutally stabbed the fruits, the waffles, everything. Why? Because we’re sadists. That’s why!

Just kidding. We were making these scrumptious beauties. Ladies and gentlemen, behold, the Waffle Kebabs!So, there’s no fixed format to it. Maple syrup, honey, chocolate sauce, choco-chips, icing sugar, put whatever! Let your imagination do the garnishing. 

Next up, we were doing the Gulkand Waffle. Yeah, because why not? Kyunki kyun nahi?

Kushal added some gulkand to the regular batter and baked the waffle. Meanwhile, I chopped thin strips of beetle leaf for garnishing.

The fragrance of gulkand lingered in the air (and in my fingers).

Let’s take a look at the garnishing options, shall we? Green cherries, saunf – colorful and not so colorful, and some more gulkand. Oh, and there was whipped cream too.

Look at Lavanya – the happy artist at work here.

So basically, this is the ultimate after-meal dish.

It’s like, you want to have dessert, but then you also want to eat saunf, and then you prefer paan too. This is the combination of all. Plus, the waffles are kind enough to hold everything intact in their boxes. How sweet of them!

Tbh, we couldn’t have more than 2 bites each. They were so filling!

After a little while (and a few burps), this arrived at our station. The Savoury Waffle Sandwich.

Avantika, Lavanya, and I weren’t sure what to be more surprised at – the sandwich made out of savoury waffles, or their delightful presentation.

“Vo fryums dekho! Bachpan ki yaad aa gayi!” a nostalgic Lavanya declared. And Avantika was surprisingly forthcoming at the sight of this. She left her blue scooter seat to taste it.

 

And it was mind blowing! I have eaten a lot of waffles in my life but never have I eaten something like this. And perhaps, I never will.

Turns out, these are an extinct species. They aren’t on the Nibs Cafe menu anymore, and that is as depressing as anything gets.

But hey, I have a picture that’ll make the world a happy place again. Behold, the tower of Waffles! Meanwhile, I’ll go and order a waffle-maker. Toodles!

Picture Courtesy: Pallav Bhargava