Grand Trunk Road - Gulshan Ka Dhaba

A trip to Amritsar with visitors gave me the chance to try out some dhabas along the Grand Trunk Road.

Punjabis love to eat and the more desi ghee the better! They load it onto everything from paranthas to their dal. Makes me wonder what the average cholesterol reading is in the region.

Our first stop was Gulshan ka Dhaba in Murthal about 60 miles north of Delhi. We were early for lunch so the place was pretty much empty when we got there. The long, family-style tables in the open restaurant each hold a bucket of mixed pickle. We placed our order for some stuffed paranthas and dal - the classic dhaba meal.

The paranthas here are baked in a tandoor (unlike the fried paranthas in the Paranthe Wali Gali in Old Delhi). Don't let that fool you into thinking they're any lighter though. They're served with a big spoonful of snow-white desi ghee on top. The ghee comes from water buffalo milk which is why it's white instead of yellow like the butter we're used to. While we were waiting for our food we wandered back into the open kitchen to see how the paranthas are made.

We preferred the potato/onion parantha to the cauliflower (which we had to get because they didn't have any murli or radish) and the paneer options. The dal makhani was creamy and good. Not the best I've had but not the worst...

Served with homemade yogurt on the side to cool things off (notice the copious amounts of green chiles in the paranthas), mixed pickle and a masala lassi to wash everything down we walked out of there ready for the rest of our trip on the Grand Trunk Road. Little did we know that the decent highway was about to end about 10 miles further down the road...