Happy Vaisakhi!

For the past few years I've attended the Vaisakhi festival in the Little India neighbourhood of Vancouver.  As I understand it, this is a celebration of the Sikh prophet selecting his disciples, as well as a traditional grain harvest festival.  It also holds importance for Muslims and Buddists as well.


And for guests that have no particular ties to religion, this is The Day of Free Indian Food.  Sikhs have a religious practice of Langar, or serving food freely to bring together people, so they get spiritual credit for feeding the masses that may or may not care about the reasons why - I'm surprised this isn't more of an annual boon for the homeless in Vancouver, yet another example of how important it is to be aware of the myriad of opportunities offered in your community.  Businesses and private residences have tables lining the sidewalks outside and an assembly line of people ladling out rice and curry, samosas, pakoras, and other dishes I know not what.  Chick peas, _lots_ of chick peas, swimming in a variety of sauces.
After two or three plates visitors are already full, and we've barely scratched the surface.  When you think there's no room for any other deliciousness, there's always room for tea.  Most tables offer tea that we'd consider flavoured chai tea, sweet, creamy and aromatic.  My styrofoam cup followed me from table to table grazing.
My personal favorite, which I only ever get at Vaisakhi, is called halwa (and every year I forget its name and refer to it to friends as 'that awesome yummy grey stuff').  It is typically grey/beige, though I found a yellowish one this year, and looks like crumbly mashed potatos.  Sound appetizing? It's great! It's sweeter than the main savoury dishes and curries yet not as saccharine as the better known Indian desserts.  It often has almonds or cashews or raisins, and is gently spiced with cardamom, one of my favorite spices. 
I sat on a sunny patch of grass on a street corner with my halwa+tea and purred happily. immersed among the sounds of a different language and music over loudspeakers in the distance, this treated me to all the welcoming and accessible aspects of visiting India without the practical logistics of due research, safety, acquiring visas, incurred costs of travel, and blahblahblah reason to never ever leave home.  A mini-travel trip from the comfort of my own city.


The Vaisakhi in the neighbouring city of Surrey is supposedly the largest one outside of India itself.  I attended for the first time this year with a friend of mine who was well organized with a planned route and map.  The weather was the kind of grey that made it difficult to select appropriate attire, but the cool was appreciated in the midst of a crowd. 
We were early enough to stroll among the tables easily, my first sample was a bowl of some kind of chips, chick peas (of course), yogurt sauce and a sprinkling of spices.  The woman at the table made one 'special for me', which I suspect was a kind yet unnecessary gesture to dumb down the spiciness - after all, this was my breakfast! We got more chips+candy+juice boxes+cans of pop to carry home (good thing I brought fabric shopping bags), and ate our fill of Indian dishes; fried potato patty, fried califlower, fried tofu nugget.  More tea, always tea.  It took me a while to find a table serving halwa, and I got three different versions that day.  The last one was bright yellow and orange, with bloated golden raisins.  A great note to end on.
By the time we were tired of walking and the free food wasn't worth the ten minute lineups, our take-away bags were both full and heavy, and we couldn't eat anymore we'd decided to leave... and the rain started just after we were in the car.  Perfect timing.