My initial experience with Kashmiri people occurred almost a decade ago during a family trip to India. Whilst walking through the older parts of New Delhi one chilly winter evening my family and I stumbled across a beautiful clothing boutique owned by a Kashmiri Family. The owner of the boutique uncle Muhammed Shafi Wani had taken an instant liking to me and had refused to take the money for the clothes I wanted to purchase. He gifted me with a beautiful Kashmiri embroidered waistcoat, shawl and jacket. I will never ever forget his sheer kindness and generosity. From that day onward he had considered me to be his adopted South African daughter. To this day we are still in contact and I do hope that I get an opportunity to visit his family home in Kashmir one day God willing.Whilst my adopted father begged us to have a meal at his home in Delhi, we were unable to due to time constraints and hence I did not get an opportunity of trying out Kashmiri cuisine. However, a few months ago I had the opportunity of visiting a Kashmiri family that resides in Kharj, a city located 77km south of Riyadh. The family cooked up a storm for lunch preparing an assortment of savouries as an appetizer followed by Bukhari plaau rice dish and then of course tea and cookies. I was however in for a surprise when my beautiful host with green almond shaped eyes served me tea. I was expecting normal five roses chai. To my amazement the tea that she had served me looked pink in colour and when I took a sip I found that the tea tasted salty. I was under the impression that the lady of the house has made a huge blunder by adding salt in the tea instead of sugar. After enquiring, I then discovered that she had actually made for me traditional Kashmiri Noon chai. Noon does not refer to the time of the day but rather Noon is the Kashmiri word for salt. According to wikipedia,noon chai is made from special tea leaves, milk, and salt. A pinch of baking soda is added to help give it a pink color. It is prepared with pistachios and cardamom and is consumed primarily at special occasions, weddings, and during the winter months when it is sold at many kiosks. Salt has antibacterial and antiseptic properties and thereby assists in preventing throat infections which tend to develop during the cold winter months. This is the rationale behind utilizing salt in the tea. Needless to say after having two sips of the tea, I just could not manage to gulp the tea down my throat. I did n't like the taste at all and apologized to my hosts for my lack of etiquette. Luckily, they were warm and understanding and so the lady of the house offered to make me a cup of normal tea that I of course thoroughly enjoyed on a cold winters afternoon......
http://www.lifensuch.com/noon-chai-salty-tea-pink-tea-kashmiri-namkeen-chai.htm - Picture
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