A walk to remember - Manek Chowk

2300 hrs when almost every household in Ahmedabad finish watching their series and decide to sleep; every adolescent member grabs the bike keys, picks up his friend and drives straight towards the most flooded place at the hour. To savor his extravagant indulgence of the appetite for food, to temper his sweet tooth, to join the bandwagon of ordering the belly crunching food items and to compensate the dry state edge.  – Manek Chowk.

Manek Chowk is the most famous lane for the Ahmedabad foodies (Amdavadis) in the night. It operates as a jewelry bazaar in the day time and transforms into an open-aired food court in the evening. The place is crowded as the numbers in the Sudoku puzzle with one stall aligned next to the other. People flock the place in their two-wheelers and the face the world’s best salesperson. I can bet the servers/helpers at every stall can sell anything at the best possible price. They don’t need a degree in sales; Amdavadis grow with a chromosomic disorder of sales.

The other night when Dani and I reached Manek chowk to savor the anticipation of delightful hogging, the attack on the Cadbury sandwich was the most assured dunk. Cadbury sandwich – it’s what you call the angels’ delight. A bite of Cadbury sandwich after two long awaited years makes the bread go melt with the strands of cheese layered and the chocolate dip stimulating every sensory organ of yours. Next on, and new to us was the Cadbury Pineapple Sandwich. A layer of sweetened pineapple pieces, layer of Cadbury dip, a layer of shredded cheese and topped with butter – The entire monster calorie formation is known as the Cadbury Pineapple Sandwich. Post pleasing the sweet tooth, we headed towards the awesomest Pau Bhaji, then the Kharek dipped in tamarind extract and last was the Asharfi Kulfi Sandwich. The weirdest combination of an ice-cream sandwich struck the excitement bang and we were gulped kulfi sliced in bread, cheese and buttered on the top.

Special things aren’t Weird, they are Unique.