There is a lot of typical traditional food in Kashmir. Thinking of India and food, rice is the dish that pops to my mind. But in Kashmir – being from Germany, the typical bread country – I relish the many varieties of bread you can find here.
Morning
It starts in the morning with Girda (Tsot), a medium sized flat bread, the perfect size to fit snugly onto a small plate. A gentle golden color on the upper side and blunt beige from below, it is soft and stout in the middle. Long deep lines on the top, formed by the fingertips of the baker (Kandur) is its trade mark. Every neighbourhood has its own Kandur (Baker). It is best to get the breads from the Kandur as they are fresher than when you get them later on in the bakery shops.
People eat it in the morning with tea and sometimes butter and jam on it. My children are convinced, the best way to eat it, is fresh and warm from the bakery, when it is still crispy.
On special occasions you get it with ghee on it and it somehow reminds me of Pizza bread.
Midday
Later in the day around noon you get my next favourite one, Czochwor, a sesame topped bagel. Locals would eat it with their salt tea in the afternoon, but it is also a great snack with salad or just with butter and jam on it. A warning ,this is not a bread to keep, as it gets really hard already after a few hours and then only can be dipped in namkeen chai (salt tea).
Lavaas/ naan is a thin, large, unleavened flat bread, white in color. Often served as a side dish with meals. It has a unique mixture of being crisp but soft at the same time. I highly recommend garlic naan in restaurants.
Especially with your tea:
Another bread for tea would be Kulcha. There exist different kinds of them, that can be divided in two groups salty and sweet.
It is a crumbly, palmed sized bread topped with poppy seeds. The sweet version (Khataie) is normally bigger and can be eaten like a giant cookie with tea.
Travel snack:
The perfect backpacker bread would be Shirmal as it can be stored over long periods (multiple day trips).It is rather dry and crumbly and tastes very good with kehwa (traditional safran tea). Pampore it the town famous for it.
Talking about Kehwa, you must try bakhirkani, a salty puff pastry bread with it. The brother of bakhirkani is the Katlam, a thinner and crispier version of Bakhirkani.
At the end I want to mention the most energy rich bread, the porathe. It is huge! Over 1 meter in diameter and reminds me of poori in India. Most likely you find it outside Sufi shrines served with sweet Halva. You can also just buy parts of it. Make sure you have tissues with you, as your fingers will drip from the oil.
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