JOIN USCanadian PM savours Punjabi tadka
Between faraway Canada and French architect Le Corbusier-designed Chandigarh, Punjab’s utterly butterly delicious butter chicken, and its many forms rock, and why not? Its none other than Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper who’s now willing to vouch for this. The rendezvous was a nondescript roadside dhaba (eatery) in the city in sector 28 where Harper savoured the desi Punjabi cuisine late on Wednesday evening .
Well, it was not quite the famous butter chicken, served sizzling hot with vinegar-soaked sliced onions and a dash of freshly squeezed lime juice, but the Punjabi style lemon chicken that scored. The sumptuous butter nan added to the sumptuous mouth watering experience. The supper experience was delayed and short, though memorable, and Harper relished every bit of it as he walked out all smiles. The cone-shaped desi-desert, the high calorie kulfi, too was one of the favourite he ordered. The entire area was restricted owing to security concerns.
In Chandigarh on Wednesday, the Canadian prime minister earlier in the day visited one of the most revered Sikh shrine in Anandpur Sahib, about 85 km from here. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal accorded a rousing welcome to the visiting dignitary and his wife Laureen. They paid obeisance at Takt Sri Keshgarh Sahib and visited the prestigious Virasat-e-Khalsa (Khalsa Heritage Centre).
The visiting Canadian prime minister on his visit to India is accompanied by a high powered 32-member delegation including two ministers Tim Uppal and Baljit Singh Gosal besides eminent personalities from different walks of life especially the Punjabi diaspora settled in Canada.