Memories of home through a dal sandwich

Take me back to my hometown of Ulhasnagar in India for our community's street-food speciality.

This dal sandwich provides the comfort of home. Source: Bhavna Kalra

I remember a time when I was running as fast as my legs could carry me. I had a sense of urgency that only an 11-year-old can feel when given the mammoth task of buying snacks for the guests who were expected any minute. Holding on to the money that maa had given me, I made my way through the bustling market. It was bursting at the seams with vegetable vendors and small shops selling everything that one could possibly imagine. I somehow avoided the scooters and rickshaws that appeared out of nowhere; I was on a mission to eat.

This was in the small town of Ulhasnagar in the Indian state of Maharashtra, which was home to me for the first 18 years of my life. It was a place that I couldn't wait to escape because there was nothing there to excite a teenager. Built as a transit camp by the British to house soldiers during World War II, it was disorganised and chaotic. Then in 1947, a deluge of Sindhi refugees who were displaced from West Pakistan after the partition was relocated to Ulhasnagar as a temporary home.

I was on a mission to eat.

However, like many immigrants, once the loss of home slowly started to sink in, and they accepted the fact they could never return, this resilient lot began to build a new life. As life began to change, food became the language of love.

Make this dal sandwich yourself. Source: Bhavna Kalra

While there were no fancy burgers or pizza joints, and not even a decent restaurant to hang out in with your friends, there was a lot of street food. 

I was bursting with excitement as I approached the tiny hole-in-the-wall that sold the famous dish called dal (lentil) sandwich. I could almost taste the thick slices of white bread, slathered with butter and coriander chutney. The sandwich was stuffed with an assortment of vegetables, placed on a bed of deliciously creamy yellow lentils and generously drizzled with a variety of tangy, sweet and spicy chutneys. It was always a mouthwatering moment.

I could almost taste the thick slices of plain white bread slathered with butter and coriander chutney.

The thing about small towns is that they each have their own ecosystem. Their culture, people and the way they come together as a community, are unique. The food symbolises this. Ulhasnagar was different to other places and so was its street food, like dal pakwan (a deep-fried flatbread served with yellow lentils) chola patties (crispy potatoes served with chickpea curry), batan papdi (a concoction of button-shaped rusks that are toasted and served with boiled potatoes and raw onions in a tangy broth). There were also sweet gulab jamuns dunked in sugar syrup and the most decadent falooda (vermicelli noodles in milk with ice cream and jelly), gulan jo sharbat (a drink made with dried jasmine flowers) and rice flour papadums called kheecha. There was so much to eat and it was never enough.

Dal sandwich is a specialty of my hometown. Source: Bhavna Kalra

But that day, filled with hunger, all I wanted to do was get a dal sandwich from that shop. I suddenly found the patience to wait in line to place my order and pay with the money I'd protected with my life, before making the short trek back home (which took forever with food in my hands). 

Now, as a 42-year-old who left that small town behind a long time ago, sometimes I find myself missing home. When I do, I can taste that sandwich. I long to wait outside that shop to place my order and to rush back home to share it with those who would probably be waiting for me to return.

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Dal sandwich

Makes 3  

Ingredients

Dal 

• 1 cup yellow moong dal (soaked in 2 cups water)
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• Salt to taste

Sandwich

• 8 slices bread
• 1 potato, boiled and peeled
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 beetroot, boiled and peeled
• Coriander chutney (store-bought)
• Butter
• Salt to taste
• Freshly crushed black pepper
• Amchur (dry mango powder)

Garnish

• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 small tomato, finely chopped 
• Red chilli or cayenne pepper, to sprinkle on the sandwiches 
• Tamarind chutney (store-bought) 

Method

Dal 

1. Wash the dal in fresh water. 
2. In a saucepan, add 3 cups of water, salt and turmeric, and boil till the dal is cooked.
3. Using the back of a spoon or a masher, mash the dal till it has the consistency of thick soup. 

Sandwich 

1. Slice the potatoes, tomatoes, onion and beetroot into thin, round slices.
2. Slather one side of each bread slice with butter and coriander chutney.
3. Place a few slices of the vegetables on top of 4 slices of bread, butter and coriander chutney side up.
4. Sprinkle the vegetables with a little salt and dry mango powder, and cover the slices with the remaining ones (butter side down) to make a sandwich.
5. You can also choose to toast the sandwiches with butter (which is my preference). 
6. Pour some of the dal on a plate and place one sandwich on top. Pour a little more dal on top of this. Repeat for the remaining sandwiches.
7. Garnish with chopped tomatoes, onion, red chilli, dry mango powder and a little tamarind chutney.