We plunge into tamatar chaat weather in Varanasi.
The days are warm and sticky, like the city’s favourite snack: a soupy bowl of tomatoes and potatoes simmered in ghee, then finished with a flourish of butter and crisp namkeen. I recoil at my first steamy spoonful, wedged between samosa-wielding strangers on a hard, sweaty bench at Kashi Chaat Bandar. The friendly waiters suggest dahi bhalla instead, with lashings of cool yoghurt, and find me a table angled towards their sputtering air-conditioner so I can wallow in its asthmatic puffs of cool air.
I have been drawn to Varanasi by promises of “fortified heritage radish bricks”. BrijRama Palace, set at Darbhanga Ghat, with mesmerising views of the Ganga has just launched a 10-course vegetarian tasting menu. Served at its fine dining restaurant Aangan, this is the 214-year-old fort-turned-palace-turned-hotel’s signal that it can balance contemporary luxury with the responsibilities that come with being a historic property on an iconic ghat in one of the oldest living cities in the world.
The menu, I am promised, also includes a ‘celestial Guardian amuse-bouche’ and ‘Rasmalai tres leches cake’. Tamatar chaat and 45°C weather notwithstanding, I hop on a plane.
Ganga Aarti in progress at Dashashwamedh Ghat in Varanasi
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Special Arrangement
An evening by the Ganga
It is my first visit to the city, also referred to as Benares or Kashi, depending on whom you are talking to. On our first evening, we weave through crowded gullies where the scent of kachoris, fresh flower garlands, and damp earth mingle, making our way to Alka hotel, which offers a spectacular view of the river at dusk. Over tall glasses of chilled thandai, creamy with soaked cashewnuts, we follow the rhythm of flaming lamps as the sun sets and Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat begins.
Ashutosh Choudhary, whose family has run the hotel for generations, points to their century-old bel tree and talks about why he loves Varanasi. “It brings so many people together – tourists, scholars, students, artists… And we have the best snacks: chaat, paan, jalebis.”
Aangan’s new 10-course menu merges local ingredients, traditional and history with contemporary plating
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Special Arrangement
A palace on a plate
Aangan’s 10-course menu, designed to showcase the history of Varanasi even as it pays tribute to the guardians of the hotel, is replete with theatre. As BrijRama serves no meat or alcohol, Chef Devansh Seth and his team get creative with locally sourced produce, pivoting on traditional recipes.
It opens with fire, smoke and a savoury achappam biscuit that looks like jewellery, paired with an emerald flourish of peas and curry leaf. The promised radish bricks are arranged with almost architectural precision and served in a refreshing moat of chaas.
While there are the inevitable dips that come with an ambitious, experimental menu (tender coconut with betel leaf broth, I am looking at you), Aangan is at its best when confident flavours outshine clever technique. Our favourite dish of the evening is a plate of cauliflower croquettes with pickled carrots, unveiled in a puff of deliciously savoury smoke, followed by their take on malaiyo, siphoned into an addictively fluffy cloud of sweetness and saffron.
From Alka, we walk South along the river towards Assi Ghat, pausing to listen to knots of young locals who gather in the evenings to sing, play the guitar, and in one case, the flute. After an obligatory slice of cinnamon-scented apple pie with buttery, bronzed edges at Pizzeria Vaatika, which declares it is ‘India’s oldest pizzeria,’ we end the night at Pahalwan lassi. Served in a matka, it is made from rich milk sourced from the village of Chandauli, then topped with fragrant rose water and deeply caramelised rabri.
Checking into history
The next day, BrijRama Palace’s boat picks us up from the recently built Namo Ghat. Uniformed attendants pour cups of hot tulsi chai as we float past the ghats, including Manikarnika, which shimmers in the morning sun lit by pyres that burn incessantly, day and night.
Docking at Darbhanga Ghat, to enter BrijaRama Palace
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Shonali Muthalaly
The boat docks at scenic Darbhanga Ghat, weaving through devotees taking a sacred dip and swimming children shrieking with laughter as they cool off. I try to photograph BrijRama Palace’s reception committee, led by a man with a magnificent moustache and oversized red umbrella fringed with gold tassels, but, every angle invariably includes freshly emerged bathers struggling into their trousers behind scanty gamchas. As if the umbrella is not theatrical enough, a conch heralds my arrival as I enter the hotel.
The Benares thali featuring dimona and alu dum at BrijRama Palace, Varanasi
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Special Arrangement
At their Darbhanga restaurant we order the Benares thali for lunch, to try local favourites — including addictive khatta meeta kaddu, pumpkin laced with tamarind and jaggery; cumin-scented dimona with green peas; and alu dum stuffed with paneer. Then, as we exult in the complex flavours of juicy local Langda mangoes, served in neat slices at the table, general manager Manish Singh gives us a quick history lesson.
Originally built as a fort in 1812 by Shridhara Narayana Munshi, minister to the Nagpur estate, the property was acquired in 1915 by King Rameshwar Singh Bahadur of Darbhanga. In suitably regal fashion, he installed Asia’s first elevator: a hand-pulled contraption to spare him the steep climb to what became his palace
The Bada Aangan courtyard at BrijRama Palace, Varanasi
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Special Arrangement
Now a 32-room hotel, BrijRama is clearly a labour of love, prizing passion over economics. After Brijrama Hospitality acquired the then dilapidated building in 1994, it took 18 (no doubt expensive) years to restore. “This is a UNESCO-protected site. We needed to get the right sandstone from Mirzapur, and then bring construction material, including 90 kilo pillars via boats and through those small gullies since cars have to stop about a kilometre away,” Manish says.
The interiors, combining sun-soaked sandstone with Makrana marble are assembled with magpie-like enthusiasm: vintage furniture sourced from royal estate sales, Tehkari mirror work, vibrant frescoes and at the centre of it all the Bada Aangan courtyard. Since this was originally a fort, rooms are of varied sizes, with their crown jewel being Varuna Burj, a restored cannon room, which makes up for its diminutive size with a 180-degree view of the Ganga. I wake up to the sound of a flute, which feels suitably cinematic, given the setting.
BrijRama Palace’s Varuna Burj room offering a 180-degree view of the Ganga
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Special Arrangement
Beyond the palace walls
BrijRama’s greatest strength is encouraging guests to view Varanasi as a part of the experience, instead of just closeting them in luxury with a view. Even just stepping out, into Darbhanga Ghat, envelopes you in the city’s rhythms.
We walk everywhere, often late into the night, exploring the ghats. This is how we meet Akiko, who runs the pocket-sized Japanese café 4689 Coffee Roasters, supervised by her sanguine pug, Kushi. We chat with students from Benares Hindu University selling freshly painted watercolours of the ghats to raise money for an exhibition. And at least two passing sadhus greet me as “Lakshmi,” much to my delight.
At the 450-year-old Swaminath Akhara after a class on using the Hanuman Gada
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Special Arrangement
Then, at Tulsi Ghat, we spend a morning at the 450-year-old Swaminath Akhara, where certified strength coach, arm wrestler and self-confessed poet Gyanshankul Singh teaches us how to swing the challenging Hanuman gada. While we struggle with the lighter mudgars, he and his friends gracefully swing wooden and stone versions weighing up to 68 kilos.
Beside us wrestlers in rippling muscles and langots grapple in dark, silky soft mud, which Gyanshankul explains comes from the banks of the Ganga, and is then mixed with “buttermilk, turmeric, mustard oil, alum, sandalwood powder, camphor, lemon juice and Gangajal.” The atmosphere is warm and supportive, especially when Gyanshankul encourages us to follow the workout with freshly fried jalebis and lassi, “to stay healthy“.
Legend says you only visit Varanasi when it calls you. Drawn by an improbable blend of radish bricks, gadas and tamatar chaat weather, I’m glad I answered.
The writer was in Varanasi on invitation from BrijRama Palace
