A Cooking Class to Remember

The perfect introduction to the adventure waiting for us

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We stayed at Jhadol Vijay Vilas, a cute little hotel with a colonial architecture feeling. Our room had a beautiful green view of the treetops. The first night, we had scheduled a cooking class at “Lucky Art School” that we found on a blog online. We were on the way, and to our surprise, we couldn’t enter that part of the city by car. So we ended up walking the rest of the way.

Once we got there, we realized it was a family home, and we were hesitant to enter. But the lady was so warm and welcoming that we did. And so the cooking journey began…

First, the kitchen wasn’t a normal kitchen. It was just a plank and an electric stove. They didn’t have running water, just a bucket. Sofia and I looked at each other and said to ourselves, without talking, “Are we really eating here?” Then we said out loud, in Spanish… “Nos vamos a enfermar” (we are gonna get sick!). I do not remember who said it, or if it was both of us at the same time. Then, the lady picked up a rag from the floor and used it to wipe down the countertop. At that moment, I thought we had made a terrible mistake booking this cooking class.

But the lady was so nice, explaining every spice and what made the base of the “masala,” which was turmeric, cumin, and red chili powder. Sofia was taking notes on her iPhone to write down the recipe. While she was cooking and we were kind of helping, we couldn’t stop thinking that we would probably have explosive diarrhea after eating what we were about to cook…

After that, she pulled out a bag of what seemed like dried chips. Then she placed them in the cooking pan that had a lot of oil, and pufff!!! The thing became bigger and made a fried snack that resembled a Mexican snack called “viejas,” but in a different shape. She was making many of them, and then her granddaughter approached, a cute little child around 3 years old. The lady gave her one of those things in its unfried form. The kid took it. The lady was cooking, so she wasn’t looking at her granddaughter. Then the kid licked the thing. Then the lady turned around, and the granddaughter handed her the thing. After that, she proceeded to put it in the frying oil…

Sofia and I were astonished, like HOW are we gonna eat this? But we were like, fuck it. If we get sick, we’ll get sick… let’s wing it. We can’t be impolite and rude to these lovely people.

At the end, we had made chai, Alu Gobi, dal (lentils), paneer masala, lady fingers, rice, and roti. We ate it all, sitting on the floor with the lady. I never got her name; that is why we’ll keep calling her “the lady.” I was impressed she was a grandmother. She looked like 35 years old. I bet she was like 40 and already a grandma!

I forget when exactly, but at some point, a cow entered the “house area” through the front door, and they explained to us that she comes once a day to ask for food. They feed her, and she has a name and all!

After that, the lady told us that her husband painted miniature paintings, a local Rajasthan art form that we saw throughout temples all around the region. So they asked us if we wanted to look at some and buy some! We ended up buying a few. They were amazing.

To end our adventure, they offered to have the son give us a ride back since it was dark and not a good idea for us to walk back by ourselves to where our driver was waiting for us. So we accepted. Then we saw our ride… a small motorcycle… it nearly fit one person.

I don’t know how, but the three of us ended up riding on the motorcycle. The son driving, Sofia laughing, and I was taking a video with my phone! We couldn’t have gotten a better introduction to our road trip than this “cooking class” on our first day.