| RAILWAY FOOD | | | | Northern, North-Eastern and NF railways I think, where |
| NOSTALGIC MEMORIES | | | | many trains did not have dining cars. |
| By | | | | Even the railway refreshment rooms at stations |
| VIKRAM KARVE | | | | served unique railway cuisine. At Churchgate in |
| When I was a small boy I travelled extensively all over | | | | Mumbai, the Mezzainine Floor food stall served |
| India by trains, and one thing I looked forward to during | | | | delicious meals and snacks and so did the old world |
| my journeys was the delicious food, the distinctive | | | | Refreshment Rooms at Chennai (then Madras |
| Railway Cuisine served in various restaurant and dining | | | | Central), Mumbai CST (then VT), Old Delhi, Howrah, |
| cars on prestigious trains and in railway refreshment | | | | Lucknow, Kalyan and Pune, where one could relish a |
| rooms. | | | | hearty English Breakfast with cornflakes et al. And |
| Unfortunately today one gets "standardised" packed | | | | there were many tiny refreshment rooms like in |
| food - the inimitable exciting dining experience sitting in | | | | Igatpuri and Daund where one could hop in for a quick |
| restaurant cars each serving unique cuisine has | | | | mutton biryani while the engines were being changed. |
| disappeared and now-a-days one has crowded | | | | And how can I ever forget those nostalgic food |
| pantry cars where they only cook and pack insipid | | | | memories of a quaint railway station called Rampur |
| cold food and one cannot sit comfortably at the table | | | | Hat on the Sahibganj Loop of the Eastern Railway |
| and enjoy a relaxed freshly cooked hot meal. | | | | way back in the 1960s. I remember the best thing |
| I vividly remember the delightful eating experience in | | | | about Rampur Hat Railway Station was its |
| the restaurant cars of the famous 1Dn/2up Calcutta | | | | Refreshment Room - in fact the Railway |
| Mail via Nagpur watching the picturesque scenery | | | | Refreshment Room was the best restaurant in town |
| pass by through the large open windows. I think this | | | | in those days and the only decent one where one |
| restaurant car had the best menu – a variety of | | | | could go with families. |
| meals and the choicest of a la carte dishes, and even | | | | Two important trains halted for meals at Rampur Hat - |
| an impressive English Style full Tea Service albeit in | | | | Darjeeling Mail [Sealdah to New Jalpaiguri] and Upper |
| typical Railway thick white crockery. | | | | India Express [Sealdah to Delhi], and while the travellers |
| How can I forget those hot nourishing cutlets, baked | | | | enjoyed their meals the Steam Engines got topped up |
| beans on toast, and delicious omelettes in the Deccan | | | | too. I wonder how Rampur Hat Railway Station is now |
| Queen looking out of the windows at the magnificent | | | | and if the Refreshment Room is still as famous as it |
| picturesque spectacle of the lights of Khopoli twinkling | | | | was then. |
| far down below from the misty Western Ghats, or the | | | | The days of delicious unique railway cuisine relished in |
| fresh piping hot Thalis in GT Express, and the | | | | deluxe environs in a relaxed unhurried way sitting |
| wholesome continental meals in the dining car of the | | | | comfortably in restaurant cars enjoying the picturesque |
| Frontier Mail as the magnificent train sped past the | | | | scenery through the open windows along with your |
| plains and the deserts towards Delhi. Some Metre | | | | food is a thing of the past. |
| Gauge trains had "Royal" dining cars too, where one | | | | Today one has to eat insipid characterless "sanitized" |
| enjoyed a leisurely meal, vibrating Metre Gauge style, in | | | | foil-packed standardized food in claustrophobic |
| the unhurried ambiance. | | | | environs of your berth - the glorious days of the |
| I recall that many important trains on the Southern | | | | "Railway Dining Experience" are long over. |
| Railway and South Central Railway did not have dining | | | | Will some readers be so good as to comment and |
| or restaurant cars, but delicious hot food in ceramic | | | | recall for all of us theirdelightful "railway food" dining |
| cutlery was served in your compartment from the | | | | and eating experiences and tell us of the varied |
| excellent refreshment rooms of stations [like Mutton | | | | railway cuisine of the "good old days"? And please |
| Madras Curry and Rice from Erode, Salem, Jollarpettai, | | | | share your latest delicious yummy railway food |
| and the tasty spicy lip smacking Chicken Biryani from | | | | experiences. |
| Guntakal, Cudappah, Vijaywada and Waltair]. You | | | | Happy Eating [the next time you travel on a train or |
| could eat the piping hot food unhurriedly as the cutlery | | | | even while you nostalgically travel in your Mind's Eye] - |
| was taken away at the next station since trains halted | | | | and do tell us about your mouthwatering memories of |
| every hour or so, then. It was the same was with the | | | | railway food. |