As part of a walking food tour of Amritsar, Punjab, India, we walked through the kitchens of the Golden Temple, a very sacred Sikh temple. 80,000 people visit the temple each day. Each of these 80,000 people is offered a free meal. The ingredients for the meals come from donations. It's an incredible display of humanitarian spirit!
Volunteers from all walks of life (tall and short, rich and poor, women and men) mix, stir, and boil - and peel and chop tons of onions and garlic. It was a loud and bustling scene.
While the temple has and uses an automated paratha machine, women brush clarified butter on the finished bread. There was a lot of laughter and joy in that room.
The temple cooks 100 kilograms of rice every day of the year, in large, large batches. Interestingly, I only saw men cooking the huge vats of rice and curry.
Visitors from other parts of India (and other religions) are impressed by this generosity - as were we!
Nadia
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