An average kashmiri wakes up to first drink tea or it would be appropriate to say eats bread-ish with the tea. The tea is noon chai which means the salty tea. First tea leaves are boiled with water to make a concentrate, which is done usually a night earlier which last for a day. Then when you want to drink it you would add milk, salt and boil it. It is pinkish in colour. My personal experience with it is more the milk more it tastes good until a threshold. You would drink it with roti or any form of bread. Dip and eat or throw it all in and then eat with the help of the spoon are the two options. My personal favourite is when you add rotis and just a bit of more milk into the noon chai boil it and eat it. It isn't even comparable to usual way of eating it, Kashmiris for some reason don't eat tasty food.

Traditionally noon chai is prepared in a special copper utensil called samawar, which is a kettle shaped utensil with a circular pipe going through middle in which burning charcoal is added to cook and keep it warm. It tea has a smokey flavour. Its not used now on a daily basis. Its hard to operate only feasible in large joint families which are now non existent. Although it continues to be used in weddings.

Then it's followed by a sugar tea session usually between 10-11am. Kashmiris always eat bread-ish with their only two tea types. Same story here but don't boil or anything. It's usually one cup only. It can be skipped. I don't personally even like it.

Usually at home amoung the things that you eat with teas you would only make rotis at home. Rotis are made using three general varieties of flours namely: wheat flour, rice flour & corn flour. The rice and core is cultivated locally. Generally in both urban and rural areas people will cultivate their basic needs. This includes vegetables, rice, corn, fruits and oil. Provided you have land which most possess because land redistribution was recently done in 1950's.

Rice makes "tumle tsotchi" (lit. rice bread) that is same as the dosa. Traditionally food was cooked on fire. A special pottery utensil was used called "kres" on which you would you would cook the dosas. The other ones called maed tsotchi (wheat) or makaie tsotchi (corn) are generally cooked on a pan. They have chapatti like texture. They are first mixed with water to create dough they shaped into thin circular discs then baked on the pan. Little bit of ghee might be added to help it cood. Several hot dosas with hot noon chai on a snowing day is unbeatable especially when your mom is cooking food outside because electricity has faulted in the shed which has a fire cooker and is without proper walls through which you can see the tiny flakes of snow comming down but you perceive you are going up. A feeling i feel heavens will feel like.

The traditional breads we buy from outside are from the kandur a local baker who bakes tsotchiwor, aapetsot, lawas, kulchi, girda, shilmar, bakerkhanis, khanatsot etc. Typical kandur will only have first three or first four. Others can be bought from main bakeries. Tsotchiwor and aapetsot is made on the walls of the drum like oven. Tsotchiwor is small and thick doughnut shaped although without the hole going through. Its only a deep indent from top side. Aapetsot is pizza shaped with finger indents on it.

Then we consume rice at lunch. The zuhr azan marks the time. Boiled rice which is traditionally cooked by first washing the rice then boiling it with some water until a time. Then removing the water and then it's left to cook on a low flame until it's cooked. One funny word used particularly in some parts of north kashmir is batae motor which means rice motor and refers to the rice cooker. The rice is a new variety which was introduced by Sheikh Abdullah which gives more rice. I am on expert in anything a lame way of mine is trying to describe it using a comparison with rice that is given the government ration shops. It is a subsidy system. The local rice is something that you could eat with cooking and actually tastes good. As kids we would mix sugar with it and eat it as a snack. Not many times as the older ones have done. But the indian rice is bitter and has almost no flavour. It is generally consumed by poor and those who want to loose weight.

Kashmiris eat a heavy serving of rice. It is eaten alongwith cooked vegetables called suin. Suin includes the occasional meat but daily meat consumption is something very few can afford. Kashmiris eat meat on weekly or monthly basis as per their financial condition.

The vegetables that Kashmiris consume include collards, onions, carrots, radishes, turnips, peas, tomatoes, cauliflowers, cabbages, bottle groud, patatoes, eggplants (aka : brinjals, aubergines), beans, dals, spinach, pulses and many others. The general method is to first fry the vegetables in a heavy amount of oil then adding water, salt, kashmiri chilli powder, cardimom and optionally other spices. The Kashmiris eat rice with siun by adding siun to their rice filled utensil. They eat using their right hand.

Kashmiris have usually a collection of zinc-coated copper utensils. A set of cooking degs, few thal ban (rice eating utensil for men), few kenze(rice eating utensil for women), few donge(traditional siun storing utensil), few trami(a large place in which four people eat from four sides) are basic. A style of these copper utensils is kandkaer in which utensils have handmade indented designes upon them. It looks fire.

The vegetables are also dried for consuming them in the winters.

Vegetables generally are cooked solo or in pairs or triplets. Potato-onion, collard-potatoes, brinjal-tamato, dried bottle gourd-razma just to name a some.

The milk or curd might be added also eaten mixed with the rice.

The paneer, meat and eggs when available are added to the suin after frying them. Boiled eggs are also first fried.

The meat includes chicken meat, mutton and beef. The beef was banned ceremonially as part of a wide demonstration of hindutva domination in the Union of India described in constitution of india as the Union of unbreakable states. Alas, Indians got such leadership. Beef is found everywhere in Kashmir especially after 1990's when Kashmiri Hindus were kicked out by militant outfits. I am not supporting that.

Pickles (anchar) is also sometimes consumed. It is generally pickle of carrots, radishes and collards.

Then around 4 pm noon chai is consumed again. The dinner is same thing as lunch. Lunch is mostly consumed after the Isha prayers.

In Ramadan the rice is eaten alongwith noon Chai at sehri (just before the dawn) and then the fast is generally broken with dates or babri tresh. Also a sweet pudding called ferin is consumed. Its milk, suji and sugar boiled. Then followed by rice immediately. Then after sometime the noon chai is consumed.

Wazwan is a class of kashmiri cuisine that is consumed by rich and poor middle class eats it in weddings. It's is a series of meat dishes like riste, goshtab, kabab, tabakhmaz, aabgosh, korma etc. Traditionally they are served as siun with rice. In weddings the rice is served at lunch on a trame (a big plate on which four people eat). A lot of meat is added one dish after another. So much that you cannot eat it all so you pack some home. Although not long it was served in a normal quantity but now has evolved into this. Before the escalation of militancy in 1990's the food in weddings was served at night as the dinner. Now alongwith carnivals and cenima halls it might come back. None should come back! Pen off!