'Mini Kashmir' In Pink City: Kashmiri Pandit Sets Up Houseboat Themed Restaurant In Jaipur

If you are in Rajasthan and wandering for good food, then Zarpar (Insisting for food), a Kashmiri houseboat themed restaurant in Malviya Nagar area of Jaipur city is a must visit place for its delicious and mouth-watering food.

Suman Raina, 45, a Kashmiri pandit and owner of the restaurant told Indiatimes that the aim of starting this restaurant is to set up a mini-Kashmir in Jaipur. ¡°Since Kashmir is called heaven on earth and is rich in spices, I decided to promote my own Kashmir at a different place,¡± said Raina who is settled in Jaipur for the last thirty three years.

The restaurant was inaugurated and thrown open for the public on 1st May 2017.

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Raina said it took her over one year to set-up this restaurant. ¡°This is home to those Kashmiris who are in the city and are missing the Kashmiri food. Also, for those who can¡¯t visit there. We ensure a Kashmiri ambience for them here,¡± she said.

¡°Zarpar is all about Kashmiri art, culture and tradition that people have been missing or are unaware about,¡± Raina said.

Best Kashmiri Wazwan Is Here

The restaurant serves best Kashmiri wazwan (a multi-course Kashmiri meal, usually cooked at weddings and other festive occasions prepared from mutton) to its customers. ¡°It is the only restaurant in entire India that provides Kashmir's traditional food, culture, art and handicrafts under one roof. Apart from wazwan, we also serve vegetarian cuisines for the Kashmiri pandits like Dum Aloo, Yakhni and Tchoki Wangan (Khatte Baingan or Sour Brinjals). We serve Rajasthan¡¯s traditional food, continental and Chinese too,¡± said Raina.

Two Parts Of Zarpar

There are two main parts of the restaurant, one is called Deewan Khana (Fine Dine) and another is a houseboat named Pari Mahal. Most of the area of Deewan Khana has tables and chairs but one side of Deewan Khana has a raised platform, where one can enjoy Kashmiri food in Kashmiri traditional style. The floor of this raised platform has Kashmir¡¯s famous Namdas and Gabbas as its flooring. For having food on the raised space, one has to remove their foot wear and sit with cross legs. Pari Mahal is an exact replica of Kashmiri houseboats floating in the Dal Lake.

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One has to cross a brook to enter this houseboat. The interior as well as exterior of Pari Mahal is of the exact look and style of Kashmiri houseboat. The floor is covered with a Kashmiri carpet. There is a waterfall between the houseboat and Deewan Khana and by the side of the waterfall there is a traditional replica of balconies of Kashmir called ¡®Zoona Dub¡¯ which is also used as a selfie point. There is another selfie point where a bench is placed and it is called ¡®Tasveer¡¯, where the guests can click their photos in Kashmiri dresses and jewellery. Interestingly, there is a counter of Kashmiri souvenirs where one can buy handicraft items from copper ware, papier mache, wood carving, dry fruits like saffron, almonds, walnuts, dry apricot, honey and many other items.

What is more interesting about the non-veg lovers is that the restaurant is soon starting serving Kashmiri Harrisa (age-old traditional mutton recipe that is mostly available in winters).

More About Kashmir In Restaurant

All the guests are welcomed with burning of Isband (Burning of harmal seeds to make loved ones sniff its fumes to save them from the evil eye), a popular Kashmir¡¯s culture. The food is served in copper utensils with handmade copper cutlery created by Kashmiri artisans and hands are washed in Tash Naer (a Kashmiri tradition to wash your hands before and after meals). The restaurant has also kept two different kitchens one for cooking veg and another for non-veg with separate cutlery. All the food is prepared with Kashmiri spices.

Kashmiris Get Employment

Over a dozen educated youth are working at the restaurant and have felt like a home there. ¡°I have been working here for the last three years. I have always felt that I am in Kashmir,¡± said Shakir, service head at Zarpar, who hails from the valley's Tangmarg area.

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Surinder, a Kashmiri pandit from J&K¡¯s Kishtwar district who works at the restaurant as chef said, ¡°Being at this place, I have never missed my home and I enjoy working here every day.¡±

Designing Houseboat Restaurant

Mushtaaque Ali Ahmad Khan, a Kashmiri filmmaker and festival director who designed the restaurant said, ¡°Fifty percent of material was brought from Kashmir and rest from Rajasthan. But artists were mostly from Rajasthan only who used their artistic creativity to build it in a beautiful way. This is a complete masterpiece in Jaipur,¡± said Khan.

¡°The drapery, cutlery and furnishing had been specially designed in Kashmir for Zarpar so that people who visit there will feel Kashmir ambience,¡± he said.

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¡°I am thankful to the restaurant owner who had full faith in me and gave me full freedom to work on this project which could bring more creativity in my work,¡± he said.

He further said that working on such a project was a wonderful experience and enjoyed working on it. ¡°I am happy that Zarpar has got many awards too.¡±

What Kashmiris Say?

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A group of three friends- Faisal Chakoo, Tahir Najar and Zubair Farooq who visited Zarpar recently said they had a wonderful experience of relishing the wazwan there. ¡°The range of non-veg food available at the restaurant is not available anywhere else in the country, I believe not in Kashmir too,¡± Chakoo said.

Planning More Ventures

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Witnessing an overwhelming response from the visitors, Raina said that she is planning to open more franchises of Zarpar across the country. ¡°I want to take Kashmir the other parts of the country,¡± she said and signed off.

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