This is my second post from Varanasi.

The last talked about the animal life. Many of you liked it, and thanks for the feedback!

There are so many things noticeable about here, but the most popular stuff to eat are those which you can get other places, but not with the modifications, the secret touches, that make is so yummy.

Take milk for example. Now would you call Hot milk a popular item? Surely, in our homes most of us have it like everyday. What is the big deal? Nothing except that hoardes of people crowd around shops in Lanka, which is adjacent to the Banaras Hindu University, Asia's largest residential campus. Now why is the crowd willing to wait around 10 mins to have that milk?

The secret is quite simple. The milk is just more concentrated, putting it midway between normal hot milk and kheer. In a huge khadhai, the milk is constantly stirred, letting it concentrate while it boils, and malai forms over it. You can choose your order size, that is a small or a large earthen cup, and he will pour the milk straight out of the kadhai, add the malai to it, and serve piping hot. I am tellng you, if you haven't tasted it, you have missed something.

All over India, people like Bengali sweets, so named because all the sweets made out of paneer have originally, and without any doubts, come from Bengal. With a large population of Bengalis here, you can get superb sweets in Banaras. But what interests me also is an item called Laongalata. Strangely named, but it is actually named after clove. It is a simple preparation again, but you get the heating wrong, or the filling less sweet, and you just make it worthless.

And well the samosas are something you can get all over India, but wherever you live, the tastiest ones are made by people from UP. That is because in any city or town or village, the recipe lives on passed on by generations. There is just that bit masala extra here, a little less there, and that makes all the difference in the filling.

Coming from the south to the north is always stepping one level up as far as cuisine goes. You can talk of chettinad and all that, but those are nothing but more spicy cuisine. Same for Hyderabad, its just that the spices are different from those used in Chennai. The cooks are not satisfied unless you are panting for breath after having their biryani. However, the Nawabi biryani, found in Lucknow and also parts of Benaras, is just superb, and you do not need to hide behind overtly spicing it up. The taste is not to make you reach for a glass of water after every morsel, but rather, for you to wish you could eat more. Bangalore on the other hand, has no cuisine of its own except for some rudimentary attempts at it.

Coming back to Benaras, you are not done here till you have the lassi. You thought the Punjabis make it the best, which they well might, but here its no less. It is just the right sugar here.

And now let me tell you the most popular breakfast time here. What would be your guess? IF you are a journalist like me maybe you get up after 7, unless you are in TV and are in some strange shift. Others among you might wake up at 6. How about having a breakfast at 6? If you are from Benaras or surrounding areas, that is no surprise at all. Stalls of Kachauri-sabzi and Jalebis open at 5.30 in the morning in many areas, and you can spot groups of people having them heartily as you jog through the area. I have never understood the reason though. I mean if you have breakfast at 6, you might be having lunch at like 11? And dinner by 3? That's ridiculous. Even in London, it gets dark by 3.30 pm in the winter, people do not have dinner just then. So I assume people have certain snacks in between. Samosas are welcome always aren't they?