- Check it out, guys.
It's Trevor James.
We are in Amritsar, North India, at the Golden Temple,
the world's largest Sikh temple.
It's absolutely stunning, made of gold.
And here, it also has the world's largest community kitchen,
and that's what we came for.
It is just breathtaking.
I can't believe we're here.
We're gonna go check it out.
Enter the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, India.
Here in Amritsar, you can find
tons of specialty street foods,
all shown in part one of our Amritsar street food series.
But today, we're visiting the world-famous Langar kitchen
where up to 100,000 people are served per day.
You're gonna be blown away just as we were
with the incredible scale and heartwarming feel
that you get as soon as you enter the temple.
But first, before our journey into this amazing
volunteer kitchen, let's take a look
at the incredible entrance and the kurta pajama set
that we chose to wear to enter with.
So we're just getting outfitted
before we go into the Golden Temple.
We have the kurta and the pajamas,
and we're just gonna get the turban here.
And then we can go in and enjoy the Golden Temple.
After a quick measurement and a cutting,
my beautiful crimson red turban
was ready for the wrapping experience.
We're just getting the full turban setup
before we go into the Golden Temple.
It's gonna be great.
This is just amazing, getting a full turban.
You gotta cover your head to go into the Golden Temple,
so I figure we might as well do it the full real deal here.
Instead of just getting a bandana, we're going full on.
Awesome.
Thank you for helping me get this set up.
Yeah, very nice.
Thanks so much.
I think we're ready to go to the Golden Temple.
We have come to the most famous Sikh temple in the world.
And today, it's gonna be
an amazing experience full of worshipers,
and we're going to the world's largest community kitchen.
Just look at this.
Look at the energy.
And it is, I have just been
looking forward to this for so long.
This is just the most beautiful entrance to a temple.
Thousands of worshipers come here, and there is a free meal
for everybody regardless of your beliefs.
Before you go in, you gotta walk through the bath
to cleanse your feet.
It's absolutely stunning.
Wow!
And you can see the Golden Temple in the back.
It's absolutely stunning here.
It is just so stunning here.
The Golden Temple is over there.
It's breathtaking.
And this temple complex has, I heard it has four gates.
And it symbolizes that you can be from any believe system.
It symbolizes secularism.
You can come here.
You can come to the community kitchen and get a free meal,
and that's what we're doing today.
So before you go in or after you come out
from the main Golden Temple, you can get this right here.
Karah prashad.
Thank you.
Wow, look at that.
That is karah prashad.
Look at that.
That is like a wheat pudding, roasted.
It should be fairly sweet, and you can eat that
either after or before you go into the temple.
It is a holy food.
And he just gave me a huge, huge portion there.
Mmm, oh.
It actually tastes like there are some walnuts,
maybe some almond in there.
It's very sweet.
It has a whole wheat, very healthy feel to it.
Really nice, right in front of the Golden Temple.
It doesn't get any better.
It is just so stunning here, beautiful.
There's no way you can describe the feeling
when you walk in.
You just get this serene, calm,
as you come into this Golden Temple complex.
It is unbelievably beautiful.
It is completely amazing.
And it's just something you have to experience for yourself.
Right up here is the entrance
to the world's largest community kitchen.
This is gonna be a truly amazing experience.
After a quick walk through to entrance to the dining room,
we discovered the back kitchen and its many compartments.
Each dish had its own room or building,
with the dal lentil stew having its own building
with insanely massive pots of dal cooking with firewood.
There was another chapati room, and the cleaning in another.
And you can visit all the rooms just as we did
and watch the splendor and generosity of the locals
all volunteering to cook for the tens of thousands of people
that visit here per day.
And on our way to the dal building,
we encountered a school parade on the street.
So we're in the middle of a big street parade
on our way to find where they make all the dal.
Look at this.
(band music)
Cool.
We've got a couple of guys.
Everyone volunteers here at this beautiful temple,
and we've got a couple of guys
showing us where they make the dal.
Oh, wow, it's massive.
Is this the dal?
- [Man] Yeah.
- Huge!
This is massive!
And look at these huge cauldrons.
This is all dal.
It is absolutely hectic in here, and there's just basket,
there's just pot after pot of dal coming out.
And this is where you make the dal here.
Look at all the lentils.
This is crazy.
Different types of lentils for the dal.
Dal.
- [Man] Oh, dal, dal.
- Dal.
It's good?
It looks really good.
These are so big.
These are just huge.
Come take a look at this massive cauldron of dal.
It's huge.
Okay, we're gonna come over here.
It is absolutely hectic.
This is the biggest community kitchen in the world,
and you can see why.
These cauldrons are just unbelievably big.
For me?
Can I help?
(chuckles) Look at this.
Look at this.
It's all dal.
- [Man] Dal, dal.
- [Trevor] Dal.
- [Man] Dal.
- It's huge!
This cauldron is unbelievable.
How many per day do you make here?
How many per day?
One, two, three?
- Two, two.
- [Trevor] Two per day.
One lakh people per day, one lakh.
- Oh, yes, yes, yes.
- [Trevor] One lakh.
- (speaks in foreign language) Country, country.
- Oh, Canada, Canada.
- 250 kg.
- 250 kg of dal.
This is 250 kg of dal right here, guys.
- Canada, Canada?
- [Trevor] Hmm?
- Canada?
- Canada, yeah, Canada.
- City in Canada?
- Vancouver, Vancouver.
And this is all run by volunteers here.
How long do you mix this for?
One hour, two hour?
- [Man] Two hour.
- Two hours.
You gotta mix this for two hours.
And they're just scooping out
big, big bucket after bucket of dal.
It smells actually really good and healthy.
This is unbelievable.
So nice to meet you.
My name is Trevor.
Nice to meet you.
Thank you.
Oh, wow.
So there's 100,000 people that eat here per day, guys.
And this dal is served with roti, bread, and it's free.
- [Man] My son in USA, California.
- [Trevor] Oh, your son is in California?
- [Man] California.
- Really?
Your son is in California?
- USA, California.
- Oh, California.
Lots of Sikh Punjabi people in the US.
Yeah.
And look over here, a big pot of lentils for dal.
We are making a fresh cauldron of dal right here,
bucket after bucket of lentils.
Unbelievable.
This is just food on an unbelievable scale.
The scale of this production here
is unlike anything you'll ever see.
Is this salt?
- [Man] 10 kg of salt for this one.
- 10 kg, 10 kgs of salt.
So there's lentils and salt.
In one pot, is this how many kg?
- 200.
- 200 kg in here.
And you put a lot of salt in and garam masala?
- [Man] Ah, yes.
- Garam masala, lentils.
It's just bag after bag of salt here.
And this is all powered by wood underneath here.
Actually, my feet are burning
because there's a fire underneath them.
Can I help?
Speechless.
Carry, okay.
All right, here we go.
Okay, we're gonna help carry this.
It's all volunteer run here, and there's a parade outside.
After witnessing the beauty of the dal, we explored
more of the cooking rooms and found a chapati factory
churning out thousands of chapati per hour.
It's insane, the production here.
Oh, yeah, look at this.
Hi.
- Hello. (mumbles)
- Hi, nice to meet you.
- Your country?
- Canada.
This is all for the chapati?
- Yes.
- Look at the chapati.
Oh, yeah, look at this.
It's like a chapati production line.
You can see the chapati dough being pushed out,
and then it goes down this conveyor belt.
And it gets pressed, and then it gets flattened again
into circles, and then roasted in here.
And then you can see here, it's getting roasted.
It's beautiful.
So this is where you pick the chapati up.
- Yes, yes.
- How much chapati do you make per day?
- One minute, you have 60 chapati.
It means every second, one chapati.
- Every second, one chapati.
And there's three machines here.
- Yes, three machines, but now still two running.
- Okay, so everyday--
- This machine, one machine, 3,600.
- 3,600.
- Yeah, and (mumbles).
- So maybe 7,000 per--
- Around 7,000.
- Per hour.
- Yes, per hour.
- Oh, man.
- You want (mumbles)?
- Okay.
Okay, thank you.
Okay, we'll bring the chapati over here, right here.
Okay, we flip it.
Flip?
Yeah, look at that chapati.
And then they cover it in ghee.
Oh, it's fresh!
It has a real roasted smell to it.
Wow, they're so fresh.
They really have that steaming roasted chapati smell.
Oh, it just gives off an amazing aroma.
And you eat that with dal.
We're gonna make our way
to the main dining area in a second.
And there's multiple stations.
Hi.
Oh, fresh chapati.
It looks good.
You can just feel that this whole area
is a place of respect.
Oh, so much chapati.
And these chapati are so hot.
They're burning almost.
They are burning.
Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Thank you very much.
Amazing experience.
Now we're gonna make our way to the dining area
and check it out.
Here we go.
You can just see so many people here enjoying lunch.
All right, we're gonna take a seat and try it out.
Amazing.
So you just put your plate down and wait.
Thank you.
Oh, the rice pudding.
And here is the chapati.
Thank you.
Amazing.
Thank you.
Oh, wow, amazing.
Thank you, very nice, beautiful.
So we have the full selection here in the Golden Temple.
This is just breathtaking.
Look at this.
This is an almost spiritual meal.
We have two different types of dal,
one with lighter lentils, one with darker lentils.
And then we have sabzi which is made of carrots,
peas, and potatoes, and a rice pudding,
and then also that warm chapati that we just helped make
covered in ghee and some radish.
I'm just gonna take some of that chapati
and dip it into that dal with a bit of radish.
Oh, yeah, look at that.
Mmm.
Oh, yeah, that is actually very flavorful.
There's a bit of a spice in that dal and the chapati.
Oh, the chapati has like a smoky crispness to it
with the ghee.
And then I'm just gonna, oh,
and I'm just gonna get a little bit of that sabzi.
That is pure energy right there.
This sabzi is like a healthy, slightly spicy stew almost.
That gravy on there, you can taste the turmeric
mixed with that ghee-coated chapati.
It truly is heaven.
This is one of those meals that you'll always remember.
Out of respect, we aren't gonna rate the food here.
But instead, we'll rate this experience a solid golden 10.
You can come here to Punjab in Northern India
to experience incredible kindness and openness,
and not only at the Golden Temple but all throughout Punjab.
It's one of those experiences you'll always cherish.
And through the food here in Amritsar,
it's the best way to do it.
That really was a once in a lifetime
spiritual food experience.
Thank you so much for watching these food and travel videos.
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