COLONIAL COOKIES, LAUKI LADDOOS IN DEHRADUN

Four years ago, a small group of heritage enthusiasts from Dehradun started an organisation called Been There Doon That. “The city was being modernised,” says Lokesh Ohri, a cofounder, “so we started conducting walks to help people discover hidden treasures.”

Food soon got woven in too. The walk now starts at Dehradun’s Paltan Bazaar. “When

British platoons began arriving here in the 1850s, they camped here and this market grew up nearby,” says Ohri.

The first dish to be sampled is the green and distinctly Dehraduni lauki ka laddoo at Kumar Sweets, whose family is originally from Rawalpindi in Pakistan.

Like them many people came to the Doon valley and settled here after Partition. Apart from food, some of them sell things like dry fruits, says Ohri.