Clip: Special | 3m | Video has closed captioning.
As immigrants from the Indian state of Punjab increasingly join the ranks of truckers in America, “dhabas” – small roadside restaurants – have started popping up along major interstate highway Route I-40. Lidia travels to Bakersfield, California, to try the food, and meet Balvinder Singh Saini, who operates a Punjabi food truck with his wife, Mansi Tiwari, and a small staff of relatives.
Aired: 05/30/23
- When I was driving truck the biggest problem was the food.
Food is not good.
I had my food for six, seven days, I take it from home.
(upbeat instrumental music) - [Lidia] He quit and decided to open his roadside stand to help other truckers eat better.
So what are you making?
- I'm making the paneer stuffing for the paratha.
- The paratha, what's the paratha?
- Paratha is a stuffed bread of North India.
This is onions.
- [Lidia] Ooh, there a lot of onions.
- [Balvinder] Yeah.
Onion is the main source of North Indians.
- [Lidia] And what are you putting in there now?
- [Balvinder] Green chili.
- [Lidia] Green chili?
- [Balvinder] Yeah.
- [Lidia] Black pepper.
- [Balvinder] Yeah.
- [Lidia] He learned to cook from the women around him.
You measure like I do, like this.
- [Balvinder] Yeah.
We have a traditional village-style making system.
There's a black salt.
- [Lidia] Huh-huh.
- [Balvinder] In restaurant you go, you get naans, and all these things are fast, but the stuffed bread or the stuff we do is a slow cooking.
This is garam masala.
- [Lidia] There's 40 spices in here.
- [Balvinder] Yeah.
Many.
Each paratha will take four to five minutes.
We don't do shortcut.
- [Lidia] And now you're going to put in?
- [Balvinder] Paneer.
Cottage cheese.
- [Lidia] Paneer.
Cottage cheese.
- [Balvinder] Yeah.
- [Lidia] Is that fresh cheese?
A young cheese.
- [Balvinder] Yes.
- Looks good right?
It's a wonderful, tasty, Punjabi food.
We have traveled from Bay Area to have it.
- Cultures find their niche and go back to their culture, what they were, and reenact, redevelop, restart, a setting like they remember at home.
Thank you.
Thank you, it looks very good.
- [Balvinder] Thank you.
- [Server] Paneer and... - [Lidia] He wants me to try a bit of everything.
Alright.
Good.
So where do we start?
- Aloo paratha.
Paneer paratha.
Malai kofta, this has nuts in it.
- [Lidia] Okay.
- [Balvinder] It's a nutty, nutty gravy, with nuts.
- [Lidia] I don't know where to go first.
- Put rice on the lentil.
- [Lidia] Put the rice on the lentil.
- [Balvinder] Yeah.
- [Lidia] Ah, okay.
Can I break it?
- Yeah, you can break it.
- [Lidia] Like that?
- Yes.
- I'm following you.
- Welcome.
We are, we eat mostly with hand.
- With hands?
Good.
- Yeah.
I, we eat like this.
- [Lidia] And the yogurt you put here?
- [Balvinder] Whatever you like it, yeah.
- Like this.
Mmh.
This is good.
- Bread, roti, paratha, or rice, whatever you like.
- [Lidia] Okay.
You are a relentless entrepreneur.
But, you know, that's a quality of a lot of immigrants that come to the United States.
Because the United States, if you are willing to do it, to make it happen, gives you the opportunity.
- I have been to all over the world, people who lives here don't know the value of the freedom.
In America.
Once you go all over the world and then you sit, and then you will realize America is the best place.
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To celebrate and the adventures she had making 'Flavors That Define Us', Lidia organizes a potluck-style meal, in Washington D.C., where immigrants, now new friends, share food that is meaningful to them.
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