Place: Kitchen of the Langar Hall

Langar is the communal meal at the Sikh temple. It’s provided for free to anyone that wants to eat, and it’s entirely run by volunteers. Every day this temple feeds 20,000 people!

One Sikh we spoke to said it’s one of the most important parts of Sikhism. It brings people together to a common level, regardless of their religion or socioeconomic status, allowing fordiverse and empathetic conversations.

We volunteered for a bit in the kitchen, though the speed at which we rolled the chapati could not rival that of the locals. They have a machine that automates making chapati from scratch, yet there’s still also people making it by hand because the machine can’t keep up with the high demand.

Food: Chapati

Chapati is pretty much the equivalent of bread in North India. It’s made from the same ingredients as paratha, but you don’t fill it with stuff and you don’t deep fry it. It’s pan seared, then eaten alongside curries. The one in the picture is uncooked - the people in the back are cooking them.