after a quick pit stop in bangalore to meet my parents upon their arrival, we bade farewell to my father and then my mother, sarah, and i flew to surat. my masi — my mother’s older sister — primarily lives in the states but goes back to surat every so often for a few months and happened to be there while we were in india. my last visit to surat was in 2012 and my mother’s was in 2013, so we were both excited to take advantage of the overlap and get back there and spend some time with her.

the main purpose of our visit to surat was for the sisters to have a few days together, and i was especially excited to eat the delicious gujarati snacks that my aunt makes. we mostly stayed home and listened to my mum and masi chatter, which provides hours of entertainment, but we did venture out a few times.

sarah and i went for a walk one morning to the atm; the four of us went for dinner at geetha one night and to sasumaa for a gujarati thali lunch; and my cousin’s friend manisha drove us one evening to dumas beach.

i think we’ll all agree that sasumaa and the beach were the highlights of our time in surat. before our trip sarah and i both read eating india: exploring a nation’s cuisine, and the thali was the best way to try all the gujarati foods we had read about. the food was delicious and we made friends with the servers and had a fantastic time eating until we couldn’t eat anymore.

i had wanted to go to the beach because when i was growing up that was always an annual tradition for my cousin koki and me. we would ride out one afternoon and have snacks while the sun was setting, and i wanted to see what it was like now. the beach itself is much more crowded and there are many more rides and things to do, and we made the most of it. sarah and manisha went for a camel ride, all five of us rode on the mickey mouse train, and we spent some time sitting on the rocks and chatting while watching the sunset. and we capped it off with an assortment of bhajiyas at a roadside stand, which was a great way to spend our final evening in town.

i want to also give a special shoutout to manju masi, my masi’s best friend in surat, who came over one afternoon to say hi and showed up with a frozen container of aamras. aamras has been one of my favorite treats since i was a child, and one of the reasons i loved surat as a child was because we visited in late may or early june which was peak mango season. a january visit means the mangoes aren’t available and i was prepared for no aamras this time, and then manju masi showed up with that container she had made and frozen last summer and i very nearly cried. it was so good, and we finished all that she brought before the end of our visit.

surat for us is a place to relax and eat and take it easy, and that is exactly what we did and it was perfect.

next stop: coimbatore!

xx