Sadhu Vaswani Indian Food Festival In Closter

Sadhu Vaswani Center
494 Durie Avenue
Closter, New Jersey
201-768-7857

Sunday was the annual Dada Dharshan Mela at the Sadhu Vaswani Center in Closter. If you’re into (spicy) Indian Food, and are interested in Indian culture, this is definitely the event for you.

The Vaswani Center is a Hindu religious/cultural/educational organization so naturally all the food served is vegetarian — there’s no meat in anything (this practice is also done to ensure that all people of all religions attending, with whatever dietary restrictions will feel welcome to eat as equals). Still, the variety was great and the food was all fantastic, made by Vaswani Center members. The traditional dances and musical accompaniment put on by the members was also first rate.

I’ve taken a short video of some of the things I ate plus a few minutes of dancing as well (click for video)

The Mela (festival) tent at Sadhu Vaswani Center.

Sadhu Vaswani and Dada Jarshan Vaswani, the current leader.

Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below to see Indian Food photos.

Get your pickles here!

Various samosas w/chickpea curry (bhatura)

Indo-Chinese Food, Hakka Noodles with Manchurian Vegetables and Vegetarian Spring Rolls with Chili Sauce.

Manchurian Vegetables closeup.

Deep Fried Chili Pepper Pakoras.

Another type of potato samosa.

Chickpea curry for sale

This is a type of seasoned noodle made out of lentils.

Flatbread sold with the Bhatura

Vegetarian fruitcake

Even the Westernized vegetable sandwiches looks pretty good. They had some nice smoothies for sale too.

This is a type of fried bread with another kind of curry for sale.

Curry on Tava closeup.

Masala Dhosa, a thin griddle cooked crispy crepe stuffed with spiced potatoes made out of chickpea/lentil flour with coconut chutney and sambhar dipping soup.

Dhosa filling

Dhosa being griddled.

More yummy fried things.

The Pani Puri table. Pani means water – in this case, a seasoned
water, and puri is the puff pastry shown. You fill it up with boiled
potatoes, chick peas, and “chaat masala” which is a seasoning, then
fill up the liquid (pani) into each puri and eat very carefully and
quickly.

Pani Puri closeup.

The Kashmiri food table.

The Indian-style felafel stand.

Felafel

This is some type of ceremonial food.

Falooda, an ice cream dessert made with noodles, crushed ice, condensed milk and rose syrup and rose flavored iced milk (kulfi)

The Falooda table

Falooda closeup

These kids are pouring a sweet saffron and cardamom flavored drink made with milk.