“Dud pati” (which is not pronounced “dud” as in “milk dud” and “patty” as in “cow patty,” but rather with soft “d’s” and a “th” sound in “pati”) is a Punjabi phrase which is literally translated “milk leaf.” I like that, but then again the word “leaf” in just about any phrase makes it pleasing to me. At any rate, dud pati is a form of what we now in America know as chai. [On a sidenote, saying “chai tea” is actually rather redundant as “chai” simply means tea, so “chai tea” is just “tea tea,” but I get why people do it]. To make dud pati one literally takes straight milk and adds tea leaves and sugar and boils it into a froth and then pours it into a strainer to serve in cups or glasses. I generally do add a little water, to cut the richness. Even so, dud pati, even when hot can get a skin like in the picture above. One can add cardamom, but it tastes pretty fantastic straight too.
Across from my boarding school for missionary children in Pakistan, was a dinghy little tea shop in which they made sweet, sweet dud pati, where they kept the tea boiling, straining it with a massive strainer for the mounds of soggy tea leaves. A successful day in school was when our class could convince one or more teachers to buy the entire class tea. Real success was when we could first convince them to go sit outside and sit in the Himalayan sun, trying to attend, waiting for the tea shop boy to bring his tray balanced with a kettle and cups.
As a former teacher, I assure you that it would have to be an amazingly successful class to motivate me to purchase chai for the whole lot of students!
Well, David. I do not know how good we were as a class, though our school did have high standards relative to schools here. However, as tea was at the time one rupee a cup, it was not an inordinate expense at least. Sometimes, we would pool our money and buy our own tea.
Oh, and my senior year, my class was the largest in the high school with 13 members.