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Maharashtra has more to offer than batata vada and missal
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Wednesday, 01 June, 2005, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Gauri Rane, Mumbai
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Indian food is as enriched as the country's culture and as diverse as its people. One can say that just as each Indian state has its traditions and customs, each state has unique food habits.
We all savor the distinct taste of Punjab's Dal Makhni and Gujarat's Oondiya. Today, crossing the barriers of our diversity we have learnt to not only try out but also appreciate delicacies of different states.
After treating ourselves to the exotic international food and desi ghee dishes of local tastes we shift our focus closer home to Maharashtrian cuisine. Maharashtrian food, like other Indian foods, has its own taste. It possesses its individual taste, though each region in Maharashtra has its own kind of cuisine.
Anantashram at Girgaum, a well known restaurant has been catering to Mumbai's tastebuds for 75 years is. Their speciality is non-vegetarian Karwari food.
The sparsely furnished fish restaurant has for decades served fried pomfret, ' teesrya suke' and sol kadh' to a list of prominent Mumbaikars. Celebrities like Asha Bhosle, Shobha De, Rashmi Uday Singh, Nana Patekar, litterateur Jaywant Dalvi, cricketer Dilip Sardesai and the legendary Busybee have been regular visitors. However, the Saraswat joint is in the throes of an existential dilemma as the percentage of Marathis continues to register an alarming decline in Girgaum.
Viva Paschim at Worli, Mumbai, the upmarket Maharashtrian restaurant, provides a wide-range of Maharashtrian cuisine. The restaurant hosts monthly festivals that bring forth characteristic tastes of Kolhapuri, Puneri, Saraswat and Marathwada food. Vivek Bhanushali, Managing Director, Viva Paschim Bhanushali, says, "We provide traditional Maharashtrian food. Our menu includes both non-veg and vegetarian dishes." He adds that Maharashtra has exclusive desserts like kharvas, kheer and seasonal desserts like aamras during summer.
R B Naik, Managing Director, Gajalee, Vile Parle East, says that as a matter of policy it was decided to establish and maintain high quality standards irrespective of the cost incurred and effort involved in its upkeep. As a result today food lovers consider Gajalee synonymous with costal delicacies of Maharashtra. Gajalee's Clam Koshimbir, Tandoori Crab and Sol Kadi are very popular with the customers.
There are different spices that give the characteristic taste to Maharashtrian food. The spices used in Chicken Kolhapuri are different from those used in Malvani Chicken.
The food at Gajalee, the restaurant, which is listed amongst the top 100 restaurants in India, gives a different taste than the food at Viva Paschim. The food in Gajalee is cooked in spices that have coconut as their base, where as one can devour chicken cooked in White Sauce - a speciality from Kolhapur at Viva Paschim. For this dish, we do not use red chilli, instead we use pepper and whole spices, says Bhanushali.
Variety in spices for instance garam masala, black masala, curry masala, green masala (made fresh just before cooking) and onion-coconut masala add flavour to the cuisine,. The list does not end here, along with all those mentioned, there is special tea and milk masala and one especially for rice preparations.
Bhanushali, however, does not agree that customers are pulled only to non-vegetarian dishes. "Our veg special, coconut-cashew dish, is very popular so is bharli vangee," (stuffed brinjal), says Bhanushali.
Shrikrishna Sarjoshi, owner of Aaswad, Dadar, echoes Bhanushali's views. Sarjoshi started out with popular Maharashtrian dishes like batata wada, kothimbir vadi and thalipeeth. After serving its customers for 6 months Aaswad introduced its Marathi meal menu, vangi bhat, usal, misal pav puri-bhaji now catered to customer's meal times. They also brought to limelight traditional Maharashtrian beverages like piyush, kokam sherbet and seasonal Maharashtrian beverage 'pannah' which is made from raw mango pulp.
In addition to the meals and snacks the list of mouthwatering, spicy hot chutneys also is long and appealing. Green coriander chutney, peanut chutney, coconut chutney and the famous garlic chutney.
Bhanushali says that there is more to Maharashtrian food than batata vada and missal, it is just that people are hesitant to explore the vastness of regional cuisine. Sarjoshi agrees with Bhanushali that both customers and restaurateurs are sceptical to experiment.
But with so much of variety and flavour in the offing, it's time that patrons moved on from missal and vadas as there is more to Maharashtrian food than that.
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