Fodnicha, vagharelo, vangi baath, bit of everything

22 September 2015 at 22:38

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There are a lot of things which are fixed in my brother’slife, like the food he would eat and the restaurants he will order them from –for the years he lived in western suburbs it was just a veg kholapuri from thesame Udipi. Now, in Navi Mumbai it is veg chili mili from two or three, oneUttarakhandi, and two Udipi restaurants. Nowhere can you find a stable customerlike these days, when everyone wants to experiment with the latest. That iswhere a story of a Food Panda or aZomato becomes irrelevant to the lives of may be at least half the population.Street food, udipis, Iranis have been for long the sustaining forces of thisgreat city. Recently we heard the story of journalist Olga Tellis, who haslived all her live in Colaba without an active kitchen. Apparently she told ashocked Shoba De, her friend, “well no one would run out of food in a city likeBombay”.  We have another seniorjournalist Rafique Baghdadi who has to wake up in the morning and summon a teashop guy from outside for his morning cuppa.
I kept wondering when I read that widely circulated FoodPanda story and the front page Zomato interview, are these things so big andintegral to our lives, to the economy that they are such big news. When did ourpapers do an in depth investigation like that into an insider trading story…sorry, I am getting old, let me move on to the “food” and not get stuck toPanda’s who don’t deliver.
I was thinking about the aggregators, all the bloggers andall the food when I went for a proper dinner outside. I don’t eat out much andit has become very rare over the years, also the food restrictions that havecrept in over the years keeps most food out of my orbit. I read about aMaharashtrian food festival of traditional recipes, all vegetarian and in NaviMumbai. So, I decided to try it out. My brother protested, what Maharashtrianfood, what will you have “poha” he screamed. Finally, we had to let him go andjust his wife, a Punekar and me Madarasi went to eat – she was so disappointed.What is special she asked. moong dal usal, drumstick amti, masala baath,sabudana vada and a kheer which was something like Kerala’s ada pradaman, andthe equivalent of the ada was translated as pasta. She totally dismissed thebharli vangi, said you should come to Budhwar peth, would get better stuff. Iliked the meal overall though there wasn’t anything exciting in it, for it wentmild on its masala and not even a tinge of garlic anywhere.
But, as ever I come back to my kitchen for the mostenjoyable meal! Decided to keep the foodon Ganesh Chathurthi simple as I decided to make kozhukattais. Chopped half abhartawala bhaingan, roasted a mixed masala of bit of cinnamon stick, half a bayleaf, bit of saunf, chana dal, akka daniya, red chillies in a spoonful of til tel. Ground the masala with little coconut, and added to the bhaingan roasted,cooked in oil with a tadka of mustard, urad dal, hing and curry leaves. The headyaroma of the cinnamon stick and other masala wafted in the air. Added steamedrice to it and it was really yummy. Simple cucumber pacchadi, the way ammamakes it, grinding cucumber with green chillies, coconut and mixing with curd, add chopped hara daniya and mustard, urad daland hing tadka. Easy, fast to make, absolutely aromatic and sumptuous lunch. Noworries then about failing Pandas, disappointing food festivals.