MAHARASHTRIAN FAVOURITES IN PANAJI…new outlets keep opening all the time offering piece de resistance batatvada, misal-pau, all kinds of millet bhakri and the quintessential zunka bhakari! No need to go Mumbai nowadays!
By Tara Narayan
FUNNY or not funny! At one time I wanted to check up a recipe I’d go looking for it in my collection of cookbooks! And now, I turn to Google Encyclopedia which is powered by Internet and may or may not give me my answers. And so then where are my books, I hunt for the one I want high and low till I find it with a sigh of feeling rewarded as in the old days. How much life has changed from the written word to typewriter to computer to android smartphone in hand, my first robot which I nickname “Ke Po Chi” (roughly busybody in one of the Chinese languages or maybe dialects, Hokkian maybe, or Cantonese, not Mandarin for sure). But my robot in hand Ke Po Chi is not a busybody at all, it just wants to help me as long as I discipline myself vis-à-vis deletions and learn how to master it more and more…which I have no time to do!
I am very basic with computer hardware and software but then my life is almost over. Which brings me back to what I was searching for from Maharashtrian cooking, because I’ve just discovered a very brand new hole in the wall eatery-cum-takeaway for Maharashtrian favorites down town Panaji. I don’t know whether I should promote it here or not but suddenly my mind is flooded with some of my favourite fare from my 30 years of life and times and frustrations in Mumbai that was Bombay when I first came to live there in 1970 as a 20-year-old undecided about what to do with her life.
SAY HELLO TO “THETCHA”
AH, the word I’m looking for – “thetcha!” There’s this young woman called Pallavi and her hubby Mangesh who have just come from Mumbai to see if they can earn some money in Goa retailing such Maharashtrian fare is what Pallavi says is “asli vadapau” served with as asli garlic red and sweetish green chutneys. The vada are not round but flattish ovals and the batter skin can be thinner but these are best Maharashtrian-styled batatvada in town currently and Pallavi fries them for you while you’re there – and if the power goes, she grumbles and says, sit on one of the plastic stools, wait a bit.
If you are from Mumbai-that-was-Bombay you cannot but have a soft corner for the quintessential batatvada or batatwada which you may or may not stuff into a country loaf of baked bread called “pau” (Goa also boasts of poie, unde, katre, etc)…in Mumbai bakeries of old one could find the “gootli pau” — a crustier loaf which the Irani restaurants served as “gootli-maska” with tea or gootli with hot, hot aromatic kheema. The buttered gootli came cut so one could easily dip it in a cup of strong Irani tea and savour the melting of flavors. Gootli pau-chai was poor working people’s breakfast food but the odd discerning rich too relished it!
WHO DOESN’T LIKE BATATVADA?
BUT to stay with my find of last week at this outlet not mentioned till now, I found familiar staple and humble everyday Maharashtriane listed from “wada pav, kaanda bhajji, mirchi bhajji, batata bhajji (papa), kaanda poha, samosa, upma, shrikhand puri, sabdana kichadi, sabudana wada, Kolphapuri missal pav, Kolhapuri cutwada, zunka bhakare, pithal bhakari, bharali wangi bhakaari, wangi bhari bhakari” and more. Do they do “thalipith” I asked and Pallavi replied happily, “Somebody just gave me an order for 50 thalipith this morning and they’re over!”
Thalipith is a hot Mumbaikar favourite, a savoury, ticklish bhakri or roti of protein rich gram flour roasted on a cast iron plate or tava – redolent of a choora of chopped onion, green chilli, ginger and sesame seeds tossed in for more values. Pallavi serves all her bhakri of wheat flour, rice flour or one of the millets like pearl millet (bajra) or sorgum (jowari) with this marvellous “thecha.” Thecha! Goodness, I haven’t eaten thecha in a long, long while and was quite excited by this pounded green chilli, garlic pods, roasted peanuts and salt condiment!
A good thecha is ambrosial and makes many recipes come alive from the various unleavened flatbread or deep-fried batatvada, batat kappa, kaanda kappa, kaanda-poha and other item numbers. But that day of discovery I was only interested in the batatvada without the pau, thank-you! Batatvada should be relished on their own and do keep a tissue in hand to press off the excess oil if any. I have long since given up refined white maida factory bread, although lately I’m checking all the sourdough breads in town which may be simply austerely plain or quite exotic as presented by my various friends who’re under the notion that “sourdough is best for everything and the croissants are loaded with lashings with real Amul butter. Naturally if a croissant is Rs100! Some skinflints will cheat but then butter is a no no in my eating nowadays.
I tell myself if I can give up Amul butter surely I can give up fryums, salts and sugars too! But then I’m a 70 monsoons pass and each day now is a bonus, so…once in a way if I take a shine to batatvada Maharashtraian style with lashings of thecha, why not enjoy it with memories of the past flooding my mind. As I grow older and older I am living more on memories to stay alive than anything else. Except, of course, a few new finds downtown or uptown Panaji…incidentally, I find that “tandoori chai” is becoming popular with students.
TANDOORI CHAI!
AT my new find there’s a small version of a tin tandoor with glowing coal embers in it and a couple of matkena staying hot in it, these are removed and when tea is poured in them, the result is sizzling smoky tea which is poured in glasses and served. I slowly sipped my amber-coloured cup of tandoori chai with its smoky aroma, hot, sweet and very agreeable. Tandoori tea may be found at various places in Panaji and some versions have also gone health-conscious, but I won’t bring them in here this time, another time.
So far I have only tried the batatvada and tandoori chai and on one occasion the “kaanda poha” at my new find but will get to the other things by and by – maybe the “bharleli vangi” if it is not too jazzed up with spicy hot masala. Maharashtrian food can be pretty chilli hot to burn the palate but I find in Goa it tends to be more spiced up, don’t know why. I imagine this is a Kolhapuri influence for Kolhapur is famous for its chilli hot flavors which so many get addicted to.
It would be nice to find a glass of cool “taak” (plain buttermilk) afterwards but milk and curd is really contraindicated during the monsoon months. Best avoid dairy products except perhaps occasionally a piece of the new Amul cranberry chocolate which I recently presented for a birthday, it’s in 100% cocoa and very nice. Give me Amul cranberry chocolate if you love me once in a year only, okay. That’s all it takes to be happy.
This is to say I’ve got the Maharashtrian condiment of thetcha on my mind and will make it at home one of these days to go with ghee-laced phulka or kichdi…use the lighter green chillies and yes, you may also add in some green coriander and a squeeze of lemon juice for more exquisite finer flavors. A bit of thecha can liven up life these gloomy rainy days!