Bandit Queens of Pune

Mumbai to me was a noisy city with hot and humid climate, pollution and most of all a place where everyone was busy- everyone was moving fast from cars to even the cows!  In my recent trip to Pune for work I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in a calm green and clean place that is not far away from Mumbai.  This city charmed me and the hospitality of everyone I met is remarkable and so difficult to describe in a sentence. As I was traveling more often in a van, I could see myself passing shopping malls, multiplexes, restaurants and more restaurants, lots of educational institutions, pubs, bookshops, farms, markets, and amazing people…….dressed in a many different ethnic clothes from Gandhi capped guys to a ladies who wore nine- yard saris.

 Talking about saris, the women move fast and easily in their traditional nine-yard saris.  It is a unique way of draping style that dates back to historical period when women are said to have even fought fearless battles dressed in this attire! I have seen the cleaning women wearing the saris with the pleats of the sari, tucked at the waist to facilitate them to do their jobs.  Some very traditional Marathi Brahmin ladies wear the sari with the behind pleats, which are tucked into the waist at the center of backside. The decorated end of the sari is thrown over the left shoulder.   Unlike the 6-yard long sari, one does not need an undergarment to hold the sari in place at the waist.  However, I have seen a few young village girls wearing a shorter version that obviously needed an undergarment. Of course the ladies working in the Pune town etc were wearing jeans and skirts and the churidars.

 As I was getting into the car at the airport, I was surprised to see a lady on a motorbike with almost her entire face, head, neck and shoulders covered with a scarf save for her eyes.  She looked like someone out of a movie – a bandit or a robber.  And it was not just one person - almost about 60% of ladies on motor bikes have their faces covered.  Some even walk the street with their faces covered and they are not Muslims.  After talking to a few people, I found out that these women are covering their faces to protect themselves from the harsh sun (they don’t like to be dark here) and the pollution.  I wonder why only the Pune women are so vain. Personally I also think, covering their faces, also give them the advantage of looking at any hunks on the street! I will call these ladies Bandit Queens of Pune!

 During my trip here, I also noticed a strong support for Anna Hazare, the social activist who went on a hunger strike in Delhi demanding enactment of Citizen Ombudsman Bill. Honestly, up to the point I reached Mumbai, I don’t know who Anna Hazare is.  Families, youngsters, babies, disabled, the elderly and even tourists –many with tri-coloured wristbands or with their faces painted in tri-colours or wearing “I am Anna” white caps - all of them were standing holding hands making a long human chain against the anti-corruption protest.  I would have joined the group too if not for the fact that I was in Pune outskirts for work. I feel lucky to be here and I felt the vibrations of the people when the news was announced on TV and radio that the Government has accepted Anna Hazare’s conditions and that subsequently that he had broken his fast.  Well done Anna Hazare.

I had a chance of eating at an ‘old world’ restaurant run by a sweet elderly man.  Mr. Chandrakumar Baldota owns a small restaurant cum hotel Farmers’ Inn on the Pune Solapur Road in Pune.  He has been running it for many years.  His breakfast special on the day I went was thalipeeth a flat bread cooked on the iron griddle and bursting with flavours and healthy nutrients. It is quite a Maharasthrian tradition to use ‘bhajani’ flour.  This is a flour ground out of mixed grains like rye, millet, corn, wheat, sorghum, buckwheat, a couple of types of dry roasted dhall.  This multi grained flour is combined with chopped chilli, coriander leaves, chopped mint leaves, pinches of coriander, turmeric and cumin powders and some chopped onion is combined and kneaded to a fairly soft and delicate dough, and left to ‘mature’ for 30 minutes and then rolled into balls.  The tips of the hands are used to pat the dough into a flat round shape and a few small holes are made on it.  This is so that drops of oil or ghee can be drizzled in to cook the thalipeeth more evenly. It is cooked on both sides till lightly crisp and golden and served with buffalo milk butter or ghee and curd.  At Farmer’s Inn I was also served a Coconut Garlic Chutney and Sweet Lime Pickle.  Besides thalipeeth I was also served hot of the fryer, Batata Vada.  This is mashed potatoes with sprinkles of chopped coriander leaves and salt, shaped into patties, dipped in chickpea batter and deep fried till golden brown.  It was served with a mint and coriander chutney and fiery hot garlic chutney.

Chef Shashish and his wife Chef Avanti, a culinary teacher at the local catering institute took me to a Gujarati thali restaurant.  It was truly an enlightening experience.  The restaurant PANCHAT VATI served more than 20 dishes including 3 chutneys in a thali.  I wished I could just go on eating especially the so heavenly sweet Puran Poli. As soon as we were seated, huge stainless steel platters with small metal bowls were placed in front of us.  The restaurant was full of happy looking people – who will not be happy if they were served with food that you just cannot find fault with!?  The meal started with snacks and savouries like white soft and fluffy dhoklas, samosas, pickles and chutneys and salads.  In quick succession, the vegetable dishes followed, with a couple of dhall dishes, hot phulkhas just out of the stove, the semi sweet kadi, roasted papadums, and another Indian sweet were served by light footed waiters.  You can repeatedly ask for more of your favourite dishes and you don’t have to pay for that extra serving. The thali served here is delicious, value for money and considered to be the best in Pune. The highlight was the puran poli that was served dipped in a container of pure ghee. I have never eaten puran poli like that let alone eaten anything dipped is such sinfully delicious home-made ghee! The puran poli is literally a stuffed chapatti with a sweet filling of channa dhall.  I would think that the best puran polis must have a very thin covering, filled with a smooth sweet filling and cooked on the griddle just right to give the perfect texure.  Important thing to note – if you want to eat and enjoy a good puran poli, forget about the calories, eat it drenched in ghee otherwise forget about eating it!

 Over the 14 days in Pune, my colleagues indulged me with many Maharashtra  specialities.  Vishwas, the food technologist asked me to try Sabudana Kichidi that his mum has made.  Although I have eaten this once in Singapore, the one that I tried in Pune was simply the best. Apparently the sabudana kichidi is served on fasting days.  Medium sized sago is soaked in water, drained and sauted in spices and diced pieces of boiled potatoes and then combined with roasted ground chilli powder and roasted peanuts. As Sago tends to be starchy, the trick lies in making the khichdi in such a way that it doesn't stick together and become a clump and so therefore Vishawa’s mum made it well.  One day, my young friend Vishwas passed me a plate of Bhakris. He explained that this is a typical sorghum flour flat bread made in most homes in the villages. Again, this dough is shaped into a round flat, thin circle and cooked on a hot plate. I guess because sorghum flour gluten free, it must have been tough to shape it well.  But I guess his mum is an artisan bread maker in her own way as the bread was well puffed too despite the fact that these kind of breads don’t need baking powder or yeast.   I wished I had more time here in Pune so that I can learn the art of making these almost ‘dying’ skill of making bakri. By the way sorghum is supposed to have more antioxidant properties than blueberries and eating sorghum daily as part of the diet helps to lower cholesterol levels and promote heart health by keeping platelets from sticking together to form a clot.  Singaporeans should have more of these grains!

Young and pretty Chef Sandhya brought me kharavas one day and happily watched me as I was eating it. Kharavas is a chilled sweet milk pudding flavoured with saffron, nutmeg and cardamoms. It tasted very much like a milk pudding that I have eaten in Sweden many years ago.  Chef Sandhya explained that the pudding is made of lactating cow’s milk. Apparently it is prepared by the first three days milk from the cows that gave birth to calves. This milk is also known as colostrum. She said her regular milkman will give them this milk whenever a calf is born in the farm.  She explained that the thick colostrum is flavoured with sugar, saffron and cardamoms and then steamed, cut into squares and served cold.  Research shows that colostrum is extremely healthy, since it contains high amounts of casein and immunogens.

Chef Prashant told me one day about a famous shop in Pune called Chitale Bhandhu that was very famous for not just their sweets but also Bhakarwadi.  His description sounded like a fried pinwheel of some sort.  Anyway, one morning, we trouped into Chef Shashish’s house for coffee and there Avanti served us the much talked about bhakarwadi. Diverting a bit, one morning Avanti had sent some Sooji Sheera for me to taste since I expressed that I felt like eating it. As I was eating it, several other dishes came to my mind – the rava kesari, the Tamils make at home with either saffron or yellow colouring and the sooji halwa my Punjabi friend makes with a bit of chopped pineapple in it.  Avanti’s seera was so deliciously tempting and I even had the last bit scrapped into a bowl for dinner.  She had used jaggery that gave a nice caramelized feel to the sweetness and it was delicately flavoured further with ground cardamom and although lots of ghee had been used, I was just blind to it.  The fine semolina she has used was cooked into individual granules instead of clumping together. Well done Avanti.  Back to bhakarwadi - It is a popular spicy deep fried snack from Maharashtra.  Incidentally, Bhakarwadi is a Village in Koregaon Taluk in Satara District in Maharashtra.  I am sure this snack must have its origin from this village. For me bhakarwadi is like deep fried pinwheel filled with dessicated coconut, chilli, spices, fried fine murrukku, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, chopped coriander leaves, sprinkled on thinly rolled pastry either made of channa dhall flour or plain flour or even spring roll sheet and then rolled into a tight roll.  These rolls are steamed, sliced and then deep fried until crispy. My first taste of it was “it is crispy, fragrant and light but slightly oily”.  Consequently, Chef Prashant brought me a packet of bharwadis that tasted almost like the one Avanti served me but a bit more greasier.

Chef Sandhya, Chef Avanti and Chef Shashish

One evening after work, we all went to eat at the one Pune’s most popular snack shop the Kalyani Bhel and Panipuri House.  There are few branches of this famous brand in Pune. Apparently, the owner used to sell chaat from a pushcart and today he has many outlets. The place was crowded with couples, college students, parents and their children, the old and young. I have always loved pani puris and eating at this Pune outlet, gave me a satisfaction I never had before and I had to tell everyone that this was certainly the best pani puri I ever had in my life.  The number one is the list is – hygiene. This outlet is spotlessly clean with huge stainless steel dustbins and the staff were all in uniform.  The serving counters were clean too.  Besides the bhel and pani puri that they are known for, the outlet also sells sev batata dahi puri, ragada puri, dahi wada and a few other snacks. They also have their own brand of ice creams and kulfis. There are no seats in the outlet as you are supposed to enjoy eating chaats standing. Pani puris are very small almost about 3 cm in diameter small savoury puffs. The weakest side of the puri is tapped to break open a hole. This will help to keep the pani (the spiced water)  inside the puri till you gobble them. The cavity is filled with a spiced diced potato mixture. I have eaten at some places where the puri is stuffed with spiced chickpeas or mung bean sprouts.  The potato is topped with a sweet and tangy tamarind sauce and then it is dipped in a water made of blended coriander leaves, mint leaves, cumin and green chillie and a bit of black salt.  The experience popping a whole filled pani puri into the mouth is simply exhilarating.  The whole thing breaks into the 6 flavours of taste and one can just stand there and continue popping one pani puri after another.  You must build  a relationship or marry a pani puri man to eat this every day!  It took me a while to recover from the pani puri eating odyssey…….I was truly in ecstasy long after eating, still trying to figure out, did they use warm water or cold water……….as I thought I felt a bit of warm in my mint water.  We also tried the bhel puri – large bowls of a combination of different fine fried snacks including murruku, nylon sev, puffed rice,peanuts, friend channa dhall, puffed flattened rice, broken bits of pani puri, chopped coriander leaves, green chilli, cucumber, tomatoes, onions and god knows what other secret ingredients mixed with a dollop of the heavenly sweet and sour tamarind sauce and I had mine with the extra touch of green chillie sauce!

The devil took the order of the day.  After all the gobbling and eating, Chef Prashant managed to seduce me to go and try the Natural ice cream which was so talked about by him. I think he wanted to eat itJ And so we drove to this famous Indiann iconic brand that sells Natural ice cream……….I mean really natural! The flavours are what I call as ‘local’ flavours.  At first we orderd the Musk Melon, Tender Coconut and the popular Sitafal ice creams.  Sitafal is custard apple that India grows in abundance. I know I should not indulge in too much ice cream due to the accumulation of phlegm in the chest but after a few spoonfuls of the ice cream with my young friends, temptation got over me.  I walked to the counter and order Fig known as anjeer, water melon and jackfruit ice cream.  It was the first time I tasted water melon ice cream and it certainly an ice cream I would even recommend to diabetes.  Overall the creamy delicious organic ice cream without any preservatives or stablizers is certainly any ice cream lovers paradise. The ice cream contains less air which makes it rich and creamy.  The fig ice cream is to die for.

 One day I saw the kitchen manager Vishnu boiling something in a pressure cooker.  It was the fragrance that drew me to where he was. He told me that it was the gravy for misal pav and that it is being made for me to taste. Am I not lucky to have such good friends always taking care that I tried as much of the Pune specialties as possible during my 14 days stay.  So there it was, a pot of boiling, misal, the spicy gravy with diced potatoes, peas, onions, chopped coriander, spices and a very important ingredient matki or moth beans in English. This is a very small bean and it is sprouted overnight.  All these are boiled to make a thickish gravy almost like a keema curry. The way to eat is to ladle some of the gravy into a bowl, top with finely chopped onion, coriander leaves, green chillies if you want, chopped tomatoes, a dollop of yoghurt and a handful of fried mixed Indian snacks like peanuts, boondi, crushed mathri, nylon and nylon sev. These are combined together and eaten with ‘pav’ a soft Indian roll.  The combined taste and texture is an explosion of flavours in the mouth and one can just go on eating pav after pav if we cannot control ourselves! I think it would be nice too with a bit of the sweetish tamarind sauce.

On yet another occasion, Chef Prasanth made me one of the softest and tastiest methi paratha. An Indian flaky flat bread stuffed with chopped fresh fenugreek leaves, salt and a lashing of spices and rolled into a thin disc, the methi parathas were soft and good on its own. Traditionally it is eaten with some pickles and yoghurt. On another occasion the guest house cook Mohan, made methi parathas with the usual ingredients plus chopped spring onions.  Talking about Mohan, he indulged me with all my meals during my stay at the guest house and I must say he has great cooking skills. I shall call him the peanut guy as he includes lots of peanuts in many of his dishes eg. He did a wonderful peanut chutney to eat with chillas, a pancake made of channa dhall flour. He used coarsely broken peanuts in a curry made of angle loofah and on another occasion he had used peanuts instead of dhall in a curry and it was just so fabulous.

 During the trip to Pune we also had dinner at Paprika Hot Rock Restaurant. The menu here offers a selection of Mediterranean, Indian, Lebanese and Greek dishes. The ambience of the restaurant was well thought of with black wicker sofas and chairs with glass tables and there were semi private areas draped with white linen and lace materials hanging down.  At the end of the restaurant you can see the chefs working in the open kitchen.  The lighting of the restaurant was so poor we had to ask for a lamp to read the menu!!

 We ordered several items from the menu and experienced the hot rock specials too.  Basically a flat smooth rock is heated to a high temperature of 400 degrees C, placed on a platter and brought to the table with semi cooked ingredients.  You will then finish the cooking at the table by placing the food on the hot rock.  Though it was a novelty to eat like this with good friends, I still prefer to eat Indian food when in India…………you know what I mean?

One thing I noticed of the people of Pune is their gung-ho spirit.  No matter what religious background they belong to, or whatever their educational background is, everyone seems to be living life to the fullest.  I see more happy faced people walking on the streets of Pune.  I would say Pune for me is part culture, a bit of some natural beauty, a bit of modernization, some growth, lots of friends and lots of memories. May be someday I would go back to Pune and not on just another visit.