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Marathi Foods

As I ate some wonderful Gulab Jam (fried flour dough balls in simple syrup laced with Saffron) today I thought of some interesting and complex foods that I have had the fortune to enjoy growing up in the western state of Maharashtra in India.

Each place has its tradition and food is big part of it.  Maharashtra itself has a lot of variety moving inland from the coastal plains with its abundant rice production along with what the sea offers (used to offer much more like any place on the planet) over the Sahyadri mountains and into the warm heartland farm country (or what used to be anyway).

What grows locally is best had within miles of where it is produced.  That reveals the true taste of the ingredients and the art and science that went into making it.

Here then are top X items that I thought of this evening over the bowl of Gulab Jams...

  1. Kharvas - to a westerner this dish is impossible to imagine - some sort of cheese perhaps is the closest analogy that one may assign it but then it would be very incomplete.  Kharvas is a dish that is best made with post partum cow's milk in its first couple days after birthing.  It has a jelly like consistency and aside from the milk, sugar, some sort of gelling ingredient also has hint of saffron and cardamom then a garnish of more cardamom powder.  One bite of this dessert - whether it is that or just a snack to be enjoyed is debatable - and you can be transported into a state of euphoria (perhaps what a weed smoker might feel - with no experience in that personally I suppose it is a heightened state of being happy)
  2. Ukad - This is a porridge like dish made primarily of buttermilk, curry leaves to spice and rice flour.  Again on a cold day this can warm the internals and the smell can send you into a trance.
  3. Gavhacha Cheek - Sticky Wheat (Gahu) - 'Cheek' is a sticky substance (sort of like Chiclet) in the native lingua franca which is what this is.  It is essentially the ground wheat that has soaked in water for a few days.  Sort of a mash (without letting it get too far ahead of itself into an alcoholic state) that is then heated to a high temperature and served with some oil and chilli powder to taste.   Gluten intolerant people beware - you might just give up on all the warnings if you ever had a taste of this amazing delight.  It also serves as a source material to make another item so unique and fragile -
  4. Kurdai - this is a fine woven mesh of the aforementioned Cheek that is strained through a mold into a hot wok of oil till it crisps up.  Fresh is the taste as with any food but this snack beats anything that Frito Lays has laid out till date.  While potato and corn based chips are a phenomenon in the Americas and there are some good ones the traditional products from parts of India are a joy to the gourmand and commoner alike.
  5. Soda Bhat - small brine shrimp cooked in a spicy rice preparation are another of my inerasable memories and you want the right native to cook it for you.  Someone else that may have learned it just does not cut it.  I was also fortunate to run into some individuals that could take the disparate ingredients and escalate the amalgam to a religious experience.
  6. Jawar Bhakri and Kanda Jhunka - A sorghum flour flatbread served with a chickpea and fried onion curry.  Traditionally a farmer's breakfast made fresh and eaten on a cold morning is a delicious treat.  Sorghum in bread form is healthy but I recently saw farmers in Haiti growing it and brewing it in a brewery owned and operated by Heineken to - you guessed it - make beer.
To end this heady foodie inspiration I will end with the following words that say 'Grace in Sanskrit' that on some occasion I have uttered before diving into the feast that lay before me -

Vadani kaval gheta naam ghya shree hariche
Sahaj havan hote naam gheta phukache
Jivan kari jivitva anna he purna bramha
Udar bharan nohe janije yadnya karma
Jani bhojani naam vache vadave
Ati aadare gadya ghoshe mhanave
Hari chintane anna sevit jaave
Tari shree hari pavijeto swabhave

At its core the shloka or verse written by a Saint from Maharashtra called Ramdas conveys the value of taking time to enjoy our food, thanking the universal power that allows us this experience and to appreciate that first and foremost any food is nutrition and therefore sacrosanct and that which makes us whole.
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