On a Fast Track

Rasoi,the restaurant at Ramee Grand in Deccan,is celebrating Shravan Utsav with specials such as hot soups,chaats,vegetarian starters,and all-time-favourites such as dal makhni and biryani. “The festival is a tribute to the Shravan season and the popularity of monsoon. The Utsav will continue until August 12,” says Subhadeep Datta,G M,Ramee Grand. “Most of the people who are coming to the restaurant are ordering the Shravan specials and the response has been great. People enjoy eating chaat in this season. It has been the fastest item on our menu this month,” says Chef Sushant Biswas.

Even at Out Of The Blue in Shivajinagar,the special ‘No Onion,No Garlic’ menu offers starters,soups,salads,pastas and even barbeque dishes. Their bruschettas and the Caesar’s salad are tried and testedfavourites. “The menu consists of all our signature dishes of Out of the Blue keeping in mind the sensibilities of catering to patrons who may not like their food with onion or garlic or may like to try out our food in a pure vegetarian style of cooking. A notable addition is the spinach fondue which is made of freshly ground Caribbean spices,spinach and our special cheese blend,” says Sartaj Bedi,GM,Out Of The Blue.

“My entire family observes Shravan. We don’t fast; instead we limit ourselves to certain types of food. So we eat a lot of sabu dana wadas and khichdi,rajgira laddoos and puranpoli. I prefer going to restaurants like Shivsagar and Joshi Wadevale to indulge into Sharavn food,” says Sadhna Sapre,a Wakad resident.

Restaurants such as Mayur Thali,Shivsagar,Kalyani,Bhairavi and Asha and Atithi dining halls also offer some special Shravan items. For instance,at Shiv Sagar,the most popular breakfast item during the month of Shravan is the urad vada. Shiv Sagar also serves finger chips,a fruit plate,fruit salads and lassis for those who are fasting. “Demand for these items increases during Shravan because a lot of people are fasting in this period,” says co-owner Ram Poojari.

Madhuban,at DP Road offers sabu dana vadas,finger chips and a sweet kachori with potato and coconut. “There are only a few things that people are allowed to eat in this season and most people avoid eating grains so these items are very popular during Shravan,” says Raghuram Shetty,the restaurant manager.

Mayur Thali,which has branches in Camp,Deccan,Viman Nagar and Chinchwad,offers their regular thali in a Jain version without onion and garlic,says Amit Chordia,the owner. He adds that apart from the thali,customers also enjoy the sabu dana khichdi and the lassi. “When people are fasting,they like eating more sweets,so sweets like basundi,ras malai,shrikhand and rasgulla are very popular during shravan,” says Chordia.

At Atithi dining hall,the daily thali is accompanied by a special puranpoli for Shravan,says the proprietor Mrs K Palshikar.