INSIDE THE VADA PAV

In a Marathi restaurant,youd expect main course dishes. But as with Panshikar Aahar,most Marathi restaurants offer only street food. Mains,such as Kolhapuri mutton,bharli bhendi or vangi okra or aubergine stuffed with coconut and tamarind and varan dal are cooked only at home. That seems to be the case only with Mumbai. Other major cities in the state such as Pune,Nagpur and Kolhapur have plenty of Marathi restaurants that offer main course dishes.

Most restaurateurs dont blame the city. Rather,they say its typically Marathi not to promote their cuisine. Panshikar,for instance,says the community doesnt do enough to popularise its food among non-Marathis. Our community isnt enterprising or ambitious. We dont market our food unlike,say,south Indians,who have opened Udupi and Mangalorean restaurants all over the city, he says.

Marathis also dont eat out much and when they do,they dont demand Marathi food. Abhishek Honawar,a partner at Woodside Inn,a bistro in Colaba,says it isnt part of Marathi culture to do so. When I was growing up,we would invite guests at home or eat at others homes,that too only on occasions, he says.

Interestingly,Marathis think their food is too simple to be popular. Honawar,for instance,sees no business opportunity in opening a Maharashtrian restaurant. Our food isnt overly complex and may not appeal to others, he says. He cites an example: If we make a rice dish incorporating meat,spices and vegetables,it would all be made together in one pot. Compare this to biryani from other regions,where it is layered with ingredients cooked separately.

Restaurateurs in Mumbai dont seem to want to work on making their food more attractive to outsiders,as that could turn Marathis away. If we try to make the food more presentable or exciting,Marathi people wont eat it as they are averse to changing the authenticity of their food, says Honawar. In any case,he says,it simply isnt in our culture to take risks.

And yet,a lot of the states food has been influenced by other cuisine. Panshikar,for instance,says pav bhaji is exotic for Marathis. Marathis would refuse to pay more than Rs 30 for the indigenous misal pav but would pay double that amount for the less wholesome but exotic pav bhaji, he says. Yes,pav bhaji,which is universally known as Mumbais street food and is rightly so,has evolved over the years from a confluence of Marathi and north Indian food. The pav is Marathi,the bhaji is north Indian. Other examples of cosmopolitan Mumbai street food are sev puri,bhel puri and dabeli.

Kaumudi Marathe,a California-based author,who has written cookbooks on Marathi cuisine in English a rarity,says external influences on Maharashtrian cuisine go back to communities that settled in the state hundreds of years ago. The Pathare-Prabhus,a Marathi community,for instance,have their origins in Rajasthan and that is reflected in their food. The Pathare-Prabhus are said to have come to Maharashtra from Rajasthan 700 years ago and are accredited with baked karanjis crescent-shaped,coconut-filled dessert, she says.

Then,there are shared dishes. For instance,sabudana sago is common to Gujaratis and Marathis as both fast on certain days of the week. Along the Konkan coast which covers Maharashtra,Goa and parts of Karnataka,the ingredients and basic dishes are roughly the same,with changes in spice levels.
Conversely,Maharashtrian food hasnt traveled well across the country. At most,snack food like poha or sabudana can be found outside the state. Vada pav is the one dish that has traveled far; it is available even in New York.

But it seems Mumbai is making some sort of a beginning at popularising its home cuisine. In 2007,for instance,the Awchat family opened Diva Maharashtracha next to their existing restaurant,Goa Portuguesa,which offers dishes from all over the state. Konkan food is adequately represented in the city although the more prominent restaurants are Mangalorean. Ananda Solomon,executive chef of the Taj President which has a Konkan restaurant,suggests the government should give tax benefits to restaurants promoting local food. If we have tax-free movies,this could also be used to encourage local cuisine. It is the only way you can push Maharashtrian food; it is a humble cuisine, he says.

Indeed,it seems the humbleness of the cuisinethere isnt much cream or cheese used,so except for the use of coconut milk in some regions,it isnt richseems to be a stumbling block in its promotion.
But while it may be humble,Maharashtrian food can change drastically across different regions of the state. Solomon says that Maharashtrians make best use of whatever ingredients are available locally,with seafood and coconut being predominant along the coast. Grains are used extensively in fresh breads such as thalipeeth and flattened ones like bhakris. Rice,legumes and vegetables such as aubergine and okra are common and a meal must have multiple vegetables. Meat is widely eaten in non-Brahmin communities,especially in Kolhapur where mutton is abundant. What can change every 100 kilometres, says Honawar,is the spice level.