Finding Food & Udaipur: This Is Hardly The Whole Story

I went to Udaipur for Durga Pooja. Let's please not discuss how miserable I am at coming back to Mumbai, supposedly my home. Coming home should make you feel happy no? Well, leaving Udaipur makes me feel like I am leaving home.

My uncle conducts Durga Pooja at his place and its been decades now that they have been doing this. It's a time for celebration, festivities, rituals and lots of light-hearted fun. What's even more awesome is that the Pooja is not conducted in the way most Sarvajanik Poojas are done. This one sticks to the rule book and everything is vegetarian, free from onion and garlic and fast friendly. But the food is so yummy that even non-vegetarian eating Bengalis do not miss the meat. It greatly helps that my uncle is vegetarian.

This post is going to outline a few food things I stumbled upin during my journey to Udaipur and my time in Udaipur. There's of course, lots that I do not cover, such as photos of the Bhog itself for purely religious reasons. Nevertheless, there is much to be sampled.

I was fasting during this Navratri. I broke my fast after Shashthi, which is day 6. So on Saptami day, day 7, when I was on the train, the man managed to find me some Sev Poha. Travelling south or north west is always a joy especially if you are trying to avoid eating onions and garlic. Most of the food by default is free from those two ingredients. This Sev Poha was delicious. Spicy but not fiery, crunchy Ratlami Sev, at Ratlam railway station, with a dash of lemon and coriander, this was heavenly to the food starved tummy.

Apologies for the rather dukhi photo. But that thepla was one of the yummiest theplas I have ever eaten. There was this extremely friendly Gujju aunty who kept offering it to us and I kept refusing because just when you break your fast, you have to be careful with what you eat. And this stuff, well, I was not sure I wanted to eat from a complete stranger's dabba. But she kept insisting and the man caved in, feeling all obliged. How awesome that he did. I ended up asking her for the recipe and she shared it gladly. The man and I shared one thepla with dahi from the railway canteen.

This Pooja, I decided to make modaks for the bhog prasad. I carried my Modak mold from Mumbai. I had bought it before this year's Ganesh Pooja from Shivaji Park. I made 54 modaks. It took me 4 hours, including time to scavenge an extra gas, cylinder, preparing filling, creating the rice covering, steaming in batches of 15 etc. People loved them and the uncle has asked for more modaks and with extra filling next time around. One of the head cooks during our Pooja, Abhijeet Dada, has taken my mold, saying he will figure out how to use it and possibly introduce it as an item in Bengali weddings in Kolkata. Imagine eating Ukdiche Modak in a Bong wedding in Kolkata! Radical!

While I was scavenging for an extra burner and cylinder and utensils etc. I saw this alrge basket of clack bananas. No, it is not a different species. Those are perfectly good bananas that somebody put into the deep freezer. Overnight and this is what happened to them. Now you know where to not put them bananas.

That is Abhijeet Dada. He's taken my Modak mold. He also wants a bigger mold than the one I gave him. I am going to go Modak mold hunting soon. I already checked a few shops but did not get exactly what I wanted.

There's the other Maharaj. Cooking what we call Bati Chorchori. Sort of like a mixed veg things with seasonal veggies. It's pretty yum and had Paanch Phoron, which, IMHO, makes everything ten times more yummy but hey, I am Bong, I may be biased. I think I ate way too much of this.

That is my first batch of Modaks. I dunked them all in massive amounts of ghee because it was going to be a while before my uncle and cousin would taste them and I did not want the covering getting dried out. They turned out really good, I will be making more. To celebrate Diwali. And Christmas. And New Year's. You get the picture.

That's sunlight shining on a much loved Bengali Chaatni (Chutney for you folks - but most of our chutneys are sweet, sometimes with a hint of sour and/or pungent). It has Aam Shotto (Aam Paapad for some of you - or preserved mango), dates, raisins and tamarind. Bloody yummy. I could eat this everyday. Which made things so tough because Bhog or Prasadam food must neither be tasted nor intentionally smelled. Weirdly enough, when you cook Bhog, you are fasting. And you feel no hunger at all.

That's a cartload of Masala Bhindis frying. Abhijeet Dada was very miffed that the bhindis were dunked in masalas the Mewari way - cannot blame the cook, he's Mewari. But it's a Bong pujo and Bongs put nothing but a dash of salt in their Bhindi fry. Me? Well, it was yum, I am not complaining at all. Crispy crackling okra, bring it on!

What else was fried? Small fritters of cauliflower, brinjals, large green chillies, potatoes, raw banana, sweet potatoes. Man, I am so going back :/

Uncle had this stall during Pooja where people who were fasting could eat fast foods. Or generally eat. There was milk (with kesar / saffron, almonds etc.), milk based sweets, sugar confetti for the children and this Sabudana Khichdi. Rather different from the Maharashtrian one we usually eat and make at home, this one is fried and a bit oily, had whole fried peanuts, not roasted and crushed, has a tadka of curry leaves, mustard seeds and hing instead of our jeera and jeera powder. And it has a rather healthy dose of green chilli paste. Fiery. But so, so yummy.

Among the most awesome things I sampled however, was this. It was raw. And my tongue loved it because parts of it was still holding on to its fast, food-free days. This is a grated raw papaya, tossed with lightly toasted grated coconut, lemon juice and coriander, rock salt. Amazing, I could eat this for dinner with a soup everyday.

That was Udaipur. There was much, much more but well, folks, one can only take limited snaps with both hands digging into awesomesauce food, eh?