TEXTILE TOWN’S TEA TIME TREATS………..
Post the official Diwali annual break, laladom is back to doing what it does best.
Textile market is buzzing with business deals over betel nut chewing mouths that are yapping away nonstop about the due stocks [maal in Surti] and payments.
This week will easily be one of the most entertaining as traders will describe their holiday trips and tours and how their better halves got the better of them while shopping.
Post Diwali is the time when Mahabaleshwar turns to Chowk Bazaar, Lonavala to Bhagal char Rasta and Kulu Manali to City light. Over frothy ‘timtim’minty masala tea, from Shiv Shakti, a must have in the textile market area, chikki and channa from trips will be shared along with the chatter.
The spiciest dry, masala channa, by the way are actually sold right on the roadside of Salasar road itself, along with roasted peanuts and other munchies.Mid afternoon will call for shared meals with whiffs of Sindhi, Punjabi and Gujarati cuisine that comes in from homes, carried by the onerous Udiya maali men, the Surti dabbawalas who job hop as gardeners otherwise.
As varied as the traders of Tapi town’s textile market, is the cuisine available in and around it which is relished by visitors as a ‘specialty’ and also by Lalas who want a change from routine homemade food.
The most popular pick is the’ Pehlwan ke Choley Bhaturey’, an authentic Amritsari taste of deep fried plain flour bhatureys with an inner lining of paneer crumbs and coriander packed in a brown paper bag, spicy, ginger rich kabuli channas that are cooked to perfection, rich in oil and Indian spices in a black pepper rich avtaar, served with the most mouthwatering carrot pickle and fried green chilies ‘and thinly sliced onions. Highly addictive, in spite of being the kind of meal, that needs an afternoon siesta to digest the gastronomic delight.
Tea time treats include the Syndicate samosas-Surti receipe of gram dal sautéed in ginger chilli paste along with chopped onions and rolled with pattis to form tiny savoury triangles that tempt and tease the taste buds. Freshly fried, these hot delights make it difficult to stop at one. Also available here is the ‘aloopuri’ the bataka ni puri or bhajiyas of sliced potatoes popped in besan , to be devoured with a raw lip smacking ,curry leaf tempered gram flour chutney that looks like kadhi but is denser and spicier.
The other popular option consists of South Indian cuisine, while most market canteens have the regular fare, Shetty and Gayatri that run kiosks by the roadside, are popular for Mysore masala dosas and Poha samosas and medu wadas served with coconut chutney the flavour of which turns an otherwise bland delicacy into a firebrand one.
Whatever the need of the taste buds or budget, within the busy Surti streets of the textile market, there is something to suit everyone .Both Maaliks and mazdoors relish these tastes of Tapi town’s kiosks that from today will be as busy and buzzing as the business offices that surround them.
Tapi town tattle-New year re-solutions.