FESTIVE FINGER FOOD FARE

The spirit of festivals in countries around the earth revolves mainly around its traditions and traditional food fare. Surat being no exception enhances its sense of celebration with home made goodies that disappear as soon as they are dished out.

Migrants who have waded into the city for a better monetary future often wonder why the average Surti, however wealthy , is so proud of something as simple as ‘Diwali nastas’ and displays it with such maternal pride. Over time, these very same outsiders not only get hooked on to the tasty treats but more often than not end up imitating the trend.

Now that the marigold strewn lanes of Tapi town have been witness to the crispy fafda and crunchy jalebi fervor of Dussera, Surtis are all set to devour sinfully smooth gharis as they swoon below the Chandi padva moon. The week after which, woks and pans in domestic kitchens will be sizzling with savories.

The easy to make ready to fry last minute versions that are commercially available might give instant relief to many Surtis who are mental slaves to the festive favourites but these packed to fry versions wilt in comparison to the heavenly home made treats. The successes of these receipes lie in the purity of their ingredients as well as the exact tactfully measured amount from granny’s days, which have been rolled down the ages.

Uptill the 1960’s, Surtis often got their own custom made batch of nankhatais baked at local bakeries, by providing their own wheat flour, sugar and ghee to small time bakers who made tray full of these sweet cookies and marked them according to the orders placed by segregating them with different stones! Variations in these were the ones prepared from plain flour, sooji and milk, topped with almonds.

The original Diwali treats of Tapi town are the Ghooghras- which are basically hand made plain flour dumplings deep fried in clarified butter stuffed with minced milk mawa, embellished with dried fruit and nuts, with a hint of cardamom.

The flaky ‘cholafali’-a spiral of fried chola and udad dal twists sprinkled with a sudden burst of powdered spice are originally from Ahmedabad, where kiosks sell this preparation as a tea time snack around the year.

The ‘mathiyas’-a melt in the mouth version of fried papad made from the flour of math and udad dal are an innovation from Patels of Anand and Vadodra from where till date the best versions of these in an uncooked form are driven into town.

The ‘chakris’ –swirls of spicy wheat flour bound with fresh butter crunchies , that are known as Murrukku down south in their rice flour versions also have a new fancy avatars in chatpata ,roasted soy and bajri versions which of course are no threat to the evergreen sesame dotted originals.

Along with these main show stoppers, palates will also be pleased with thapdas, kharkhariyas and suvalis making it a cracker of a package that tastes as terrific as it sounds.

With the changing times, Surti gals who run non commercial ventures from homes have polished up their culinary skills to present new goodies to treat the town with.Rakhi Dhamanwala the pioneer of the rich and famous cheese samosas will be conjuring up diet friendly desi dry snacks, while the naturally gifted gourmet Sonia Sahni will be belting out sensuous sinful brownies that are laced with international chocolates. The effervescent charmer Cheena Bhatia has plans to present Mint, Toffee, Truffle and other exotic chocolates in pretty packaging.

Surat sure seems set for a sugar and spice and all that’s nice season ahead.