Hello all! Sorry about the delay in making another post about food. So, as promised, here is an introduction to Gujarati food.
Gujarat is a Western state in India, it borders Pakistan and the three Indian states, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. People from Gujarat, speak the language Gujarati and are also called Gujaratis (or fondly called Gujjus). Bombay has a very large population of Gujjus and their numbers are only rivaled by the native Maharashtrians.
Gujarat is where all of my grandparents originated from. Their families found themselves in Bombay over many years, some came directly and some came there via a more circuitous route, through Pakistan or Burma or elsewhere. Through all of their travels and living away from their home state, the food has stayed pretty consistent and has been passed on from generation to generation. The large population of Gujjus in Bombay, has made it easier to hang on to the food traditions and of course the culture.
Food from different parts of Gujarat is subtly different, but it is difficult for a non-gujju to tell apart. One major thread through the food is vegetarianism. Most Gujjus tend to be vegetarians, some of them have stricter food rules wherein they will eat only certain types of vegetarian food, e.g. Jains. You can read more about Jainism
here. My family follows Jainism, but most of us stick to the vegetarianism model and do not have too many more restrictions. In short, Gujarati food = Vegetarian food. Having said that, I would like to emphasize that the variety of unique and tasty Gujarati food is almost endless.
Finally, getting to the food! Gujarati cuisine is famous for its snacks, or "farsans". These snacks are usually a combination of sweet, salty and spicy and are usually fried. The concept of baking doesn't really exist in this cuisine; there is occasional steaming but it is usually followed by at least a shallow fry. Take for example the Dhokla. It is made by steaming together a chickpea flour and yoghurt mix, followed by a dousing with fried mustard seeds, chillies and all the frying oil. These are the yellow dhoklas, there is also a white dhokla, which is made from fermented rice and lentil batter, but these are less popular over all. Although, given a choice I would eat the white dhokla for all my meals, everyday!
Another farsan that the gujjus are famous for is the gathiya, which is usually eaten with jalebis, with or as breakfast on a holiday. Gathiya are made from chickpea flour as well and deep fried, the jalebis are a delicious, saffron-containing, sweet, deep fried confection that perfectly complements the gathiya. In the picture here, the jalebis are at the bottom and the gathiya are on the top. Not to forget, gathiya make a fabulous accompaniment to a hot cup of chai in the afternoon.
Now onto regular food, food that Gujaratis cook and eat on a daily basis.
Usually a typical Gujarati meal (lunch at my parents' house) includes;
- rotli, a small round flat bread made from whole wheat flour (dry roasted), usually topped with half a teaspoon of ghee (clarified butter)
- vegetables (one or two) prepared dry or with a gravy
- daal or lentils in a soup-like form
- some rice (plain rice)
- chaas (a yogurt-based drink) or yoghurt
- raita (yogurt + cucumber) or a salad with tomatoes, cucumber, onions (no lettuce, but likely to have cabbage).
A similar basic meal is probably eaten by a lot of Indians, but the flavours vary from region to region. Gujarati food tends to be sweeter in general, even savoury foods will have a hint of sweetness; for example, the lentil dish or daal is cooked with sugar or
jaggery in most Gujarati households.
A glorified version of this basic meal is a Gujarati Thali, which is much like the South Indian Thali I talked about in my previous post. It is a fixed menu and you can either get a limited version, or an all you can eat version. Unlike a buffet, there are servers who come by every few minutes with fresh hot rotlis and all the other food. This is the most popular restaurant format for Gujarati food; and in addition to more of the kinds of dishes I described in the basic meal, the thali format includes
papad, a couple of farsans and some sweets. Interestingly, the sweets/desserts in these meals are eaten along with the meal traditionally, not after; however, more recently the concept of a separate dessert course has become popular.
A very simple, about once a week, dinner menu is Khichadi - Kadhi. Khichadi is a rice dish that comes in many different forms, in it's simplest form, it's a one-pot dish with rice, lentils and spices. The spices can vary, the lentils can vary and it can have vegetables. It is usually eaten with Kadhi. Kadhi is a soup-like dish made with yoghurt and a little bit of chickpea flour. Hot Kadhi is poured over the spicy Khichadi and eaten with fingers usually. It is considered a comfort food and I love it! Digressing for a second, occasionally the Kadhi will replace the traditional daal at lunch or vice versa.
Last but not least, I want to introduce you to the Thepla (pronounced as thépla). It is a small round whole wheat flatbread that has spices in it and is cooked by shallow frying. It is omnipresent in all Gujarati homes. We eat it for breakfast, for a snack, for dinner. It travels well and is not fussy about what you pair it with. It can be made, once again, with whatever spices you want. One ingredient that it almost always has is fresh cilantro. My favourite is garlic thepla with yogurt and a sweet mango pickle.
Before I end, I wanted to talk a little bit about Indian pickles. They are usually not made from cucumbers and will not resemble anything that is considered a pickle here in the US. Usually what Indians call a pickle are mangoes or other fruits or vegetables preserved in oil and salt with lots of spices; or in the case of sweeter pickles lots of sugar. Gujaratis love their sugar but we also love spices, so we have a several awesome sweet and spicy mango pickles; most of them taste really good with theplas (2 typical pickles can be seen in the thepla picture), or with pretty much anything.
That's it for me for now. I have only covered a few of the many Gujju foods in this entry. I might have an addendum if I think of more things. In any case, I will try and make my next entry soon! Enjoy!
