Kandhe Pohe & Dhansak

Thanks to Facebook, one discovers one's true friends. I had not updated my status for 3 days and there was Mohan Sule enquiring why it is all quiet on the gurudutt front.

A phone call to him and I was enquiring what Meenal was cooking these days. So mad about food this year -- in fact, I remember starting a discussion on breakfasts at the local Reliance Super store. I came to know from the 70-year old from Jabalpur (?) that he had Jalebi and yoghurt (dahi) for breakfast. BTW, Pushpesh Pant mentioned this in his last article too!

I had given a surprise visit to Mohan and Meenal on January 26, 2000 (?) The date is easy to remember, but the year! Well, in 1999 Yukta Mookhey won the Miss World, and on Jan 26, 2000 my daughter won the society fancy dress competition posing as Miss World (She wore a similar costume to that worn by Yukta Mookhey.)

But to me what was most memorable that day was the Kande-batata pohe made by Meenal. Nice big poha, perfectly puffed up, nice yellow colour and perfectly warm. I think she had already put the limbu in it too. (Not served separately as I like it nowadays.) Now, you will ask me what is so great about Kandhe pohe (kande means onions and poha is flattened rice)? I have had this so many times, but it was never perfect! Perfection or excellence is what I am talking about. All the ingredients need to be right, perfectly cooked, and served well.

You can have kande pohe in most Maharastrian restaurants. None of them are a match. Of course, the ambience and friends also contributes a little to the experience and rating. Their well kept house with the right amount of artistic touches and their friendship might have added to the experience.

My friendship with Mohan goes a long way back. I remember visiting him, and his mother would always make a perfect cup of tea. I would always look forward to that cup of tea. It is too long back, so I cannot remember the snacks she made for us. I would rate her's as one of the 5 best teas I have ever had in my life.

When Meenal got married to him, I am sure I must have tasted several of her snacks too. But I really enjoyed the Dhansak she made. Those days I was not too much into food and was in fact tasting it for the first time. I really enjoyed the nice, fluffy, long-grained rice. The Dhansak dal was superb with the right consistency and taste. It was very interesting that the pumpkin was totally mixed with the dal. The garnish of fried, brown onions is one of the tastiest garnishes. In fact, I could eat is as a complete meal. These onions added to the taste and overall experience. Above all, I remember, both the dal and the rice were hot and steaming. Mercifully, these were pre-microwave days. Apparently, even then I was interested in cooking as I remember her telling me the secret to the fluffy rice.

Meenal is from Ahmedabad and it would not be wrong to say she is half-gujrati in some ways. Ahmedabad is also a food paradise and if there is one outstanding community known for its love of food it is the Gujaratis. Just at the char rasta opposite Iskon Temple/Food bazar there I had a decent plate of roadside kanda poha (note the change in spelling) for Rs.2 (?) for a katori (plate made out of dry leaves) full. For a road-side vendor to give me such a nice, cheap snack at 9.30 am in the morning was indeed good! It was decent and if I give it say 2.25/5.00, I would give Meenal's a 5/5!

I think the secret ingredient of Mohan's mother, Mohan's children's mother (er, Meenal) and all mothers is simple -- they just add a dash of love and of course their years of expertise. Restaurant foods don't have this ingredient -- so you know why they taste so ordinary.