The heat in Mumbai had become unbearable
during the month of May, going to a hill station seemed a better idea. My
friends and I decided to go out of Mumbai for a long weekend.
Early Friday morning, we took a road trip,
275 kilometers away from Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar. It was six hours drive. We
wanted to have typical Maharastrian food during this trip. On friend’s
recommendation, we stopped at Kailash on Pune-Mumbai express way. This restaurant served only platter
(thali), special and normal Thali the only difference being that in choice of vegetables.
The food at Kailash was disappointing, it didn’t taste
that authentic Maharastrian meal. We were expecting usual, peanut based
veggie and a spicy meal but the food was quite bland. There was no sweet dish.
During our stay, dieting was of least
importance and eating was our full time pass time. Whereever we walked down the
path, the streets were filled with hawkers and who could resist that? Munching
on everything was so enjoyable
There is different kind of charm at hill stations in India. Colorful and fresh fruits line the market streets. Munching on berries and fruits while walking down the streets is a fun…every stall we pass, we are tempted to buy and eat, sometimes even without washing the fruit….it tastes so good….During our walk to market street, we
stopped to eat at every stall
We got tempted to eat black Jamun
Roasted corn coated with salt, red pepper
and lime
Raspberry and assorted berries
The next day we went sightseeing, but food was always on our mind. The air smelts of fruits and roasted corn. Mango cucumber carrot salad looked so tempting
Carrot n cucumber
Strawberries and white apples
Carrots and strawberries...
You would think that munching all day would
be enough. But no, we still were hungry and visited few restaurants to have proper meals too.
We were staying in a private bungalow on
the outskirts of the city and we were lucky to be surrounded by good
restaurants. We visited Baghicha twice for breakfast. It had quite a spacious dining hall with colorful
nursery occupying one corner of the restaurant. The walls were decorated with large pin ups of
all the film stars and celebrity who had dined in this restaurant. The food is freshly prepared, the order
took long time to come, but it was worth the wait. The potato parathas were
cooked to perfection, steaming hot, it melted at the first bite and spicy too.
We went back for breakfast the next day too and ordered the same breakfast of
potato parathas, pohas, sabudhana khichidi, upma and corn cutlets. Tea would
pair beautifully with this breakfast but
sadly, they don’t serve tea or coffee, there were soft drinks and fruity milk
shakes.
My friends were keen on having Maharastrian
food. It was raining heavily and it was so misty that we could not see anything
beyond few meters. It was decided that two of them would go and bring food for
all of us. But when they stopped by Hirkani, there were hot bakhadi roti and
food that looked so appetizing. They called
us to come to the restaurant to enjoy the freshly cooked food. I am glad we
went because I really enjoyed the lunch. Although the restaurant serves Thali to majority of its clients, we decided to
order a la carte. It was the most enjoyable meal I had. We ordered corn vegetables, potato bhaji,
brinjals, puri and ussal, all vegetarian meal, so delicious that I didn’t miss
non-veg.
Someone suggested that Jaffar at
Panchandi famous for its Briyanis, so we
decided to go for lunch the next day. The décor was good, it was surrounded with
beautiful landscape. It was crowded too and we had to wait for about fifteen
minutes to get a seat. The restaurant serves mainly Biryani, I was surprised to learn
that there was no pillaf. However, the biryani was quite disappointing. In veg
biryani there were hardly any veggies. Food was bland and we were served a glass of fresh
green chilies. Two of my friends reported sick after the meals. I would have
preferred a way side dhabba that serves better food.
On our return back to Mumbai, we stopped by
Shri Dutta, famous for his Batatawadas at Pen.
