Thali is probably a
quintessential offering of an Indian kitchen to the world though it may not be
as famous as butter chicken, daal and naan in the West. (I heard that these
have given bad name to India’s mouth watering array of cuisine). Thali
represents how an Indian eats her food. Thali essentially means a plate in
which all the offerings are served. Interestingly, the contents keep on changing
almost every 100 km across the length and breadth of this huge and diverse
country. From the slow cooked heady spice mix of Kashmir to simple
rassam/sambar rice in Tamil Nadu and from the fantastic all vegetarian
extravaganza of Gujarat to the carnivore’s
paradise in the East, one will be zapped by the diversity. So it is difficult
to actually put India’s culinary delights in a nutshell called ‘Indian Thali’
Historically and culturally, Indians are fairly conservative
about eating out. However, every new generation is now defying that logic with
equal force. The elders generally emphasized on eating at home only and not to
eat outside as it was a sign of lowliness. The cast system being very strong in
India also raised doubt about the origin of the person who cooked the food.
Parann (food cooked by somebody else apart from family members) was a forbidden
fruit. The only eating out experience for Indian families were grand functions
like weddings and the food was served in a thali. The same culture has percolated
down the years in a new version called Thali Restaurants across India.
As I mentioned earlier, it is difficult to put the diverse
cuisine of India in a single thali. However, the vegetarian quotient is
prominent in Indian thali. Eating a sumptuous thali is one of the indications
of celebration related to festivals. Since almost all the festivals are
associated with some sacred rituals, people avoid eating non-veg food.
Therefore, it was imperative that a thali with 100% veg content will emerge as a
clear winner and would set the culture. So it was obvious that Gujarati thali
was meant to be a clear front runner.
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| Gordhan Thaal - Ahmedabad |
Down the memory lane, I could clearly remember a very basic
version of the so called thali – ‘rice plate’. I am born and brought up in Western
Maharashtra and could easily link a wholesome eating experience in the
childhood via a rice plate. So a rice plate will have 4-5 small bowls
containing one or two gravy based preparations, a dry subzi, lentil,
curry/kadhi and salad and couple of chapattis (Indian flat bread) and sumptuous
amount of rice (obviously, it’s a rice plate!). You could transform that simple
thali into ‘’Deluxe Thali” by replacing chapattis with puris (deep fried Indian
puffed bread) and a single serving of an Indian dessert (mostly Gulab Jamun). I
loved the part sans rice. I was a rice hater in the childhood and developed
nausea to the extent that I used to puke at the site of cooked rice. (This
extreme reaction was actually on account of horrible food served in coastal
region of Maharashtra/Goa those days – 17-18 yrs ago).
This was the time when the Indian was experiencing the winds
of globalization. The new grads (especially engineers with specialization in
electronics) were being picked by software companies. People started experiencing
the phenomenon of disposable income even after doing savings. Rice plate was
meant to take a back seat. Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) were mushrooming and fast food caught
the fancy of Gen X very quickly. Rice plate has been reduced to a meal of
labourer these days. But rice plate was never meant to evolve as a choice for
thali.
With people finding themselves in a position to spend extra
money over food and the inherent Indian culture of eating in thali gave rise to
the culture of premium thalis. In the
initial phase, there were many standalone restaurants serving
Gujarati/Rajasthani thali (some are doing great even today). As mentioned
earlier, the high veg quotient of Gujarati food makes it an indomitable choice
for thali anyday. There is 90% chance that you would enter a thali restaurant
and you would be served with Gujarati cuisine in your thali. Gujarat and
Maharashtra throw abundant choices of veg food to a connoisseur that provides a
complete spread from starters to desserts. I don’t think that any other state
provides such a wide array of vegetarian cuisine.
Gujarat’s offerings are richer than Maharashtra.
Maharashtra’s cuisine is rustic and simple. There are few items in
Maharashtra’s offering which can certainly compete with Gujarat (Shrikhand is
something which both Maharashrians and Gujaratis claims to be their own
dessert, I certainly feel it’s Maharashtrian), but Gujarat’s cuisine scores
well in overall index. Although snubbed by fellow North Indians for being too
sweet for their palette, I don’t see a strong contender to Gujarat’s veg spread
and hence captivating the culinary fancies of foodies across the country.
Besides this, Gujaratis being predominantly business oriented community have
travelled across length and breadth of the country and have carried the legacy
almost everywhere. And there is no doubt that Gujaratis are born foodies.
Let’s get down to main business. Gujarati thali’s main
ingredients are farsan (the starters – fried/steamed). Dhokla is generally the
preferred steamed version while dal wada is the essential Gujarati snack. The
combination of mint-coriander chutney and tamarind-jaggery chutney along with these snacks makes up for
a perfect start. Since the hunger is at peak at the start, most people tend to
go overboard gorging on the ‘farsaan’.
This follows by different vegetables, sweet and spicy dal as well as
curry and most probably three types breads – phulka with ghee, thepla and rotla.
Personally, I am fan of thepla and generally ignore other breads since thepla
is rich in taste and contents. Rotla goes good with white butter and jiggery.
You actually don’t need anything else if you’ve rotla, white butter and jaggery.
In the later course, one may probably have a choice of steamed white rice and
aromatic khichdi. Go for khichdi with sweet Gujarati kadhi and you’ll stop
hating the sweet quotient of food in Gujarat. Desserts are inseparable- and I
love the restaurants who serve unlimited desserts.
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| Sasuji Thali - Vadodara |
Being in Mumbai, I had been to several thalis restaurants in
the city and haven’t come across the legend like ‘Agashiye’ of Ahmedabad in
Gujarat. In Mumbai, I frequent to Chetana, Status, Samrat, Revival, Thakker’s,
Golden Star. Personally, I like ‘Rajdhani Rasovara’ for the sheer size and
contents of the thaali. It is not for the faint hearted as it serves 3-4 types of desserts at the start only. I
like Chetna for its simplicity, Thakker’s for its rich taste. In August 2013, I had been to a trip to
Ahmedabad with a very close friend, Ashish Sharma only to explore food of
Gujarat. The high point, as I mentioned was ‘Agashiye’ though we also tried
‘Gordhan Thaal’ at Satelite Cross Road. Though the starters and desserts were
winners (I scooped 7 bowls of Apple Basundi there J), main course was little
disappointing. Following is the account of our food trip to Ahmedabad.
http://www.thealternative.in/lifestyle/untravel-festival-special-de-gujarati-thaali/
To put in a nutshell, Indian thali restaurants do give an
essential experience of an Indian cuisine and has evolved into a strong culture
in India. I am happy o be the part of this culture and is always a delight to
find a thali restaurant in an unknown place (though now-a-days I do a lot of
research before heading for an unknown, especially on restaurants and food). I
trust that culture will keep on becoming stronger with every bite. J
