The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : It’s the flavour of the Ramzan month

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 24, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

It’s the flavour of the Ramzan month

M. Raghuram

Restaurants and vendors in Shivajinagar area are doing brisk business

— Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

THAT TIME OF THE YEAR AGAIN: The aroma of food fills the air in Shivajinagar.

BANGALORE: It is not every day that one sees the city’s Shivajinagar in such hues. Thanks to Ramzan, the area wears a festive look in the evenings during the (Ramzan) month. Women and children go on a shopping spree buying food stuff as men attend the evening “namaz” and return home to break the dawn-to-dusk fast.

The special activity during Ramzan centres mainly around the food market. Food it is, all the way from the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus stand to the interiors of Shivajinagar.

Many Muslim families are fond of “falooda” that is prepared with sweetened milk, fruit pieces mixed with “kadak shavige” (a coil of thin vermicelli).

The aroma of traditional biriyani with “seekh kababs,” hot gravy and salad fills the air.

This time of the year, Shivajinagar serves the best of biriyanis and people from all religions throng the hotels around Shivajinagar during the weekend, says Abdul Samad, one of the biriyani vendors. The Taj Hotel in Shivajinagar, which is well known for its biriyanis, is mostly packed with gourmets.

It is not just the non-vegetarian dishes that sell. Samosas, patties, aloo tikis, various types of pakoras and bhajis and cutlets and soups add to the menu. Just metres away is the Russel Market, specially stocked now with fruits for the occasion. The special king size “Delicious” and “Kesar” apples from Himachal Pradesh and Srinagar have flooded the market, says Basheer, a fruit vendor. The rates have remained more or less stable and Muslims who observe fast are patronising the fruit stalls in a big way, he adds. Also making brisk business are the roadside cut fruit vendors.

On the hot list of bakeries are sweet buns, dilpasand, dilkush, pastries and various types of garnished biscuits, besides vegetarian and non-vegetarian puffs that go well with hot badam and kesar milk.

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