Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
Rajasthani fare?
|
The Rajasthani food festival at Utsav is good in parts
|
LOST IN TRANSLATION While the `Gatte ki Sabzi' was a triumph the same could not be said about the `moong dal halwa'
Food festivals are like translations of literary works. In the process of translation, there is loss of meaning as well as the music of words that the original text embodies. A similar fate visits the whole concept of modern food festivals. The Rajasthani food festival at Utsav is no exception.
In times as these, there is a tendency to look at sweeping categories as `Rajasthan', and then suggest that this entity has a unitary cuisine.
Distinctions such as rural and urban, tribal and folk, Marwar and Mewar, not to mention vegetarian and non-vegetarian, are completely lost. The fare at Utsav is vegetarian, served in thalis, and perpetuates the comfortable stereotypes about Rajasthani food. The baati is hard and leathery, the daal fairly good, and the churma does not have the earthy, burnt smell that it ought to have. But the baati, if that has to be the representative, centrepiece of Rajasthani cuisine, ought really to melt and disintegrate in the mouth, once the crisp exterior is penetrated.
Having said this much, the gatte ki sabzi would make many Rajasthani housewives blush with envy, for, it was without the tell-tale lumps that are common in this preparation. I did not spot the mangodi, but the ker sangri was again a triumph, and a testimony to how a wild "grass" could be transformed into something subtle and creative. Makkai roti is another conspicuous absence in the fare offered, and no argument about seasonal variations would justify its exclusion.
As a gesture to good neighbourliness, the kadhi and methi thepla has a distinct Gujarati touch to it. The kadhi was neither the Marwari kadhi nor the Mewari khato. But the outrage in the thali was the presence of paneer. While this particular entity has, over the years, captured the imagination of the gastronomically challenged, its presence in any Rajasthani thali is nothing short of a scandal.
A word about the desserts. The moong dal halwa, if that was what it was, lacked soul and flavour. Many Rajasthani wedding feasts are ruined at the altar of an indifferent moong halwa, and so should be food festivals. The malpua-rabdi is passable, though the rabdi reminded one more of boarding-school custard.
In the end, one was left gaping at an unseemly cube of Amul butter in one of the katoris. There was little guidance as to what one was supposed to do with it. Was this a substitute for white butter? Surely, if the most insignificant Udipi joint can manage a dollop of white butter, so can Utsav.
JYOTIRMAYA SHARMA
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
|
