Ahmedabad by Esther David

Author:Esther David
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2016-12-08T16:00:00+00:00

From Teen Darwaza, Gandhi Road leads towards Fernandez Bridge and Chandravilas, one of the first thali restaurants of Ahmedabad, which used to sell a thali for one rupee once. They were also famous for sixteen varieties of tea, like bagicha, amiri and gulabi, etc., which could be had for twenty-five paise at one time. Chandravilas was known as a lodge or dining hall. Old-timers remember that even before you reached it, the fragrance of their famous sour-sweet dal hit you. It was a secret recipe made with thirty-eight ingredients and after you had eaten there, the flavour lingered on the fingertips for hours. Some food lovers went there just for the dal or took it back home in containers.

Chandravilas is still famous for its deep-fried, flute-shaped fafdas made with chickpea dough along with jalebis, fried in ghee and soaking in sugar syrup, which is a favourite combination with Ahmedabadis. It is still popular with people looking for the best and are willing to travel that extra kilometre to get it. Chandravilas was started by Chimanlal Joshi, whose grandson Malay sits at the same counter where his father sat doing brisk business. Chimanlal had advised his family, ‘Always make jalebis in ghee and you will survive for more than a hundred years,’ and they did. Before the Chandravilas thali closed down, Ahmedabadis went to Rani No Hajiro for their wedding shopping and stopped at Chandravilas for a meal. It was like a pilgrimage of sorts. As a rule, most Gujaratis did not like to eat with their shoes on, so a special place was allotted to wash their feet and keep their shoes far away from the dining area. Well-known names patronized Chandravilas—Malay points to a table which was Indulal Yagnik’s favourite place, and whenever film star Raj Kapoor was in Ahmedabad, his host, a theatre owner, ordered food from Chandravilas. It was an exclusive eatery, as the dining room had oak chairs from France and the ceiling fans with wood fittings were assembled by a British carpenter. This thali was incomplete without steamed khaman-khandvi made in a chickpea batter, lentil-based dahivadas, jacket potatoes in gravy, vegetables, paper-thin chapattis, puffed puris, buttermilk, onion rings, green chillies, a sliver of lemon, papad, dal and rice served with a dollop of ghee, along with jalebis. Special thalis, minus some ingredients, like onions, garlic and potatoes, were available for Jain clients, but washing hands in the thali was prohibited; instead a bowl was placed under the table or they washed hands at the copper basin, which is still part of their legacy.

When you are in a hurry, a thali in Ahmedabad can be served in less than five minutes and still be a satisfying meal. A thali can be best described as a twelve-inch platter of steel, brass, bell metal, copper or silver, with small bowls placed within to serve dal; a yogurt-based, soup-like kadhi; curry-based vegetables; and a sweet, syrupy gulab jamun or yogurt-based sweet shrikhand. Waiters serve hot chapattis, thinner puffed phulkas or deep-fried puris to accompany the variety of lightly spiced vegetables.

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