Last monsoon when we drove till
Bordi beach, many of friends had asked if we had our lunch at Parsi da Dhaba. Honestly I had absolutely no clue that there's dhaba by a Parsi! This year when P and I planned on the Monsoon day trip, we decided to go to Bordi again and then have Parsi Bhonu for lunch at Parsi da Dhaba. What we did not plan that the whole day would turn out to be a pilgrimage and quite literally! We skipped Bordi and reached Udvada, a sacred place for the Parsi and Zorostrian communities. Udvada has the Iranshah Atash Behram, which is the holiest of the Agiaries and it is said that the fire inside it is burning since thousands of years.
Since non Parsis are not permitted inside a Fire temple, P said " Let's check out the other sacred fire; the one that burns inside Parsi kitchens and dishes out those delicacies!" That's it. We decided to take inspiration from - "Jamva Chalo Ji" (Come let's eat), we landed in Udvada and we ate for sure.
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| Jamva Chalo Ji! |
Udvada is just about 230 km from Mumbai, in Valsad district and a straight drive through NH8. We started at around 9 am. We had all the plans of stopping at Ahura, another Parsi food heaven just after Charoti. But since our driver was hungry, he stopped at a food junction and we too ended up having missal pav and kothimvir vadis owing to a "miscommunication" with the waiter! And we crossed Ahura just after about 30 mins of that. No Salli per Eedu at Ahura this time. I sighed.
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| Fried Boi |
We reached Udvada through a back road that google map showed us! By the time we were there, it was already almost the famous afternoon siesta time. But to our luck Globe Hotel still had lunch and we were greeted by very welcoming Percy, the owner himself. Since it was officially not the " tourist season" their restaurant was closed. But they opened one of the rooms and laid the table there. And what a spread it was. We had the fried fish Mullet locally called "Boi", Chicken Vindaloo , Mutton Dhanshak. To accompany all these we had rotis and of course the caramelised rice.
The Parsi hotels there serve really good food. They take pride in their food and they can no way get this wrong. That's one thing you can be totally sure of. Another very popular place to feast is Hotel Ashishvangh.
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| Caramel Rice with Mutton Dhanshak |
We did not have any oh so typically Parsi Raspberry just to feel less guilty. Even before our lunch was over an auto came over shouting " Ice Cream Ice Cream". That's the famous hand churned mango ice cream. We asked Sunil, the autowallah cum Ice cream seller to come later. He did come and this time with his assistant to help him. By that time there was another couple at Globe Hotel too.
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| Mango ice cream |
While everything that we ate was delectable, I loved the Chicken Vindaloo most. I can almost taste it as I look at the photograph now. It was really too good.
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| Chicken Vindaloo |
After that heavy Parsi Bhonu for lunch, we had to go for a walk. Peak of afternoon; the town was so quiet that at times it felt as if I and P were the only people awake. We walked till the beach and walked through the road by the beach. There were huge houses that adorned that road. Most of the houses were locked, either abandoned or in the care of some "caretaker". There was a huge mansion that belonged to some Rai Bahadur ( the name plate said so). But now almost in ruins. The whole street wore a veil of melancholy; actually the whole town did. May be it was the time of the day we were there.
We left by 4pm. But not without some Mawa cake from the famous Irani Bakery. We have Mawa cakes here in Mumbai, the best one being from the Merwan at Grant Road. But these slightly caramelised Mawa cakes from Irani Cafe in Udvada top the list now.
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| Mawa Cakes |
While returning we took some turn and were on the NH8 in 15 minutes only to realise that earlier we took a long detour to reach Udvada; thanks to Google maps.
On the way from Udvada to Mumbai, Ahura is on the right side of the highway. But P insisted we stop for a cup of Irani chai there. So we took an U turn and stopped at Ahura. We just asked casually if they still had Salli Per Eedu at that time. Actually Salli per Eedu is considered a classic Parsi breakfast dish. As the old waiter said "yes", we were hungry again. Come on; Ahura is at a good 2 hours distance from Udvada and it's justified. P and I relished that and a plate of bun maska with 4 cups of Irani chai.
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Salli per Eedu at Ahura
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This was not planned. We just happen to reach Udvada by chance and we skipped Parsi da Dhaba this time too. Though this time it was intentional. May be next time.
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| Atash Behram |
