GUJARATI STAPLE DIET

Gujarati FoodThe traditional Gujarati food is primarily vegetarian and has a high

nutritional value. The typical Gujarati thali consists of varied kinds of lip smacking dishes. Gujarati cuisine has so much to offer and each dish has an absolutely different cooking style. Some of the dishes

are stir fry, while others are boiled. Gujarati food is more often served on a silver platter. Gujaratis use a combination of different

spices and flavours to cook their meals and this is what makes their food truly exotic.

Gujarati cuisine differs from season to season depending on the availability of vegetables. People in the urban areas are starting

some new eating trends. In the summer season, spices such as black pepper and its constituent spices are used in lesser quantities.

People fast on a regular basis and limit their diet to milk, nuts and dried fruits.

Popular Gujarati Dishes

Sweets• Basundi• Ghari Ghebar or Ghevar• Halvasan• Keri no ras• Malpua• Puran Poli• Shrikhand• Sutarfeni

Diwali Special Snacks• Cholafali• Ghooghra• Mathia• SoonvaliShaak and Daal: Vegetables and Curries• Meethi (Sweet) Kadhi• Sev Tameta nu Shak• Undhiyun

Farsan (Snacks)• Daal Dhokli• Dhokla• Fafda• Farsi Falafel• Ganthia• Hahdwoh• Kachori• Khakhra• Khaman• Khaman Dhokla• Khandvi• Khichu• Lilva Kachori• Muthia• Sev Khamani

Breads• Bajri no rotlo• Bhakhri• Dhebara• Thepala

PARSI STAPLE FOODParsi Cuisine refers to the traditional cuisine of the Parsis of India.

The basic feature of a Parsi lunch is rice, eaten with lentils or a curry. Curry is made with coconut and ras without, with curry usually being thicker than ras. Dinner would be a meat dish, often accompanied by

potatoes or other vegetable curry. Kachumbar (a sharp onion-cucumber salad) accompanies most meals.

Also popular among Parsis, but less so elsewhere, are the typical Parsi eeda (egg) dishes, which include akuri (scrambled eggs with spices)

and the pora ("Parsi" omelette). Also, main dishes (such as those listed above) are often served with an egg on top.

Traditional breakfasts during the 1930s in Mumbai or in many South Gujarat villages consisted of khurchan (offal meats cooked with

potatoes in a spicy gravy), and some variant of the ubiquitous deep-fried, fried or half-fried eggs. In agrarian communities this would be

washed down by copious quantities of coconut toddy, often straight off the tree.

Popular Parsi dishes• Chicken farcha (fried chicken)• Patra ni machhi (steamed fish wrapped in banana leaf)• Dhansak (lamb, mutton, goat or chicken and/or vegetables in lentil

and/or toor daal gravy)• Sali murghi (spicy chicken with fine fried matchstick potatoes)• Jinga no patio (shrimp in spicy tomato curry)• Khichri (rice with toor daal and/or moong daal)• Saas ni machhi (yellow rice with pomfret fish fillets in white sauce)• Jardaloo sali boti (boneless mutton in an onion and tomato sauce

with apricots and fried matchstick potatoes)• Tamota ni russ chaval (mutton cutlets with white rice and tomato

sauce)

• Common desserts include sev (vermicelli), ravo (semolina) and Malido. Also popular are faluda and kulfi, both of which are adoptions from the cuisines of the Irani and Urdu-speaking communities. Wedding feasts traditionally include lagan nu custard.

• Popular parsi snacks include bhakhra (deep fried sweet dough) batasa (flour and butter tea biscuits) dar ni pori (sweetened lentils stuffed in a light pastry) and khaman na ladva (dumplings stuffed with sweetened coconut).

BOHRI MUSLIMS FOOD Every Bohra house around the world gets food from a local community centre, called Faize Mawaid-e-Burhani. This community centre caters for

all three meals every day of the week except Sundays. There is no price tag on the food, so families pay whatever they can

afford. There are no receipts and no records of payments are maintained. Most well-to-do people make generous donations to keep the centre

running and ladies volunteer to make chapattis at the centre. The idea is to provide quality food to all members of the community,

irrespective of whether they can afford it or not.A Bohra meal begins by passing the salt. And it is only after each partaker

seated around a big platter has tasted it that the first course is served. Bohra Muslims, who are said to have migrated originally from Yemen to Gujarat, are firm believers in the maxim: “The family that eats together,

stays together.”

Popular DishesSweets/Desserts• Pineapple halwa - Pineapple pudding • Kheer - Indian rice pudding• Khajur no Halwo - Date Pudding • Appetizer - Savory • Shami kebab - Meat patties made

with lentils and spices• Teekha aloo - Spicy potatoes

Salads or Sides• Baigan nu bharta - Baigan ka bharta -

Roasted eggplant with yogurt

MaincourseNon Veg• Gosh ni tarkari - Mutton stew • Lagan ya seekh - Minced meat layered

with tomatoes, potatoes and finished with egg

• Mutton korma - Mutton cooked in tomato sauce and finished with yogurt and fried onions

• Spicy fried fishVeg• Kefti dal - Mixed lentil soup• Patwalya - Colocasia leaf rolls• Gavarfali ni sabzi - Cluster beans cooked

in spices and tomato sauce • Dudhi ni tarkari - Bottle gourd soup

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