Diwali delights
With prices ranging from Rs150 per kg for chivda and Rs350 for mohanthal, Tanna’s clients come calling from far-off USA, Dubai and Muscat too
Overpowering smell of besan laddoos (gram flour sweets), methi sev (thin fried fenugreek noodles) karanji (flour dumplings filled with coconut and sugar) and chakli (crispy savoury spirals) fills Swati Samel’s kitchen weeks before Diwali.
After all, she has to prepare several kilos of these snacks and sweets to cater to the large Maharashtrian and South Indian clientele that come knocking at her doorstep just days before Diwali to pick up homemade traditional festive food items.
Says Jyotsna Tanna, a Kandivali-based homemaker who turns businesswoman at this time of the year, “Nowadays, people lead a very busy life and with both partners working, they don’t find time to prepare traditional dishes for the festive season, as done in the past. Our food items are lapped up by many such families.”
Cooking these traditional Gujarati dishes begins 15 days before the festival. She prepares different types of chivdas (crispy beaten rice), shakkarparas (deep fried wheat flour and sugar sweet crispies), puris (fried flatbread) — masala and farsi and sweets like mohanthal, peda and kaju barfi to cater to the large Gujarati clientele both in the city and abroad.
With prices ranging from Rs150 per kg for chivda and Rs350 for mohanthal, Tanna’s clients come calling from far-off USA, Dubai and Muscat too. At Gujarati households, it’s the wide variety of ganthia (fried gramflour strips), fafda (fried snacks) and ghooghra (type of karanji) that dominates the festive fare. Agrees housewife Neeta Majithia, “Every Gujarati household is filled with the smell of jalebis, khopra pak (coconut sweet), fafdas, chorafali and chaklis during Diwali."
After all, Diwali is the time when people belonging to different communities — be it Marwaris, Gujaratis, Maharastrians, South Indians or even Bengalis, exchange greetings alongwith homemade sweets and savouries. Delectable food items like cakes and chocolates maybe gaining popularity during the festive season but some dishes remain eternal favourites and a must-have during this time of the year.
“This year, I have prepared 150 kilos of traditional food items just for Diwali,” says housewife Kishori Surve, who prepares snacks for both her clients as well as for food stores across the city.
According to her, earlier, the Diwali snacks were made at home owing to the joint family system which made things easier. Not to be left behind, NRIs too are making a beeline for these caterers and shops when it comes to Diwali sweets and snacks. Dadar-based Panshikar Mithaiwale caters to NRI customers through a web portal which allows them to order savouries online.
According to Ashish Panshikar, owner of Panshikar Mithaiwale, their customers include Maharashtrians, Gujaratis and South Indians from countries as far off as UK, USA, Egypt, Oman, and South America.
Apart from home-based caterers, many stores across the city gear up for the special Diwali offerings. Kutumbh Sakhi, a non-profit organisation based in Dadar with 10 outlets across the city has variants such as the diet karanji and diet chivda on offer.
“Working women are our main clients. They order sweets such as anarse as they are difficult to prepare and if the flour is not of the right consistency it fails to make good anarse,” says Sandhya Belvalkar, vice chairman of Kutumbh Sakhi. The store has delicacies such as baked karanjis, dudhi halwa karanjis and boondi laddoos on offer.
After all, she has to prepare several kilos of these snacks and sweets to cater to the large Maharashtrian and South Indian clientele that come knocking at her doorstep just days before Diwali to pick up homemade traditional festive food items.
Says Jyotsna Tanna, a Kandivali-based homemaker who turns businesswoman at this time of the year, “Nowadays, people lead a very busy life and with both partners working, they don’t find time to prepare traditional dishes for the festive season, as done in the past. Our food items are lapped up by many such families.”
Cooking these traditional Gujarati dishes begins 15 days before the festival. She prepares different types of chivdas (crispy beaten rice), shakkarparas (deep fried wheat flour and sugar sweet crispies), puris (fried flatbread) — masala and farsi and sweets like mohanthal, peda and kaju barfi to cater to the large Gujarati clientele both in the city and abroad.
With prices ranging from Rs150 per kg for chivda and Rs350 for mohanthal, Tanna’s clients come calling from far-off USA, Dubai and Muscat too. At Gujarati households, it’s the wide variety of ganthia (fried gramflour strips), fafda (fried snacks) and ghooghra (type of karanji) that dominates the festive fare. Agrees housewife Neeta Majithia, “Every Gujarati household is filled with the smell of jalebis, khopra pak (coconut sweet), fafdas, chorafali and chaklis during Diwali."
After all, Diwali is the time when people belonging to different communities — be it Marwaris, Gujaratis, Maharastrians, South Indians or even Bengalis, exchange greetings alongwith homemade sweets and savouries. Delectable food items like cakes and chocolates maybe gaining popularity during the festive season but some dishes remain eternal favourites and a must-have during this time of the year.
“This year, I have prepared 150 kilos of traditional food items just for Diwali,” says housewife Kishori Surve, who prepares snacks for both her clients as well as for food stores across the city.
According to her, earlier, the Diwali snacks were made at home owing to the joint family system which made things easier. Not to be left behind, NRIs too are making a beeline for these caterers and shops when it comes to Diwali sweets and snacks. Dadar-based Panshikar Mithaiwale caters to NRI customers through a web portal which allows them to order savouries online.
According to Ashish Panshikar, owner of Panshikar Mithaiwale, their customers include Maharashtrians, Gujaratis and South Indians from countries as far off as UK, USA, Egypt, Oman, and South America.
Apart from home-based caterers, many stores across the city gear up for the special Diwali offerings. Kutumbh Sakhi, a non-profit organisation based in Dadar with 10 outlets across the city has variants such as the diet karanji and diet chivda on offer.
“Working women are our main clients. They order sweets such as anarse as they are difficult to prepare and if the flour is not of the right consistency it fails to make good anarse,” says Sandhya Belvalkar, vice chairman of Kutumbh Sakhi. The store has delicacies such as baked karanjis, dudhi halwa karanjis and boondi laddoos on offer.