Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Food Trail In Mahableshwar

The heat in Mumbai had become unbearable during the month of May, going to a hill station seemed a better idea. My friends and I decided to go out of Mumbai for a long weekend.

Early Friday morning, we took a road trip, 275 kilometers away from Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar. It was six hours drive. We wanted to have typical Maharastrian food during this trip. On friend’s recommendation, we stopped at Kailash on Pune-Mumbai express way. This restaurant served only platter (thali), special and normal Thali the only difference being that in choice of vegetables.



The food at Kailash was disappointing, it didn’t taste that authentic Maharastrian meal. We were expecting usual, peanut based veggie and a spicy meal but the food was quite bland. There was no sweet dish.

During our stay, dieting was of least importance and eating was our full time pass time. Whereever we walked down the path, the streets were filled with hawkers and who could resist that? Munching on everything was so enjoyable

 There is different kind of charm at hill stations in India. Colorful and fresh fruits line the market streets. Munching on berries and fruits while walking down the streets is a fun…every stall we pass, we are tempted to buy and eat, sometimes even without washing the fruit….it tastes so good….During our walk to market street, we stopped to eat at every stall

We got tempted to eat black Jamun



Roasted corn coated with salt, red pepper and lime



Raspberry and assorted berries



The next day we went sightseeing, but food was always on our mind. The air smelts of fruits and roasted corn. Mango cucumber carrot salad looked so tempting





Carrot n cucumber



Strawberries and white apples



Carrots and strawberries...



You would think that munching all day would be enough. But no, we still were hungry and visited few restaurants to have proper meals too.



We were staying in a private bungalow on the outskirts of the city and we were lucky to be surrounded by good restaurants. We visited Baghicha twice for breakfast.  It had quite a spacious dining hall with colorful nursery occupying one corner of the restaurant.  The walls were decorated with large pin ups of all the film stars and celebrity who had dined in this restaurant. The food is freshly prepared, the order took long time to come, but it was worth the wait. The potato parathas were cooked to perfection, steaming hot, it melted at the first bite and spicy too. We went back for breakfast the next day too and ordered the same breakfast of potato parathas, pohas, sabudhana khichidi, upma and corn cutlets. Tea would pair beautifully with this  breakfast but sadly, they don’t serve tea or coffee, there were soft drinks and fruity milk shakes.



My friends were keen on having Maharastrian food. It was raining heavily and it was so misty that we could not see anything beyond few meters. It was decided that two of them would go and bring food for all of us. But when they stopped by Hirkani, there were hot bakhadi roti and food that looked so appetizing.  They called us to come to the restaurant to enjoy the freshly cooked food. I am glad we went because I really enjoyed the lunch. Although the restaurant serves Thali  to majority of its clients, we decided to order a la carte. It was the most enjoyable meal I had.  We ordered corn vegetables, potato bhaji, brinjals, puri and ussal, all vegetarian meal, so delicious that I didn’t miss non-veg.


Someone suggested that Jaffar at Panchandi  famous for its Briyanis, so we decided to go for lunch the next day. The décor was good, it was surrounded with beautiful landscape. It was crowded too and we had to wait for about fifteen minutes to get a seat. The restaurant serves mainly Biryani, I was surprised to learn that there was no pillaf. However, the biryani was quite disappointing. In veg biryani there were hardly any veggies. Food was bland and we were served a glass of fresh green chilies. Two of my friends reported sick after the meals. I would have preferred a way side dhabba that serves better food.

On our return back to Mumbai, we stopped by Shri Dutta, famous for his Batatawadas at Pen.


 Everybody who passes by this road of Raighad district has to stop by Dutta for battawadas. Friend said I must try it and we relished it on our way back home…..






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