Taste of Shabree

My trip to India has just begun and I have begun my journey with good old Pune, my home. It feels so blissful to be at home with your family, to be in the surroundings you grew up in and the warmth and the flood of beautiful memories. My trip would never be complete without visiting Shabree, this is my favorite restaurant that serves traditional Maharashtrian thali. For those who are unsure of what thali means (as it also stands for the mangalsutra for people coming from southern part of India), thali signifies an Indian meal which consists of an assortment of vegetables, dals, kadhis, pickle, salad, pappad along with rice or roti and accompanied with a sweet or two. Shabree is one such place in Pune that is famous for their Maharashtrian vegetarian thali.

Shabree is tucked neatly in a quaint corner in the otherwise crowded FC road which is also called Fergusson college road. The restaurant is right behind a Vitthal temple and it also has a hotel associated with it. Apart from serving regular restaurant menu, Shabree is very well known for their thali. The curries are generally rotated based on the seasonal vegetables but some of the standards are the pitla, koshimbir, bakrachi roti (roti made of bakri flour), papad, tikhat thecha (hot red chilli paste), lasun chutney (garlic chutney), pickle, curd, sadha bhat (plain rice), thalipeeth. I will get into the details of the mouth watering dishes ;-)

As you enter the restaurant, you are greeted with some traditional Maharashtrian decor made in brass. Men in brass wearing the traditional marathi phetha (turban), beautiful brass lamps and flowers. You walk into the double glass doors to tables arranged with chairs in denominations of four or six and ofcourse they do join tables if there are bigger crowds. The tables are beautifully arranged with steel platters, steel plates with five steel katoris or cups and a steel spoon. All the katoris are uniformly of the same size and are arranged very meticulously and neatly. The walls are adorned with frames of Warli art. The ambiance is very warm and welcoming. Once you are seated, the serving of the food begins. There is an order in which the items are served, first onion slices and lemon along with pickle, hirwa thecha, lasun chutney (garlic chutney) are served neatly on the plate followed by wangi bharit, zunka and koshimbir. The koshimbir is a salad made out of cucumber, yoghurt, peanut powder with some pound cumin. Zunka is a very traditional dish made out of chickpea flour and it is eaten along with bhakri which is a roti made out of bajra flour. It is next the turn of the katoris to be filled with mouth watering curries. One of the server comes around with serving bowls containing four curries. On this particular day they served Dodaka rassa (ridge gourd gravy), harbara usal (sprouts), kadhi (a thin gravy made out of yoghurt and flavored with spices) and amti (traditional maharastrian daal). Once the katoris are filled another person comes with the sweet dish and there is one katori dedicated for this purpose. On this day there was yummy custard with an assortment of fruits and tiny grape sized gulab jamuns. The katoris are brimming with sumptuous food and is waiting to be dug into, which would not be possible without the breads. A happy old gentleman whom I have been seeing doing this task for almost for than 20 years comes around with a content smile and a basket that contains the bread. There are two kinds of breads, one is a well rounded, perfectly shaped chapati which is lined with some ghee and the other is a semi circle of well baked bhakri roti. You are given an option to chose among the two rotis or you are even welcome to take both. Another person comes around with papad, and farsaan items and on this particular day it was tawa thalipeeth and mulyachi cape. Mulyachi cape is a deep fried snack made out of thin slices of radish, dipped in a thick batter of chick pea flour and some spices like turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt. Its time to devour the yummy spread which would be refilled on a regular basis by the friendly staff. This is not the end, once you are done with the rotis, it is time for some rice delicacies, a well spiced khichdi made out of rice and moong dal comes around which is served with ghee. My favorite combination is khichdi with the mango pickle. The grande finale of the sumptuous meal is plain white rice called as sada bhath which can be eaten along with the kadhi, set curd or the amti.

I feel places that serve thali truly signifies the Indian sayin "Athithi devo bhava", which literally translates to "Guest is God". The visitors are served lovingly as though one serves their own family members. Some of the people working in Shabree have been there for more than 20 years, thats how long I have seen them there, they could have been working longer. They have that same vigor, the welcoming and content smile and the ever willingness to serve and feed people. I wanted to take a pic of those gentlemen but they got busy with the ever increasing visitors.

Shabree has food from different regions of maharashtra and some of the regions that were advertised on that particular day was a menu from konkan and Vidarbha.

I was a very satisfied guest that day and I am definitely going to make another visit before I leave Pune.

Long time in hiatus

Its been a long time since I have blogged though I have had many thoughts on which I could write. My passion has reignited and I hope to be more frequent in my blog. I have been travelling a fair bit and the travel bug in me has sparked again and we are set out on our next journey.

We just finished a stint of Kuala Lumpur and surroundings of KL and now we are going to set out on a journey to Thailand. I am really looking forward to this trip which is just a few days away. I have been doing a fair bit of reading on things to do and see in Thailand and it seems amazing. The rich culture, the tradition, the night life, all of them seem to be a great blend between the east and the west. I have just purchased my kindle version of the Lonely Planet for Thailand. 

I will update the blog with the Thailand adventures as soon as I am back from the trip. I am excited and Thailand here we come...