The one month!!!

It's almost a month i wrote my last post (my 1st Blog-versary), and that's taking too much time to writing back again!!! I have been busy and lazy, both! I wanted to write only when i felt like, and not because i had to! After all, that's what the fun of a blog is about, right? You write your heart out, and not just type words!!! This remains as a memory in the web world for us to see years later of what we did/felt today.

Ahh, am i getting too sentimental here? Well, leaving that apart, i decided to let you all know of what i have been upto in the last month (apart from lazying around, playing games, reading lot of books and spending a lot of time with myself). Not that the kitchen was out-of-order... Infact i have been cooking a lot, but just the daily stuff! So, after my Blog-versary, i started with the Diwali cleaning spree of home, some shopping of the usual rangoli-diyas-lights and of course making sweets! This year i didn't make our traditional Faraal (The snacks and sweets we normally make for Diwali - Chakli, ladoo, Chiwda, sev, Shankarpale etc) and instead made methi puris, nankhatais and kuchu nimki. I had been wanting to take pictures of them to post recipes later, but for some reason i didn't.. so, i will make them again and do so.

A pic of  Diwali celebrations from back home

And then, we went home for 10 days!!! I was so looking forward to this vacation as this time we were going to visit my husband's hometown-Akola for the very first time after marraige. And i was really happy that i got a chance to meet my extended in-laws family and get all the blessings and love from them. Traditionally, our homes had "Aangan" (kind of courtyard) and there would always be a Tulsi tree in between. And retaining the culture, i saw just that, with the lady of the home doing Pooja (Lighting a diya in evening along with incense stick and putting water and drawing rangoli each morning) of the tree. These small traditions imbibe a lot of virtues inside oneself.

Tulsi tree with rangoli in our aangan at Akola

We also got to visit the "almost-calculated" 100 year old home of my husband's where his great-grandfather grew up. Lots of trees, and the home surrounded with dogs and cats, it looked liked just the place for our vacation from the concrete jungles. 

The 100 year old home of hubby's great-grandfather

I also learnt a lot of traditional Vidarban recipes, of which some i am definitely going to try soon. Majorly from my hubby's Uncle who runs a catering business with his wife succesfully in Akola, and is himself a great cook. (I can vouch for it, as i lip-smacked curries made by him) My bag back home was full of gifts and most of it, the masalas that i carried back :)

Hubby's uncle making Karela-curry

This time the Pune visit was all about spending time with the family, so we didn't venture eating-out much. But we surely satisfied our sandwich cravings, the still-feel-the-taste-in-my-mouth Dabeli, and of course the ever famous Good luck cafe which we visited even last time for their famous Bun-maska Chai. The iranian cafe has a different charm to it, and just going to that place makes you walk back in time. 

The famous dabeli

This time, we also visited the "Konkan express", as husband wanted to gorge on some sea-food. The malvani-konkani style food was fingerliscious. Me, being a vegetarian ordered their green thali (the veg xacuti and solkadhi being the speciality) and i almost finished the whole thali alone :) Fairly priced, this place is must visit in Kothrud area of Pune for sea-food. 

At the Konkan express relishing sea-food

One thing which i would specially like to mention in the post is the Diwali fort making by children, where miniature versions of actual forts are made by kids with the help of mud, stones, and some readily available accessories. India has a lot of forts, and especially the Deccan region has a major of them being built by Shivaji Maharaj. Since decades, children make forts of mud in an open space outside their homes or colonies which acts as a source of learning for them in their Diwali-vacations. A lot of workshops and competitions are arranged these days and awards are given to the best fort built. We visited 2 of such exhibitions of which i am posting pictures. 

Note: Sorry for the quality of images, as all pictures are taken by phone and in low-light.

Beautiful, ain't they? 

Back home and got back to work (Pet-sitting) wherein i am sitting one handsome Tom-cat these days. Odin, as he is called, he communicates with his meows and loves jumping all over!!

Meanwhile, a friend came over to eat "mere-haath-ka-khana" and gave a pat on my back after relishing all the food i cooked for 3 days! Feels really great when someone really licks a plate clean even if you have made a simple "Varan-bhaat" (Daal-chawal).

Winters have started here and now all i have to do is cosy-up-in-the-bed with a warm cup of coffee or green tea! So hopefully i will do more of writing now :)

Happy winters everyone :)

Mast Mast Mastani

Mastani is a very popular ice-cream shake from Pune. I was not aware of this till the time i met my husband who used to rave about this drink. ( yes, i want to hide my face below a pillow that i didn't knew about Mastani, though being a Maharashtrian). But guess, i never really explored food much before my marriage. The cooking, the love for food, the blog everything happened just after that and for good :)

So, i definitely wanted to try Mastani the first time i visited Pune after my marriage. I was surprised to see Mastani corners almost everywhere on the streets of Pune, the famous and oldest being Sujata. They claim to have started the drink in Pune. But the one i tried that time was at Khatri Bandhu. Gulkand being my favourite ( Gulkand is basically rose petals in sugar syrup ), i ordered for Gulkand Mastani and since then has been my favourite.

One sip/bite of the Mastani and you are in some trance. So during my recent visit to Pune, i again went to the Khatri Bandhu outlet and had a chance to talk with the owner's friend ( who looks after the outlet in evenings after which the owner himself comes and stays back till late). Khatri Bandhu was started by Girish Khatri 25 years ago and since then has been successfully running all throughout Pune . They serve over 8 different varieties of Mastani and have around 6 branches in Pune. Their specialty is they use full cream milk and make the ice-cream with the authentic pot-method. No artificial flavours added, they concentrate on keeping the flavours traditional. 

This is one heavy drink ( I mean, what can you expect with a glass full of ice cream milkshake topped with scoop of the same ice cream??? ). Pure sin, isn't it? So weight watchers, keep your diet plans to rest when u go try this one divine drink.

No one knows the history behind the name of the drink, but the link to Bajirao Mastani is quite popular. She was the wife (or some say lover) of Peshwa Bajirao who was the prime minister to the fourth Maratha Emperor Shahuji. She was known to be a brave beautiful woman with skills of horse riding and swordsmanship. Also a talented singer and dancer, some say she was a dancer in the court where Bajirao fell in love with her. Their love story is one of it's kind wherein he was a Brahmin and she a Muslim, thereby facing lots of rejections and intolerance from Bajirao's family. But their love was so eternal that she died in the same year, soon after Bajirao did.

A painting showing Bajirao and Mastani. ( Source: Google Images )

During this trip, we tried Mastani at both Khatri Bandhu and Sujata. Sujata i felt was over priced, and the only one i loved was the Mango and the Kesar-Mango there. Their ice cream flavours are good too. But the rest of the mastani's we had were average.

Khatri won our hearts with the Gulkand Mastani (Of course!). Hubby's favourite Pista Mastani was absolutely melt-in-the-mouth too. Their Mawa flavor is fast selling, but we liked it's ice-cream better than the mastani ( Maybe the mawa milkshake didn't suit our taste buds).

So next time you are in Pune, you can't leave the city without tasting the Mastani! It's absolutely straw-licking and spoon-licking!!! :)