Mouth watering amdavadi only snacks
Amdavad is known for its business, its ever increasing prosperity, its people, their typical food habits, the road side eateries etc.
Here you will have a glance at some food items found typically in Amdavad and rarely found outside.
One such item is Cholafali. You must have tasted Sakkarpara, a farsaan or ‘namkin’ as new incoming Amdavadis call it. The Sakkarparas are prepared from wheat flour slightly mixed with gram flour and sweet Sakkarparas are made from wheat flour only. But call it a brother of Sakkarpara, cholafali is made from mixed flour of gram, urad and a slight touch of mung flour.
It is eaten with typical green chilli chutney, liquid in form. Base is curd and mint but green chilli paste will put your tongue on fire taken alone. Eating cholafali sprinkled with red chilli powder on it dipping in pungent green chutney is an experience.
How do they make it? First the flour is sifted with water and some baking soda. A mass called pindaa is built. From it small flat rounds like chapatis are made. These rounds are cut into long stripes like fafda but are very thin. These stripes are deep fried, the result is fluffy cholafali. Eat sprinkled with chilli powder and 'sanchal’.
Cholafalis have the word Nagar associated with it. Nagar is a caste in gujarat and in Northern India. No authenticate information is found on how cholafali is associated with nagars but it is said that a Nagrani (lady Nagar) ,
while trying to make Sakkarparas from the mixed flour as told above, accidentally made it some 75 years ago. These Nagars are Hindi speaking Nagars migrated from Rajasthan.(It is also said that they are actually Gujrati Nagars migrated for work to Rajasthan and re migrated here). They mainly stay in Khokhra area of South Amdavad.
The accidental invention was liked by fellow Nagars and they started selling it commercially. Hence mainly 'Nagar Cholafali mart’ words are seen. Rajasthani Nagars sell them. Now other small shopkeepers do sell it and on Makar Sankranti and on Dussehra, Amdavadis relish Cholafali with Jalebi. On normal days also, as an evening snack it is very popular. The cholafalis being light in weight, a 200 gram lot can fill your Activa 'deki’. Per head 50 grams can fill your plate.
Many households prepare Cholafali in Diwali so that the plates of guests look filled with these fluffy snacks.
You will not find Cholafali outside Amdavad.
The letter ‘ l ‘ in Cholafali is ळ like नळ for tap. Hence to say ‘Chorafali’ is incorrect.
Another such favourite dish typical to Amdavad is Dalwada eaten with fried onion pieces and chillies fried with salt.
Dalwadas are crispy deep fried balls prepared from mung daal ground into flakes or half grains and mixed with a gravy of crushed mung. Green Chilli pieces are mixed into the gravy itself. To mix the flavour of onions and chilies, everything is fried together and you can smell its distinctive smell, from distance passing on the road.
Like for idlis, the gravy called Khiru for Dalwada is also sold in liquid form which you can take home and fry Dalwada at your convenience. But at home they will not have the taste of famous joints selling them. The Khiru is perishable.
Dalwada can be bought half fried or deep fried.
Somehow, rains and Dalwada have become synonyms for Amdavadis. Come rain, hot Dalwada laris will have queues of buyers.
Main popular centres selling Dalwada are on Gandhi Road, on Relief Road near Ratan Pol joint, near Gujarat College to Mithakhali Road.
The Dalwada near Gandhigram Station were and are very famous, the laaris used to stand on a downward slope hence known as 'Khaada' na daalwada’. (Khaada means a pit). But now a row of laaris stand there and it is not possible to distinguish which one is genuine. All do not have the good quality.
Recently Dalwada of Gota, on S.G.highway have become very popular since 7-8 years.
Ankur Cross roads, Law Garden, AEC cross roads also have famous stalls for Dalwada.
Just as authenticate Sev Usal can be had at Vadodra only, real Dalwada or Cholafali can be had at Amdavad only.
Another tasty Amdavadi food is small Samosas of typical daal grains known as 'Navtad Samosa’. We all eat Samosa of mashed potato everywhere but the Navtad Samosas are unique to Amdavad.
Navtad is an area near Gheekanta, the road from Relief road to Delhi Chakla. Initially these small samosa preparations were started near there in a pol named Navtad ni Pol. These small samosas are made from crushed daal (pulses) including mung, urad, some green gram. They are very deep fried. The smell you get passing nearby is that of burning oil, rather unpleasant, but such hot daal samosas taste marvellous in bytes from mouth. The chutney here is of two types- sweet red coloured and ‘tikhi ‘ green chutney of chilli and daal mixed in liquid gravy.
Only in Amdavad you find Navtad samosa. The upper layer covering the daal gravy is of menda, the wheat flour we use in bread, naan etc. Hence unfried Navtad samosa wrapped in menda layer can be taken home to be fried later. They are not very perishable. Can stay for 3 days and you can heat in oven or slightly fry in oil to eat hot.
Since the daal gravy is wrapped inside a menda layer, they are also known as 'patti’ samosa. Patti means a film, a long strip.
A rather unknown snacks to those migrated here and living in Western Amdavad is Fulavdi of Raipur Bhajiya House. Bhajiya means pakoda. There are bhajiyas of potato chips, onion slices, even tomato or banana slices and mirchi bhajiya made from not so pungent chilli (mirchi vada) etc. But on preparing bhajiyas some gram flour remains get deep fried. These are tiny remains of flour detached from bhajiya in the frying pan. These tiny fried pieces of bhajiya remains are known as fulavdi and they are sold at a slightly lower price than that for bhajia. In walled Amdavad this fulavdi is in great demand just like bhajias as they carry taste of all type of bhajia the oil fries.
Some students in walled city buy fulavdi for late night munching while reading.
It is interesting to know that Raipur Bhajia House is 125 years old! It is housed in an ancient gate wall and there is a branch nearby.
Besides these snacks found only in Amdavad, there is a berry like purple, sour fruit known as Falsa. It is available in summer only in and around Amdavad.
Red Guava, Amrud (or Jamrukh in gujarati) is grown mainly around Bhavnagar but perfectly round, white from inside , very soft guavas of Dholka (a town 18 km from Amdavad) are unique to this area. Nashik Guava and others are big in size, hard to bite and not so tasty. Dholka jamfal again has become a brand name 'Dholka Jamfal’ have a sweet taste with a tint of pleasant sourness. They are very soft. So soft that you can press in your fist and cut into two without a knife.
Such is the variety of Amdavadi eating. Amdavadis do eat these all and still maintain health by long walks and by going to many round the street corner yoga centres.
-Sunil Anjaria
