Festive Appetite

Vishwas Kulkarni,who runs a successful catering business in Pune,talks about the breakfast eaten in Maharashtrian households on Diwali mornings. “Diwali breakfast is sort of the fruit of all the days a mother,or a wife spends in the kitchen,making faral,” he says. “On Diwali days,the family sits together for breakfast,with the wide array of faral items. As most of the items are rich or sweet,many families eat some light,savoury,accompanying breakfast items such as Pohe or Upit,” he says.

While the morning ritual on the Diwali days changes from family to family,some traditions are specific to the region. Amrita Ghosh,who is originally from Bengal,will miss the Chouddo Shaak,a sabzi made every year from 14 kinds of leafy vegetables,back at her home in Krishnanagar. “We eat the shaak with bhat (rice) and Mangsho kosha (chicken curry),along with the slew of sweets made and served during Diwali,” she says. She adds that many households in Bengal make Pithepooli (a rice flour crepe with coconut and jaggery filling),luchi (Bengali poori) and Kumror chhokka (pumpkin sabzi) for breakfast on Diwali.

For 38-year-old Manju Rao,the memories of Diwali are mingled with the sounds of the bursting crackers,the crunchy Chaklis and the soft yellow dosas served with freshly churned white butter. A resident of Bibwewadi,Rao upholds the South Canara tradition of making yellow dosas for breakfast on Diwali morning. “I hail from a small village near Udupi in Karnataka. As dosas and idlis are almost a staple breakfast there,we eat that along with the sweets and fried snacks,” she says. “For breakfast generally,my mother makes usual dosa batter,but on Diwali,she adds a teaspoon of turmeric in it as well. She says that it is because the dosas look very plain and bare besides the colourful food on the table,” says Rao,laughing. “She also had a special ingredient; she fried jeera in ghee and added the mixture to the dosa batter. The result was pretty and flavourful dosas on Diwali morning,” says Rao reminiscing.