Random Sampling : Sagar Sweets, Mahim, Mumbai

No, I am not going to get statistical in my posts, 'random sampling' is essentially foodie indulgence which doesnt fall in any clear category (stores/restaurants/home) - the catch-all 'Miscellaneous'. :)

On Sunday, we made a quick stop at Sagar Sweets to buy some mithai for Ganeshotsav. And the way Dad, Mom and I betook ourselves was so indicative of our foodieness - or the lack of it.

Dad - walked straight into the store, bought what was required and stepped out.
Mom- stayed back in the car
Me - totally distracted by the trays (platters, salvers, plates...) of food being set out on folding tables on the pavement outside the store; bugged the poor guy laying it all out with my questions; clicked a few dozen pictures on my phone camera; finally bought a booty of goodies to taste!

The holy month of Ramzaan is on and that pocket of Mahim is predominantly Islamic. Muslims fast through the day during Ramzaan and can eat only during the night. Therefore, in the Muslim pockets of the city, during Ramzaan, come evening, and the streets are lined with stalls serving exotic food, traditional dishes you might not get through the year. Makeshift stalls come up, restaurants set up tables and stalls outside the premises as take-away counters, and crowds throng the streets. The month-long fasting ends with Eid when the celebrations continue through the night.
Sagar Sweets, being a combined bakery-and-sweetshop owned by a Muslim family, had on offer an interesting multitude of dishes being laid out in preparation for the evening. Some of them were instantly recognised, but thanks to my questioning the guy arranging all the stuff on the tables (poor chap was so bashful, I suppose he never had a curious female asking him to explain what all the dishes were!), every offering soon had a handle.


The yellow squares were blocks of bread pudding, freshly baked.



The green porridge-like dish in the silvery tray was doodhi halwa (doodhi/bottlegourd/calabash, is slowly simmered with thickened milk, nuts, sugar to form a comforting, rich mash)

The samosas looked plumciously inviting!



The puff pattices (patties?) looked the deal - layers and layers of flaky puff pastry swaddling a spicy-salty vegetable mash

And the piece de resistance - heaps of shallow earthen bowls containing phirni. (A porridge/pudding made of thickened milk and rice - flavoured with kevda/rose water)




I bought the puff pattice, the bread pudding and of course, the phirni. We did a taste test the next day and the results were:


Puff pattice - the ususal: too-oily, too spicy yet addictive. Nothing spectacular.

Bread pudding : We were a little disconcerted with the sunny yellow colour (though the blistered golden-brown top was reassuring) - we thought it would be too eggy. I do not like custard-based puddings that have an eggy aroma - and it's worse when the eggy scent is tried to be covered up with a stonger flavour like artificial vanilla or cardamom - because then you get 2 distinct smells - egg and the vanilla! But this bread pudding, despite its rich yellow colour had absolutely no whiff of egg. There were eggs in there - the silken smooth set texture couldnt be achieved without them - but no hint of the strong eggy flavour at all, and just a hint of vanilla. The barest hint. Oh, this pudding was divine- velvety smooth and not overly sweet. Score!

Phirni - Oh my goodness. This version of the popular dessert was even better than the one I'd sampled in Amritsar . Rice flour and milk slowly are simmered together with a few plump grains of rice to create a soft, smooth porridge which is then left to set in shallow earthenware bowls. The earthenware bowls leach excess moisture away giving a set, spoon-hugging consistency.

This phirni had achieved that wonderful textural balance between smooth and nubbly; and had a delicate almost-set consistency. And flavoured with a very light touch of kevda (kewra) jal (An extract distilled from pandanus flowers - gives a floral and sweet fragrance). Its easy to go overboard with kevda, giving a cloyingly sweet aroma but this was sublime!

As he was scraping away at the last of the phirni at the bottom of the clay bowl, Dad mumbled "Eid is on the 21st - gives us plenty of time"

:D

EDIT 27/08/09: Had visited Sagar again today. This time I reached there when business was brisk, at 7:30 PM. And laid out on the tables outside was a veritable feast for the eyes...... In addition to all the goodies I mentioned in the post there was:

1. A huge kadhaai (wok) in which golden pillows of malpuawere being fried

2. A tray full of sunset-orangejalebis , glistening with syrup

3. Another tray with massive helpings of shahi tukra (fried bread served with thickened milk-with-nuts)

4. A collection of little plastic bowls filled with mini rasmalais

5. Ditto of individually decorated creme caramels (caramel custard)

I stared at all this goodness in a haze of sugar-induced euphoria - AND walked away with just 4 little pots of phirni - to be given away!

Am I not the most virtuously good person you ever knew? ;)