Mixed doubles
CHAKLI WITH SZECHWAN SAUCE
You won't find strawberries and cream in the Mahabaleshwar Bar. But what you will find, in abundance, at this dive in Tardeo is chakli served with Szechwan sauce. It's offered with drinks as 'chakna' or accompaniment. Across the road from the more dubious Drums Beat, Mahabaleshwar is frequented by office-goers. Many bars that fall into the same category have had to cut back on chakna because of inflation. Thankfully, Mahabaleshwar continues to serve spicy chakli with a lurid orange sauce that's squeezed out of plastic packets.
MANGO AND CHEESE MILKSHAKE
Sunil Vilas, owner of Health Juice Centre in Vashi, has many inventions to his name. Apart from Lal Pila (strawberry and mango milkshake), Kala Jambul and Mango Rose (mango pulp with rose flavouring and real petals), he whips up Mango-Cheese during summer months. Mango-Cheese, which looks like 'aam ras' with 'malai' or cream floating on it, is in fact mango milkshake made from pyree(a variety similar to alphonso). The shake is then topped with cheese. The imported variety, mind you.
BUTTER COFFEE
If you are a Harry Potter fan, then you know what butterbeer is. While that was a fictional concoction of author JK Rowling, the PVR Anupam complex in Saket in Delhi offers something equally weird: butter coffee. It's available only when it's biting cold, for that's when the old-style espresso machines come out. Served by a paanwala (between Giani's and McDonald's ), it is priced at a special rate of Rs 35. Putting butter in coffee is a tradition in most South-east Asian countries and it now seems to have filtered its way across to Delhi. The butter adds creaminess to the brew. Do try it the next time you attend a late night show.
BEER COCKTAILS
One of the cocktails on the menu of Cerveza, a new beer bar in Colaba in Mumbai, is intriguingly named Nature's Call. Do the owners know what the call of nature usually entails? Did they name it as a joke on a drunken night? Does the Nature's Call taste like urine? Whatever the reason, we were amused enough to sample this strange combination of beer and Amaretto, a sweet almond liqueur. The taste is less amusing, reminding us of cough syrup. Beer, like wine, is best had without mixers. And these drinks are for those who like the fizzy character of beer but not its bitter taste.
(Recently in USA, my niece's friend nursed a drink - beer with lemonade . She said back in India she and her friends used to have beer-limca combo..arresting the bitter taste of beer).
VODKA PAANI PURI
Some years ago, a genius decided to spike paani puri's liquid component with vodka. The alcoholic snack became so popular that it swiftly spread to bars and house parties across the country. Gujaratis and Punjabis are particularly fond of it. Some add a dash of chilled vodka to the flavoured water. Those who want a little more kick, fill puris with neat vodka. And some abandon the puris altogether to mix chutney with vodka and do a bottoms up.
DAHI PAAPAD
This delightfully awkward pairing probably crossed the border and crept into India after Partition. It's as Sindhi as all-white and Jhulelal. Dried uraddough, with flecks of garlic, is cooked on a heated pan till it pops. Then, it is paired with salted curd or, even better, dahi chutney (prepared by mixing chilli paste, coriander and dalia with curd). This combo accompanies almost every meal, be it Sindhi curry or koki.
FRUIT AND PANEER SANDWICHES
One of the most surprising street foods that Delhi has to offer is available at a grain store, just off Chawri Bazaar, in Raghu Ganj. Anil Kumar Jain's the Jain Coffee House is famous for scrumptious fruit and paneer sandwiches. Jain - who makes sandwiches as a side business - has a variety of fruity combinations on offer. He takes slices of bread, slathers them with orange marmalade, then carefully assembles slivers of fresh paneer, butter, a handful of sliced grapes, a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds and slices of seasonal fruit. At Rs 30 a sandwich you can get a filling of chikoos, mangoes, bananas, apples, grapes and pineapples.
EVERYTHING PAR EEDU
One of the peculiarities of Parsi cuisine is food topped with eggs. There's tamota par eedu (tomato with eggs), papeta (potatoes) par eedu, bheeda (okra) par eedu and sali (fried potato straws) par eedu. In fact almost any left-over vegetable can be had this way. Some of these combinations are hits but some, like bheeda par eedu, are unremarkable. Eggs - firm or runny - in no way enhance leftover bhindi. Why do Parsis love it? The only explanation that comes to mind is that so strong is the Parsi love for non-vegetarian food, that they can't consume anything without the addition of protein. Perhaps that's why the cuisine has no vegetarian worth mentioning. Even the veggies have meat - dudhi ma gos (bottle gourd with mutton), papri (broad beans) ma gos, bheeda (okra) ma gos...
RICE WITH KETCHUP
It's hard to imagine anyone appreciating ketchup with rice but there are many people who enjoy mixing boiled rice with ketchup as they would daal. Just what is it about industrial tomato sauce and starch that makes this marriage so appealing? Shaista Cooper, a hairstylist in Mumbai, says that ketchup-rice used to be a favourite childhood snack. "I love ketchup, " she says. "I can have it with just about anything. Rice gives it a nice texture. "
(Many like ketchup with dosa too. )
--(Mansi Choksi, Pronoti Datta and Ruhi Batra TOI CREST October 22, 2011)
VODKA IN WATER MELON
Yes.. my friend in USA did that for his graduation party.After the regular partying with chilled beer for an hour or two on a summer afternoon, he brought out a big watermelon. Everyone got a slice and only a few noticed the strange taste. He had injected (yes..with syringe and needle) vodka at various points around the surface of the big fat whole water melon....Many lady teetotaller guests lapped it all up, saying .." kuch ajeebsa taste hai na!..lekin thanda thanda cool cool!!"
M.SRIRAM
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