Have you noticed one thing? In Delhi, where you get various types of cuisine, ranging from Armenian and Lebanese to Udupi and Kolhapuri, you don’t have anything from Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. We have eaten all kinds of regional dishes, but somehow know very little about the food of Bhopal. Take something like their biryani, called biriyan. We know our Andhra biryani, Hyderabadi, Calcutta, Malabari, Awadhi and Dindigul biryanis. But ever eaten Bhopali biriyan?
I had some of that a few days ago. I was in Bhopal for a wedding. I spent a couple of days in the city, and barring the time I spent at the wedding reception, I was scouting around for food. Help was at hand, of course. Our friend, Rasheed, had given us a list of places to visit. Some of the restaurants he recommended were in the beautiful heritage hotels in the city; some were tucked away inside the crowded lanes.
This week, I shall tell you about a lovely restaurant called Filfora. The word means at once –– or turant, in Hindi. The food sort of underlines the flavours of street food (hence the name, perhaps), enriched by the royal culinary heritage of Bhopal. The restaurant is in a place called Kohefiza –– the address is 18 BDA Colony, opposite Kohefiza hospital. I had read about this place before visiting Bhopal, and was raring to try out their special dishes, such as the boti kababs which had been recommended by Rasheed, too. I had a look at the menu card and found that it included some of my favourite dishes, such as rogan josh and rezala. By then we had been joined by Adil Hussain, and his mother-in-law, Asif Rasheed, who runs the kitchen. And young Adil promptly took over –– ordering everything from kababs to curries.
I can tell you that the shammi kababs (Rs.120) were the best I have eaten in a very, very long time. The meat had been cooked and spiced just right but what was wonderful was the texture of the meat, which was soft and chewy at the same time. The meat had been pounded till they had the right texture, Begum Rasheed pointed out.
I believe their mutton boti kabab is outstanding, but the chicken boti kababs I had (Rs. 190) were passable. It was like a chicken tikka, nice to eat, but nothing to write home about. But the curries –– the khada masala gosht (Rs. 210) and the rogan josh (Rs. 210) –– were outstanding. I ate these with some hot and crisp tandoori rotis, and thought that both the dishes had their own flavourful gravies.
Filofera is known for its raan –– a whole leg of lamb cooked on slow-heat over long hours. If you want this, you have to inform the restaurant a day in advance. The day I was there, a group of ten had gathered there for lunch. And luckily for me, they had ordered the raan (Rs. 1400) in advance. I got to taste a bit, and thought it was excellent. The meat was tender and had soaked in all the juices and flavours of spices.
I was urged to try out the Bhopali pulao (called biriyan and not biryani) –– known to be rich in taste but light in colour. In fact, Bhopali dishes are rich, though light in spices. I, however, wanted to save space for the desserts.
We ended with a shahi tukra (Rs. 35) and the most delicious phirni (Rs. 35) I had eaten in a long time. I liked it in particular because it had just been taken off the stove, and was still a little runny because of the heat. So it was smoother and creamier than most phirnis.
Begum Rasheed tells me that she and her husband, Rasheed Wahid, thought of opening a restaurant in Bhopal because there are actually not too many places where you can have Bhopal’s Muslim dishes. But now that big vacuum is being filled. Bhopali food is moving out of homes, and into restaurants. Soon, perhaps, it will come to Delhi.
The writer is a seasoned food critic
