A recent visit to Conrad Pune, a business hotel on Mangaldas Road; I did not expect the kind of food placed before me — a no-fuss Malvani thali, served on a steel plate with bowls of bhaji and curry, at the hotel’s fine-dine Indian restaurant, Zeera.
The solkadhi , a kokum-infused coconut milk that accompanied the meal, did wonders to cool down the heat of the afternoon sun. I dived into a crunchy bombil fry (mackerel fry), a helping of paplet saar (a preparation comprising coconut and hand-ground spices), kalya vatanyachi usal (black chickpeas curry), and hot bhakris (a flat bread made with millets). Unlike Rajasthani or Lucknowi thalis, the Malvani thali is rarely found in high-end restaurants. But that is slowly changing.
This cuisine from the South Konkan region of Maharashtra and Goa, is a combination of sweet and sour. It also combines flavours from different regions. For instance, it combines the vinegary pungency of Goan food, the freshly grated coconut from the Karwar belt and the marriage of sweet and sour of the Goud Saraswat community. Some food writers trace its roots to the early 16th Century, when fisherfolk settled along coastal belts of what is now Maharashtra, Goa and parts of northern Karnataka.
“The predominant ingredients include coconut in various forms, along with kokum , raw mango or dried mango powder for sourness,” says Chef Nagraj Bhat of London Taxi, a multi-cuisine restaurant in Mumbai.
The history
Malvani cuisine can be traced back to Malvan, a scenic town in the Sindhudurg district on the west coast of Maharashtra. Bound by the majestic Sahyadri mountains and the Arabian Sea, seafood and chicken are found in abundance in this region, and hence, in the thali too. Akshay Deshpande, sous chef at Conrad Pune, adds that seafood dominates this cuisine and is tailored to suit the fishing community. Mackerels, crabs and prawns are perennial favourites, both as appetisers and mains. The bombil fish or Bombay duck, a hallmark of the cuisine, is prepared by dipping the fish in rice flour and deep-frying.
Another popular dish from the Konkan region is tisrya masala — a clam preparation with coconut, ginger-garlic paste and the heat of red chillies. This is eaten with rice bhakris or ghavne — a netted white pancake made from rice flour.
For vegetarians, a classic Malvani dish is phanasachi bhaji, which combines jackfruit bhaji with freshly ground spices. It is eaten as a side dish or as a stand-alone snack.
“Mutton or chicken sagoti (Malvani curry), crab curry, kaleji garam masala (prepared by marinating liver in Malvani masala ) are other popular dishes of the Malvani cuisine,” says chef Nikhil Ganacharya, executive chef, Via Bombay, a restaurant in Mumbai. For instance, Chef Kailash Suryawanshi, who helms the kitchen at Suryawanshi restaurant in Bengaluru, prepares fish curry using kokum/aamsul and coconut milk to add the sweet and sour flavour to the dish. “The fish preferred in the curry is mackerel and is prepared by combining coriander, dry coconut, ginger-garlic paste and onions. Malvani cuisine is heavily influenced by the use of coconut in various forms,” he says.
A few hundred kilometres away, Chef Somashekar Shetty from Tinge, a restaurant in Panjim, Goa, uses tamarind to impart a tangy flavour to the prawn curry. “Prawns are available in abundance in Goa, which is why it is in our Malvani thali . The prawns are marinated with salt and lemon, and the spices prepared with tamarind, turmeric, garlic, red chilli, coriander leaves and ginger in hot oil,” he explains. “The prawn curry combined with tamarind, coconut milk and red chilli makes the dish tangy and spicy,” he adds, rounding off the prawns masala with a slit chilli on top. Another dish that features in his Malvani thali is Malvani chicken sukha , which has “coriander seeds, dry and fresh coconut, garam masala, red chilli, ginger and turmeric”.
Several sweet dishes too define this cuisine — malpua , a sweet deep-fried delicacy prepared during Ramzan, dhonda s or cucumber cake made by baking cucumber and jaggery, and khaproli , a fluffy pancake dipped in yellow sweet juice. Perfect conclusions to a seaside meal.
