Saturday, May 01, 2010

Gujarati Weekend Breakfast

“Jalebi-Fafda”, the only thing that comes to mind on hearing this phrase is Sunday breakfast. When I was in school every Sunday my sister and I woke up to fresh hot Jalebi-Fafda ready on the table. My parents would go out early morning to our usual haunt and pick up some for breakfast. That was the only time when I could eat something sweet first thing in the morning.

The classic combination of Jalebi-Fafda is like makke di roti and sarson da saag, pork and beans, gin and tonic; one feels incomplete without the other. Both compliment and balance out each other perfectly, one sweet and the other savoury accompanied by a fresh pickle made with green chillies and grated raw papaya to add the missing spice and tang. All in all a perfect meal to start the day and give some consolation for the weekend coming to an end.

Being brought up in South Mumbai, I’m not too aware of places in the suburbs which serve good jalebi-fafda. But I know quite a few places on my side of town that dish out fabulous jalebi-fafda through the day starting early morning, all week. There’s, the famous Panchratna Jalebi House at Opera house, right behind Roxy cinema and a shop in Prathna Samaj, in the vegetable market lane. There are also a lot of member clubs that serve jalebi-fafda for breakfast on Sundays, like Mafatlal Bath, BCA, and Hindu Gymkhana at Marine Drive, WIAA at Malabar Hill, CCI at Churchgate and Radio club at Colaba.

This weekly tradition at home had somewhat faded out as I grew up and got busy with college and then work but once in a while my parents still surprise me not particularly on a Sunday but on any day in the week. Just reminiscing about it has brought water to my mouth and I can’t wait for tomorrow morning where for a change I will surprise my parents with fresh hot jalebi-fafda at the table when they wake up.

I would love to explore new places in the suburbs or even in south Mumbai that serve this iconic Gujarati breakfast duo, so do leave comments here or on the APB facebook page about your jalebi-fafda memories, recipes and restaurants or shops.

1 comment:

Kalyan Karmakar said...

Hey thanks Rushina...can't stop beaming http://finelychopped-k.blogspot.com/2010/05/perfect-bite-over-weekend-finely.html