Malvani Mahotsav for Maharashtra day - A Photo featureA stall serving

I was cleaning up my computer this week and came accross some pictures I had taken at a Malvani Mahotsave a few years ago. I thought I would share them here since it is Maharashtra Day today. Called Kokan mahotasav or mAlavaNI jatrA (Jatrautsav) these festival are held at areas like Dadar, Kurla, Bhandup and Mulund, where the community has a presence between October and May and last for 2-3 days at any given location.

Malvan is a town in the Sindhudurg district on the Konkan belt of maharashtra known for the Malvan beach and Sindhudurg fort. mAlavaNI is a dialect of marAThI that is spoken in Sindhudurg (and parts of Ratnagiri) district. Malvani is a dialect of Konkani with significant Marathi influences. Some define it as a Creole between Konkani and Marathi. It is spoken in the southern part of Konkan Vibhag i.e. Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. Like the language and the culture, Malvani cuisine is also a dialect of Konkani cuisine. Although an independent cuisine in its own right, it overlaps Maharashtrian and Goan cuisines.

Predominantly non-vegetarian, it does boeast some vegetarian delicacies but seafood dishes dominate Malvani cuisine. Malvan being a coastal region, the us of coconut is liberal in all its froms; grated, dry grated, fried, as coconut paste and coconut milk. Malvani cuisine is fiery! Many of the spice blends used have dried red chilies complemented by coriander seeds, peppercorns, cumin, cardamom, ginger, garlic and some dishes also use kokum, dried kokam (amsul), tamarind, and raw mango (kairi). The spices are a dfining factor that make Malvani food distinct from Koli food of the Konkna, the Malvanis use Garam Masala liberally, which is no the practice with the Kolis. Be warned the fiery seafood curries may be to hot to handle in more ways than one! The speciality of Malvani food is its delicately balanced punch. If this fiery flavour is tempered to suit blander or less adventurous palates the dish ceases to be "Malvani". Thankfully to temper the heat of the spices as well as heaty seafood such as prawns, Sol Kadhi is a pink colored appetizer drink made from the kokam fruit and coconut milk is traditionaly served after as it is considered cooling and soothing for the stomach.

GYAN and Links
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Check out my older post on Seafood in Mumbai 

The Mela with the ferris wheel in the background!

The Bangle shop, I find bangle shops with the kaliedescope of colors irrisisitible!

We started with the Ghavne stall
The menu reads Amboli, Ghavne, Shevya ras, Kombdi vade, Javla pav, Machi fry and Vada Pav.

At the Ghavne stall we had the Ghavne

and the amboli (its in the little basket) Ghavnay and amboli are batter based pancakes Ghavne are made with just rice and Amboli are made with rice and dal.

This is the shevya ras being made rice dough is passed through a sieve to form finr noodles. These are dropped directly into boiling water to cook. when they cook and rise to the top they are strained out and mixed with ras or sugar syrup and served.

We also had Javlapav a preperation in which tiny dried jawla or shrimp are cooked with a spicy masala and then stuffed into

A stall serving all sorts of Malvani deliciousness!

Masala Prawns!

Dried fish stall.

I saw more dried fish thatn ever before!

other stuff like cashew squash and kokum squash