KOLHAPUR

Kolhapur A Warrior-Race Of Meat-Eaters!

Kolhapuri shepherds rear lamb and goat just for the pot. Not even the milk, for that, the Kolhapuri will only depend on the buffalo.

The Kolhapur Marathas, who were once India´s best warriors, are now a working class of agriculturists who cultivate sugarcane and make jaggery. Traditionally, they have hunted and eaten quail and wild boar, the meat shredded, marinated in yogurt, cloves and black pepper, then fried in red chillies. Or made into a Loncha (pickle) that lasted forever!

Today they employ the same recipes for some of the finest mutton available in the country. Hearty meat eaters, they lace their extravagant and rich diets with spicy and ebullient curries that are watery thin, but delicious and blistering hot. Onion, garlic, dry coconut, black pepper, red chillie, these form the base of much of the non-vegetarian food´s masalas.

The Brahmins of Kolhapur on the other hand, are mainly vegetarian. They are happy with their amtis and bhajis, their bhakris and koshimbirs. Usals made of sprouted moong dal is very popular among them and they have green vegetables like methi, palak, ambada, kokla, chakwat that are very local and not grown elsewhere in Maharashtra. Desserts are not a must-have dish on the Kolhapuri´s menu, but if they have anything, it will be shrikhand, kheer, puranpoli or gulpoli.

And ice-creams, they are fond of ice-creams. Maybe it helps to balance their otherwise spicy diets. Villages in Kolhapur are dotted with gurhals where sugarcane is turned into jaggery and the sight of smoking chimneys amid the tall sugarcane crop is not uncommon. The making process is as quaint as it is old and traditional. The only machine used is a small electrically-run sugarcane crusher.

The day begins for most citizens of Kolhapur at Phadtare´s Misal Centre where the sumptuous and filling breakfast dish tastes like nowhere else in the country. One restaurant which serves food of this region is Hotel Padma. It showcases the best of Kolhapuri cuisine in five different thalis. The grandest is the Fry Mutton Special Thali, which contains Mutton Fry, Special Mutton, two chapatis, Mutton Biryani, two watis of Tambada Rassa and two of Pandhara Rassa. These are plain curries, like sambars and rasams, that you order and dunk your chapati into or pour over your rice. You may drink it like a soup, too. And the Mutton Lonche, the pickled Sukha Mutton, is Hotel Padma´s piece de resistance.

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