1 Misal, 12 Pav

I was reading and watching some You Tube videos about Misal Pav recently. I was surprised to find out that this item is more than 150 years old.

Where did it start is not clear but most folks think Nashik is the origin. In older days, folks used to make "bhakri", a form of bread made of Jawar/Bajra and used to take misal, which used to provide a good source of protein as it was made of moong dal "usal". For taste, they started putting sev, mixture, onion, lemon etc to that. Some misal also has potato as source of carb.

Pav was not originally associated with misal. Misal in itself was almost a complete meal but folks wanted something with it, so it bhakri they made was not sufficient, then they started adding pav to it.

In Nashik, one can take unlimited tari with misal and so, the idea was to keep taking tari, and keep eating pav with that, thats where the "1 misal, 12 pav" came to being.

Another important consideration with misal is that it has to be "zanzanat", means after eating it, people should start perspiring because of spiciness. There is of course taste of the "usal" in there somewhere, but the typically misal is heavily spiked with mirch, spice. One can round off the taste with yogurt and lemon. That helps for a few not so bold ones.

Misal par has overtime become a staple food for folks in Maharashtra. Other than Nashik, misal pav is available and famous in Nagpur, Kolhapur, Mumbai/Thane and Pune also.

So, whether you are the bold one or not so bold one, go and eat misal-pav as it is a healthy, hearty food.

Enjoy !!!

Mumbai

Nitya and I were talking about this yesterday. There are times I still miss Mumbai so much. May be just for the heck of it.
It's difficult to get the city our of your system. I still will put my money on Mumbai long term than Bangalore.

Bombay!!!

I was explaining Mumbai and Bombay to a videsi in office. We were discussing recruitment at some senior level and I was telling him that I am looking to see if some of the people I know can move from Mumbai to Bangalore. And that it is very difficult.
And he said but Bangalore is green and nice. I said well so might be Tulsa in Oklahoma, but you wouldnt want to leave NY, would you? :).
Then he asked, what happened to Bombay? Bombay stood for everything which is quality in India. I said yeah, it still does, it's just called Mumbai now.
Bombay has now more become an adjective rather than a noun. Bombay symbolizes things, a way of life. It symbolizes a cosmopolitan forward looking culture which resides in and explains this place called 'Mumbai'.

It's so true actually. Am not into this political debate or anything. And I like Mumbai as name. It's just that Bombay represents an era, a time, a philosophy for me which is so unique compared to the way people live in other places, it's amazing. It's amazing that similar people bahaving more unemotionally and in a balanced manner that it's just a lot more mature. That similar kind of people are more open to others and think about overall effectiveness from a long term perspective.

This is unheard of and unseen in most parts of the world. That's the spirit of Mumbai. That's Bombay.

Bangalore !!!

I like Bangalore till I dont think about Mumbai. Then, I feel differently about it.