People from Maharashtra have always had a strong bond with Hyderabad city.
Hyderabad :
People from Maharashtra have always had a strong bond with Hyderabad city. A significant portion of the state was part of the erstwhile Hyderabad state, and over centuries many people from these areas had migrated to Hyderabad in search of livelihood. The Kacheguda and Sultan Bazar area of the city still has a large number of Marathis, many of whom are third generation residents of the city.
However, it is surprising that there are very few places serving Maharashtrian food in twin cities. There was a Marathi mess at Kachiguda offering meals but it had closed down a few years ago. To fill in this void, Marathi Katta, a 20-seater restaurant offering traditional Marathi food has opened at Bade Chowdi, Ramkote just about a year back. The restaurant is a brainchild of Vishal Phadke and Ambarish Lahankar, whose families had migrated to Hyderabad years ago from Ratnagiri and Marathwada respectively.
They realized that basic Marathi dishes like misal pav, sabudana vada and sabudana khichdi are not available anywhere in the city, and decided to set up a place offering basic Marathi food. The restaurant is located inside a lane at Bade Chowdi, one of the trading centres of the city. While Ambarish’s wife takes care of the kitchen, Vishal looks after the service, and Ambarish concentrates of publicity and marketing. Over time, the menu was expanded to include a large number of Maharashtrian delicacies are available here like Poha, Vada Pav, and Kanda Bhaji.
The typical masalas are brought from different places in Maharashtra. To give an example the Misal Pav masala is brought from Kolhapur. Ambarish mentioned that the recipe of Misal Pav differs from place to place, for example in Pune it is slightly sweet while in Kolhapur it is very spicy. Thalipeeth, the signature delicacy prepared from jowar, wheat flour and besan is another popular dish here which can be savoured with curd or chutney. Pitla Bhakri, the combination of jowar roti and besan ki sabji is a good choice for lunch. On weekends delicacies like Varlela Wangi (stuffed eggplants), Nagpur style Dal Chawal with a typical garlic flavour, and Katachi Amti, a rasam like sweetish dish from Western Marathwada are available. If you wish to taste the Maharashtra style Khichdi you need to drop in on Wednesday.
The desserts include Shrikhand and Puran Poli as well as Aamrakhand during the mango season. In the initial days, the restaurant used to attract mostly Marathis, but Ambarish proudly states that now a significant portion of their customers are from other states. They do put up stalls in various government fairs in the city, and the publicity from these have resulted in people coming from distant areas in the weekend to try out their Marathi food. Ingredients are sometimes a concern, Vishal rues the fact that the quality of pavs available in Hyderabad is not as good as Mumbai. The plans for the future include the introduction of many more dishes as the Maharashtrian cuisine is really vast with variations in every region of the state. Also, since many first-generation migrants for Maharashtra are based in the IT corridor, a branch of the restaurant is planned in Cyberabad in not too distant future.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Sabyasachi Roy Chaudhuri / Express News Service / February 16th, 2019