Yesterday I experienced the ultimate Gujju fantasy. This kind of stuff is normally reserved for gujju heartland. We Gujju’s can eat anything as long as it is vegetarian. Post that one clause, we are pretty experimentative when it comes to food. And in all gujju favourite dishes you find sweet, salty, spicy and any other taste that the taste buds can decipher; all in one bite. Hence the humble sev puri is a favourite amongst gujjus. The next thing that catches our eyes (and stomachs ) are the sandwiches. Here also we ensure we put all the spices together thanks to the chatni and the sauce we put inside the sandwiches. After that we dunk it further in the chatnis and have it. So yesterday we were roaming around gujju food heartland (matunga) where I came across this wild preparation. It just did not make sense to me. But the gujju in me awoke to try it and the gujju in me loved it. What was it? Here look at the photo and tell me.
Look again. It is sevpuri toast sandwich. I did not even know it existed. But this enterprising guy figured it out. He takes a bread slice and arranges a few sev puris on it and then covers it with another bread slice and then toasts it. eeew. But it tastes great and the puris aren’t soft after the toasting. Funny but tasty. What would we do without gujjus.
Another cake cutting in office. This time some four odd people were left with cake on their face. No no… only one person celebrated the birthday but four got the facial. This seems to be the primary source of entertainment these days in office. Tomorrow is the birthday of the ring leader. The guy who is primarily responsible every time for smashing cake on every one, celebrates his tomorrow. I am only the instigator but he is the real doer. I only nudge people in the right direction.
So tomorrow everyone is ready but really, no one know what to expect. This could turn out to be a cake fight. The ring leader is not likely to be happily stationary while getting smashed by half the office. Some will stay away, better not to antagonise, some will smash and some will not know what to do. The question is who all will get on their face tomorrow. I will keep you posted on the tally tomorrow for sure.
It does get a bit rowdy during the smashfest, but it does lighten up things a bit. We have people running around trying to get away and then we have people try to get on. In the earlier office at least we had a separate cafeteria. This place is a free for all right in the middle of work. So you have the carpet which is smelly of cake even a few hours after the festival. Nauseatingly sweet and creamy smell. What to do of it? I now feel like eating sev puri. What/ sev puri just because of the cake smell. Well I am a gujju ain’t I? any reason is good reason to eat sev puri.
On saturday after the cricket match in the evening I was a bit drained out. I batted for a long time. So I was feeling hungry and thirsty at the same time. Voila the gujju in me eats… try guessing, see if you have gujju genes in you… two plates of pani puri. That surely worked. All this talk is making me hungry. I am off. From my window I confirm the presence of the vendor across the road.
