The Pitla of Pune

Maratha Samrat, Pune

-Brian Mendonca

Felix, loves pitla, the Maharashtrian dish had with bakri roti.  Pitla is served with the thali at Maratha Samrat restaurant, Pune. This time after a gap of two years we sat once more at the restaurant to enjoy the delectable pure Maharashtrian fare. This has become a ritual when we descend on Pune from Mumbai to spend time with my sister Vanessa and her family. 

The cousins, Dwayne and Maegan are growing up together and find different versions of each other when they meet after a hiatus. During the lunch, the tumbler of water went flying when one of them got very expressive. 

Queenie and myself had stepped in to Camp to do some shopping. We met up with my sister and her family for lunch at Maratha Samrat which was also at Camp. They brought Dwayne in tow who preferred staying back to play with Maegan. Felix, I learnt later, was on an errand buying Ramprasad rice flakes chiwda packets for us. 

I stoutly stayed with my veg thali; the general consensus, however, was non-veg. Since I could not decide between the kokum and the buttermilk - I ordered both.  The rotis were soft and tasty. The sabji's had their own flavour. The shrikhand was made very well. There was joy in sharing the food on the table. Dwayne found the chicken pulao 'yummy!' The mutton thali was delicious.

Felix recalled the time before marriage when he had gone on a trip to Mulshi - around 40 kms. from Pune - with the staff. When they reached their destination there was nothing to eat except pitla and bakri which they enjoyed. Pitla is made with besan in water tempered with cumin seeds and curry leaves.

After the magnificent repast we made our way back to Kharghar, Navi Mumbai later that evening. The journey in the Uber saw us munching on Irani bun-maska while we took in the scenes on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway. Our dicky was, of course, packed with boxes of Kayani's shrewsbury biscuits, mawa cake and madeira cake. 

Across our laps was the brand new C40 Yamaha classical guitar I had gifted myself in Pune. I had picked it up the previous day from Furtados at Nucleus mall in Pune camp.

Reminiscing on the lunch, my sister recalled that our dad too loved his thali and that too veg.
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 Pic taken at Maratha Samrat, Pune on 29/12/21. Updated 7/1/22.