Sol Kadhi review

Had reviewed Sol Kadhi served in some of Mumbai's restaurants sometime back for a website

Sol Kadhi

THIS kadhi is truly for one’s soul. With the advent of coastal food especially of the Malvani variety, sol kadhi has started getting the recognition it truly deserves. Known earlier only to households that lived along the coastal areas of Maharashtra and Goa, sol kadhi has now become very popular with everyone.
Sol Kadhi is made from kokum which is readily available at any grocery stores. The ideal sol kadhi needs to have a coconut milky consistency, a baby pink colour (neither overtly red nor white) and the correct taste (refreshingly sour)

Goa Portuguesa : This restaurant located at Mahim serves Goan and South Indian (Culture Curry) specialities has the best Sol Kadhi in town coming close to the one prepared in GSB (Gaud Saraswat Brahmin) homes. The kadhi priced at Rs 29 has a good consistency, baby pink color, the right amount of chilly and garlic and does not smell rancid.

Color ****
Consistency *****
Taste ****
Rating: 8/10

Casa Soul Fry : This newly opened restaurant near Fountain serves Goan specialties. The sol kadhi here priced at Rs 40 has a good consistency. The color too is perfect but is too garlicky. The kadhi also smelled rancid as it may have not be fresh and kept in the fridge for a long time, thus imparting an offish taste to the coconut milk.

Color ***
Consistency ****
Taste **
Rating : 5/10

Anant Ashram : This no-frills eating place serving Konkani coastal cuisine is located in the very quiet heritage quartier of Khotachi Wadi in Girgaum. The sol kadhi here is very watery and nothing much to talk about. The color is white with the absence of the astringent kokum taste. The served free with the food or priced at Rs 3 if ordered separately.

Color *
Consistency *
Taste **

Rating : 3/10

TRADITIONAL RECIPE FOR THE PERFECT SOL KADHI

Soak three-four kokum in three tablespoons of warm water. Extract coconut milk (one cup) and grind in two-three flakes of garlic. Once the kokum extract is red, add the coconut milk, chopped green chillies and salt to taste. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Be careful not to leave the kokum soaked in, as it will make the kadhi sourer than normal. Ignore all recipes that add ginger, cumin or mustard. A quick fix sol kadhi is also called ‘futi kadhi’ or ‘tival’ (in Konkani) and is made in coastal Maharashtra or Maharashtrian fish-eating households. The recipe of this is similar to the one above, but instead of coconut milk, one uses water.

See my earlier post here for more on the Sol Kadhi

Eating Out at Chowpatty

Had written a piece on Chowpatty before and wanted to include all the places that you could eat at in this area. I have eaten at all of them other than the new ones – Fine Dine and Nukkad. I do have my favorites and you will know which ones they are by the tone of writing. So, here is the list of eating places at Chowpatty. Bon Apetit!

Crystal: An institution by itself, it is very popular with the Wilson college hostelites, students and everyone who loves simple homely Punjabi food and doesn’t mind a no frills place. Many people would not know that Crystal started as a bhel/sev-puri place in the fifties and graduated to serving meals in the seventies. If you are a regular at Crystal, the blue uniformed, polite but harried waiters who have been around for a long time will recognize you. A vegetarian restaurant that serves Palak Paneer, Paneer Masala, Baingan Bharta (it’s really good), Alu Gobi, Alu Methi, Alu Jeera, Dal Fry and Makhani to be eaten with rotis, parathas and rice. They also serve a Thali. Try their kheer (rice) and Amras (in season) after the meal. All dishes are reasonably priced between Rs 20 to Rs 40. Do notice the old Hindi songs (Hemant Kumar/Mukesh/Gita Dutt) that you would hear in the background from a singular tape that the restaurant must have cherished for years.

Kulfi Centre: Located at the corner a little ahead from Crystal, this kulfi place does brisk business. It has a range of kulfis from Chickoo, Sitaphal, and Badam Pista to the plain Malai. Prices range from Rs14 to Rs 35 per 100 grams. There is also a Punjabi Kulfi Centre next to it but no one seems to be ever buying from here.

Café Ideal: This Irani vegetarian café with a beach view opens at 6:00 am for breakfast and closes at 1:00 am. More people come here for the beer than the food. They serve Indian, Chinese and Continental food. Try the mushroom/paneer chilli, sautéed mushrooms & chilli cheese toast for starters, the garlic cheese naan and the mushroom kadai. Avoid the continental food. They have a jukebox with a choice of old Hindi songs. Ghazals and limited English numbers.

New Yorker: Walk a little ahead of Café Ideal, if you want to have Indianised Italian, Continental & Mexican cuisine (Nachos, Enchiladas, Tortillas, Fajitas and Burritos), this is the place to be seen eating in. They also have cola floats, ice creams, sundaes and milk shakes. It is always teeming with people on the weekends so you will have to wait really long, to get a place.

Cream Centre: Located next to New Yorker, this old restaurant was renovated recently and has got a white look and a plasma TV. It is famous for its Chole Bhature and all the other stuff that New Yorker serves. Check out the paan wala at the entrance/exit who also keeps all kinds of ‘churan’ including the popular jeera golis.

Café Coffee Day: There are two Coffee Day’s in this area. One between the Sukhs Sagars and the other opposite Chowpatty, on the sea face. It is always full with college students smoking hookahs, gulping down coffees or just chillin’. This is one of the few cafes where you can sit out in the open. Try the Chocochino, which is a shot of Espresso with chocolate ice cream or the Vegan shake. Avoid the foodstuff and carry your own water as they don’t give you water for free.

Stalls on the beach: It would be blasphemy if you come to Chowpatty and not eat at the stalls but avoid eating here if you can’t digest street food. There are four kinds of stalls.. The Chaat stalls wherein the Sharmas and the Guptas will serve you Bhel, Sev Puri, Ragda Pattice, Pani Puri, Pav Bhaji and Dahi Batata Puri. The Kulfi stalls which will serve you Punjabi and Malai Kulfi with the usual and unique flavors like ‘2000 Millennium’. The Gola stalls which is a new addition (they weren’t there when we were kids) with different colored bottles with gola syrups lined up, each color meaning a different flavor. So butterscotch was Surf blue, Kacchi Kairi was bottle green, Blue Berry was purple. They also serve ‘Milkmaid golas’ Last are the Paan stalls which would be popular with pan eaters.

Anando: This Masala Milk place located on the beach is many people’s favorite. They serve many varieties of the milk such as Masala, Special Masala, Sitafal, Licchi, Khajur, Chocolate, Kesar, Mango, Fr. Strawberry and Thandai. They also serve Ice creams and Candy Floss.

Bachelors: Here, you would be tucking in hand made ice-creams and juices though a mild earthquake, sitting on a bench on the narrow pavement, a meter away from the railway line or sitting in a car almost blocking the busy Marine drive traffic. Bachelors has developed its own fan following and is open till late. They would also serve you exotic juices at equally exotic rates. Popular for its Strawberry/Mango with cream (in season) and some people love their unique ‘chilli’ ice cream.

Thackers: One of the oldest places in Mumbai for the Gujarati thali. The thali here is not as it used to be. Thackers is not very crowded so you are bound to get a place. The thali has chapattis, rice, dal, kadhi, farsan and two ‘shaks’ for Rs 80. It used to be reasonably priced till lately but the thali is simple and good for people who get bogged down with the huge variety offered in other Gujarati thali places in the city.

Sukh Sagars: There are four Sukh Sagar restaurants in this area, named after the building on the corner at the junction. The first Sukh Sagar to come up was the juice center and then the owner went on adding more. Listing them in order if you walk from Chowpatty to Sukh Sagar junction…. The first, a little ahead of Kulfi center has an air-conditioned section on top. This has a typical Udipi menu with Dosas, Pav Bhaji, Indian and Chinese dishes and Juices, Milk Shakes and Ice Creams. The second, Suk (yes it’s spelled that way) Sagar Snacks is famous for its Pav Bhaji. It also serves Idli, Pizza and Fried Rice. The third, Sukh Sagar Juice Centre has Juices (Rs 42- 75), Milk Shakes, Falooda Kulfi, Matka Kulfi, Ice Creams and Exotic Desserts. You can have these sitting on plastic chairs placed in two rows opposite each other. They also have Cadbury’s chocolate milkshake. The last of the Sukh Sagars is adjacent to the juice place in the building and you wont even know about it, as it doesn’t have a signboard. It serves more or less the same items as the first Sukh Sagar.

Kobe Sizzlers: This restaurant is only second to Touché (now closed down) at Breach Candy to have introduced the concept of Sizzlers to Mumbai in the late seventies and is still going strong. Go here if you want to be in a sizzling, smoky restaurant and eat food, which sizzles because of the butter that is put on a heated iron plate. They now have more vegetarian Sizzlers than before with prices starting at Rs 230. It is located on the Hughes road-side of the Sukh Sagar building.

Karma: Located in the place, which used to house the Bombay Cycle Mart, this restaurant has the most beautiful ambience in the Chowpatty area. It is dimly lit with candles on each table and the palms add a leafy ambience. It also has some lounge sofa style seating and one section with low seating on mattresses. Happy hours are on from 6 to 8:30 pm. They serve Soups, Salads, Risottos, Pizzas, Pasta, Tikkas and Desserts. They also have a Lebanese and Oriental selection.

New York: A place that serves alcohol and Bambaiya Chinese at reasonable rates. The non-a/c section is a long wide corridor with neatly arranged square tables with pink and white-checkered table covers. It has a touch screen Q Jam jukebox like the ones in Café Coffee Day with a good song-list but it keeps screeching in between songs. Women might feel uncomfortable, as you wouldn’t find to many here. Located at the Hughes Road junction diagonally opposite the Mercedes Benz show room.

Bharat Dairy and Juice Center: It now operates from an under construction building opposite the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. It is famous for its hand-made ice creams (roasted almond/sitafal are favorites), toasted sandwiches and Fresh Cream (seasonal fruits with fresh cream) It also serves Pizzas, South Indian snacks, Bhel and Sev Puri, Juices, Milk Shakes and Kulfi. Is always crowded on weekends and is one of the last eating-places to shut down in the Chowpatty area.

Govinda: Affiliated to ISKCON, this restaurant serves Soups, Starters, Punjabi and Chinese dishes. Its Juhu counterpart is famous for the vegetarian Thali whose items are cooked in pure ghee. The restaurant claims that it doesn’t serve the Thali here for want of space. Govinda is located in the lane, which leads to Soam and the Babulnath temple, opposite Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

Soam: Located diagonally opposite the Babulath temple is this Swati Snacks clone. They serve in small brass thalis lined with ‘patravali’ (dried leaves joined together with twig pieces). Soam serves snacks like Sev Puri, Batata Wada (they call it Khapoli BW), Dosas, Pav Bhaji and also typical Gujarati items like Handavo-Chutney, Kand Na Chilla & Masala Poodla. They also have ‘shaks’ like Turiya Paatra, Kanda Batata Sambhariya and Methi Pithla. Try the Paanki and Fada Ni khichdi. In desserts, they serve Moong Dal Sheera, MohanThal and Shrikhand. I recommend the baby Kesar Jalebi that is crisp and just right.

Just launched

Nukkad: This newly opened restaurant is located a little ahead of Anokhi in the Metro Motor lane. It serves Delhi style food and hence its menu has sections, which read. Straight from Chandani Chowk, Karol Baug Se, Parathe Wali Galli Se and so on. So you will get Fruit, Chana, Papdi Pakodi Mix, Tava Aloo, and Samosa Chaats. (Rs 39-69) All different kinds of Pakoras like Aloo, Gobi, Onion, Palak, Mirchi, Paneer and funnily French Toast is mentioned in this section. All kinds of Parathas, Punjabi dishes, Tandoori items, Rotis, Naans, and Indian desserts.

Fine Dine: Located on the first floor in a building opposite the Chowpatty Bhelpuri walas in the place, which used to be Revival. It is a classy and expensive restaurant which also has a Lounge on the second floor. Serves Continental and Indian food and Soups, Salads and Main Courses.

Closed Down

Many restaurants/eating places have closed down in the Chowpatty area over the years. Vadilal’s had opened an ice cream parlour (Hapinezz), Kailas Parbat famous for its chaat, pani puris and chole bhature was here, a pub called London Pub (LP) which later became Copa Cabana was on the Chowpatty sea face. The Barista and Revival (Indo-Italian cuisine) housed in the same building also shut down and so did the Pizza Hut next door. The New Yorker management had opened a fast food restaurant called *Merica that became New York, New York and now houses the Café Coffee Day in its place. A big outlet of Croissants etc was also located on the Chowpatty Sea Face.

Gujarati Thali and Friend's Union Joshi Club

Good Gujarati Thali has come a long way since Purohits which was located at Churchgate shut down. Everybody remembers how Purohits used to dish out good quality Gujarati food in real silver thalis and katoris and probably not too many Thali places come close to match the original Purohit food. (It used to be better before it closed down and re-opened only to close down again)

In Bombay, you have many choices if you want to eat a Gujarati thali. The good old Thackers at Chowpatty (Birla Krida Kendra) serves a reasonably simple non-frill Thali for Rs 80. One advantage is that you will always get place here. Then there is Aram at Mahim (Opposite St Michael's Church), Thackers at Marine Lines, Rajdhani, opposite Mangaldas market, Samrat at Churchgate. Golden Star Thali near Charni Road station and Shri Thakkar Bhojanalaya at Dadysett Agiary lane at Kalbadevi. Panchavati Gaurav (near Bombay hospital) and Chetna (Kala Ghoda) serve a Rajasthani thali. The thali at all these places is priced between Rs 100 and 180 but I would recommend Shri Thakkar Bhojanalaya for its authentic taste and very good quality. Their thali is priced at Rs 130 on weekdays and Rs 150 on the weekends and the place is always crowded. Anil P informs me that Rasoi in Mulund(W) is also good and costs half.

Some days ago, my friend L had told me that Govinda, the restaurant run by ISKCON has opened a branch in South Bombay in the lane opposite the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan at Chowpatty. I have heard a lot about their Thali (not Gujarati) and we decided to meet there for lunch only to beat a hasty exit after discovering that they served pizzas, Chinese food and cheesecakes but no Thali. Thus, when L suggested Shri Thakkar Bhojanalaya, I readily agreed but as she had not been to Friends Union Joshi Club, we decided to go there.

Friends Union Joshi Club is located at Kalbadevi. You need to take a left at the Round Building junction (the junction on Princess Street where you have to turn right to go to Metro) and walk on the main Kalbadevi Road for 5-10 minutes and it's located on the right hand side on the first floor in an old building in Narrotam Wadi.

It is a no frills place and the dining room is a big hall with rows of tables with cushioned seating a and each table accommodates two. The place accommodates 60 people at one time. Like all old buildings, it has a high ceiling and huge wooden windows. The absence of air-conditioning is not felt as the place is well ventilated. We seated ourselves on the corner table and from our window we could see the hustle and bustle of the very commercial Kalbadevi road below. Just opposite the hotel, I noticed shops with signboards "Omega Dresses" and "Platinum Men's Attire"

The Thali here is served in a huge stainless steel thali whose diameter must be at least 18 inches. They serve 4 vegetables, one farsan, phulkas or bhakri (small but crisp and is called biscuit bhakri), dal (sweet or regular), dahi or chaas, rice or khichadi, chopped salad, 2 chutneys (I loved the tikha garlic one), fried chopped chillies (tastes yummy) and pickle. You get all this, unlimited for Rs 70. The sweet has an extra charge according to the one you choose. We had Gulab Jamun and Aamras and both were very good.

Like many other 'khanavals' in Bombay, Friends Union Joshi Club was started more than 100 years ago to cater to men who left their villages in Gujarat to come and work in Mumbai and missed home-cooked food. It is now frequented by businessmen in the area and is more crowded during lunchtime and weekdays.

Mr. Purohit, the owner whose father has been running the place since 1955 played a good host going around urging his customers to eat more. He came to our table and was offering me a phulka or bhakri. When I told him I was full, he said that eating here is about 'trupti' and not about being full and put the phulka into my thali anyway.

I was surprised when he told me that he was a Rajasthani (I always thought it was run by a Gujarati) and his father had taken over the place from Joshi. He had taken care to retain not only the taste and quality of the Gujarati food served but also the name because of the goodwill the place had earned over the years.

On our way out he showed us a newspaper cutting, which mentioned that the late Dhirubhai Ambani frequented the place, when he first came to Bombay and his wife Kokilaben was not in the city.

So if you happen to go to Kalbadevi and you are not planning to do any active work after lunch, do go and try the Thali here and then have a good siesta on a very full stomach.

Sol Kadhi

Had written an article on the Sol Kadhi which appeared in the Times Life section of The Times Of India on February 19, 2006. Didn't find a link so have pasted it below. If you are looking for good Sol Kadhi in Mumbai, Goa Portuguesa comes close to the ideal.

SOL’S AWAKENING

It’s an innocent baby pink, but a sipful of sol kadhi sets your palate awash with an astonishingly piquant taste. Once you acquire a taste for this Konkan coast speciality, you’ll be hooked for life, says Abodh Aras

THIS kadhi is truly for one’s soul. With the advent of coastal food especially of the Malvani variety, sol kadhi has started getting the recognition it truly deserves. Known earlier only to households that lived along the coastal areas of Maharashtra and Goa, sol kadhi has now become so popular that a restaurant in Mumbai serving coastal food once named itself after this orgasmic digestive drink.

Sol kadhi is superb as an appetiser, a refreshing, between meals sip-up or as an aid to digestion. Fish eaters generally drink it with the main meal or pour it over rice. One more way to make use of a good sol kadhi is to add it to any coconut-based gravy. Add it to a vegetable curry or a mushroom xacuti and see how it enhances the taste of the original gravy.

So how is it made? First, buy some kokum. Don’t get confused between sol, amsul and kokum, they mean the same thing. You will get them in packets from stores around the Girgaum or Dadar areas of Mumbai, but watch out for inferior stuff that is just smeared with artificial colour or has not been put through the entire processing technique, which is labour intensive and can take upto a month. Kokum is made from ratamba (Garcinia indica), a fruit from the plum family. The pulp and peels of the ratamba are separated. The peels are soaked or smeared in its juices and sun dried. This is repeated often till the skin shrivels up but retains the red/purple colour and the slightly astringent flavour. This is now kokum, which is used as a souring agent in cooking and making kokum sherbet and sol kadhi.

Sol kadhi needs to have a coconut milky consistency, a baby pink colour (neither overtly red nor white) and the correct taste (refreshingly sour). Most of the coastal restaurants in Mumbai (like Anantashram, Saayba, Highway Gomantak, Gazaali, etc) make the sol kadhi either too watery (they don’t add enough coconut milk), too red (use kokum which is artificially coloured), too white (use colourless kokum), smell rancid (use stale coconut), temper it with mustard and curry leaves (make it like a buttermilk kadhi), tasteless (don’t get the recipe right) or too ‘garlicky’ (they use chopped garlic instead of grinding it in). Instead, try the traditional recipe alongside. So go ahead, try that sol kadhi which you will either love or hate. Just as the taste of wine or cheese grows on you, one needs to develop a taste for this drink.

Sol kadhi sommelier, anyone?

TRADITIONAL RECIPE FOR THE PERFECT SOL KADHI

Soak three-four kokum in three teaspoons of warm water. Extract coconut milk (one cup) and grind in twothree flakes of garlic. Once the kokum extract is red, add the coconut milk, chopped green chillies and salt to taste. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Be careful not to leave the kokum soaked in, as it will make the kadhi sourer than normal. Ignore all recipes that add ginger, cumin or mustard. A quick fix sol kadhi is also called ‘futi kadhi’ or ‘tival’ (in Konkani) and is made in coastal Maharashtra or Maharashtrian fish-eating households. The recipe of this is similar to the one above, but instead of coconut milk, one uses water.