Tricked By Undhiyu!
Festive dishes have a way of making you yearn for them. Undhiyu is synonymous to Uttaryan aka Makar Sankranti in Gujarati households and winters are its days of reckoning. You suddenly find Gujarati folks talk about vegetables! Gujaratis who can survive on an overdose of ‘besan’ decide to give Undhiyu a grand welcome. The vegetable sellers will bring a new set of local vegetables like flat beans, green pigeon pea shells, green peas, plantain, yam, purple sweet potatoes, season fresh potatoes, baby eggplants and bunches of fresh fenugreeks — — all essential in making a good Undhiyu.
But, Undhiyu is a toughie. She is not here to be played around by a random housewife. She needs a reassuring group hug. It is a mini enterprise in itself. There is suddenly so much noise about Undhiyu that one would like to shake off and go in search of Undhiyu. Surti, kathiawadi types, each different in look and feel and vying for attention from patrons. From Gujarati eateries shouting ‘Take me home’ signboards to decrepit highway eateries where a couple would be roasting vegetables in an earthen pot, Undhiyu does make lot of noise in Gujarat. If a Gujarati doesn’t get to eat Undhiyu, it is like a Punjabi sulking over not getting Makki di Roti and Sarson da Saag during winter. To that effect.
Young people flock to highway dhabas where gypsy folks of the South Gujarat area would make a rustic version of Undhiyu, without the deep frying and minimal spices. Known as Matla Undhiyu, this highway version is much in demand and one may need to pre-order. It finishes as soon as it begins. There is another version called Surti Undhiyu which is made of stuffed vegetables cooked along with methi muthias, sesame seeds-peanut paste etc and could be quite tricky to handle. The Kathiawadi version is the spiciest one and made without stuffing the vegetables.
Like every dish, there is a good undhiyu and a bad one too. I have eaten both. One that would make you run and ask for more and the other would make you run away from it. One would have all the ingredients and taste, the other would have an overdose of baby eggplants and jaggery, without understanding the sense of balance this dish deserves. On a festive occasion like Uttarayan when everybody gathers on rooftops or the riverside to fly kites and spend a leisurely January afternoon with family and friends, hot pooris, undhiyu and jalebi is what a Gujarati vegetarian lunch fantasy is.
When I arrived in Ahmedabad with my bags and baggage two years ago, a friend who lived in Mumbai and had access to Gujarati colleagues told me, “ You must try their Undhiyu.” Well, we started exploring Gujarati food soon. I love a Gujarati thali in a good restaurant. They come by courses and unless you have a good appetite, the thali looks wasted. Take your time and enjoy the thali. So, soon I got to taste Undhiyu. In teaspoons though. That teaspoon of Undhiyu had nothing to write home about. It got lost in an array of dishes.
I befriended a genial Gujarati lady in the neighbourhood soon, in the hope that I would get to see how a Undhiyu is made and taste some too. She smiled and said, “Uttarayan is the time when we make Undhiyu. Uttarayan came, but I never got a call from her. It was later I placed an order with another lady. I ordered a kilogram of undhiyu as I wanted to give some to my help. My help tasted it and said, “It was the worst Undhiyu I ever had.” I had no way to explore the dish. The season came to an end soon. By next year, I had made some friends and finally got to eat some good Undhiyu. In the same year, I also had my worst Undhiyu. Like a desperate foodie, I looked for shops selling Undhiyu and finally found one after 2 hours of searching. It was disgustingly oily and sweet. So sweet that I kept the jalebis to eat the next day. My brother vowed not to have this dish ever again. And I am determined to feed him some good Undhiyu, some time.
Text: Sujata Dehury
Pic courtesy: Archita Shah & Meena Shah (Ahmedabad based food entrepreneurs)
