The first thing that comes to your mind when you think of
Gujarat is alcohol, or rather the absence of it. That, along with the
dominantly vegetarian diet, meant that it was never a preferred travel
destination for a meat loving geologists like us. In a beach of Gujarat I once
had the audacity to ask a local person where I can find sea-food. The gentleman
stared at me and my wife in not so gentle way and responded ‘I am a Jain’, and went away. However, couple of weeks in Gujarat, and we fell in love with
their vegetarian thali, especially the khichri they serve at dinner. The sweet
taste of the food suits the Bong taste buds. It was rather the breakfast that
we had problem with. Jalebi-Fafda was a combination we could not have every
day. So we kept searching for varieties like Paranthas and dosas. Luckily we
got a few restaurants that served those, and were quite tasty. Once we
discovered a restaurant that was a specialist in pav-bhajji. We went in hoping
to get reminded of our good old days in Mumbai, least prepared for the shock we
were about to get. When our plate of pav-bhajji arrived we realized that the
owner of this specialized pav-bhajji shop does not understand the meaning of
pav. What we got instead were toasts, and paneer gravy. Unfortunately even the
paneer was old, and the smell coming from the dish made us run away. In case
you happen to be in Porbandar remember the name ‘Jai Chamunda’, a restaurant
you do not want to enter. Food in the rest of the trip was pretty good, the
best being the 7 Seas restaurant in Jamnagar. It serves meat too.
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| Map of Gujarat showing places of interest |
