All over the subcontinent (and in the UAE), you’ll find South Indian dosas and North Indian kebabs jostling for space in food courts and restaurant roads. But those looking for a Kholapuri chicken thali, malvani mutton and a bit of bakri are a bit less well served. The dishes are staples of Maharashtrian cuisine, originating in India’s second most populous state located on the west coast, but have not gained the widespread popularity of dishes such as butter chicken and parathas. Shiya Joshi is a woman looking to change that. She opened Peshwa, a restaurant in Karama, earlier this month with her husband, aiming to serve the Maharashtrian population dishes from home, and hopefully to introduce the region’s dishes to a wider population.
“Authentic Maharashtrian food is difficult to make,” she says, explaining why few restaurants serve the cuisine. “It has to be cooked to order and it takes some time.”
Mumbai, the capital of the state, is well-known for its street food, and those dishes have found popularity around the world — vada pav being a prime example. India’s version of a burger bun is a spiced mashed potato, battered and fried and served in a western-style soft white bread bun, with plenty of chutneys, and is available at Peshwa, along with other “snacks and munchies” such as kothimbir wadi, a square patty packed with fresh shards of coriander and served with a sweet dark sauce. But it’s the home-style dishes being served by Joshi and her team of chefs (all brought over from India) that are little known outside those who grew up in the state.
The dishes are a journey through the areas of this vast state, from inland Pune to the Konkan coast. Joshi names Kholapuri chicken, a super-hot red curry, and bakri, a rustic, handmade bread, as two classics that have been popular. “We had to close the doors at 10pm on Fridays,” because we were packed with diners eating up all the Kholapuri chicken they had made, says her husband Sachin, who calls himself the restaurant’s chief driver.
Joshi got the idea to open a restaurant after the tiffin lunches she did for a few of her husband’s colleagues turned into 22 requests a day from his company. She serves a plate filled with a fierce red chicken gravy and wheel-shaped, dense fried dough called kombadi wade (Dh22), a staple of Malvan in the far south of the state; and a winning dish of stuffed small aubergines in a medium-spiced grainy sauce containing ground peanuts called bharli wangi (Dh15). Joshi is especially proud of the bakri (Dh3 each), usually only made at home and made from varieties of millet called jowar and bajri. “You have to grind them and use the flour within a day, otherwise it goes sour,” she says of the hearty grains. Also don’t miss the sweet-sour-salty drinks called solkhadi, made from the sour kokum fruit.
The restaurant itself is far from rustic, but also doesn’t reflect the royal origins of its name — a peshwa was a prime minister appointed by a king during the Maratha empire. The owners wanted to stay away from regal surroundings, instead choosing a contemporary feel with realistic paintings of Pune landmarks and traditional headwear, while the tables are inlaid with pieces of traditional sari fabric for what they hope is the first of a chain that will introduce the world to another variation in Indian flavours.
Where to try is
Peshwa 04-3795520
Find it behind general post office in Karama, across the road from Moulin D’Or.
