Mouth Watering Speciality Food of Surat

સુરત નું જમણ અને કાશીનું મરણ – this axiom has fabulously proven true when it comes to variety of food and food habits of Surat. Surat is not only famous in Gujarat but also famous at National level for the food habits, types of food and their omnipresence across the city.

Surati people are so foody and can die for having tasty food; and therefore Surat has developed that taste, variety, quality and thereby set a benchmark in serving the delicious dishes.  If we talk about the food speciality, I can really not dare to forget following food items which includes various snacks and street food:

1. Surati Locho

   

   You can consider the Locho as the staple snack of Surati people. Locho has the interesting history, it is assumed that once a farsanwala was making khaman (again one more delicious snack), but before it could actually be prepared, he took out the half cooked stuff by mistake; while tasting it he found that it was more delicious than Khaman and thereby he started selling locho. Now Locho is available in so many varieties like oil locho, butter locho, cheese butter locho, white locho, garlic locho, etc. Actually this Locho is available at all places but the most famous places are Gopal locho near railway station, Surat Khaman house near Gopipura, Jani Farsaan near parle point, Jalaram Khaman near gale mandi, etc and many more.

2. Surati Rasawala Khaman

   

   This is a very interesting combination of Khaman and spicy gravy. Originally khaman is a dry item to eat; someone has innovated it serving with spicy gravy of spices and herbs. This is a wonderful & popular dish among Surati people. A street shop near near old museum at Chowk Bazar is famous for it.

3. Alu puri

   

   One of the most popular, most common, most speedily served and a tasty item. It is a blend of small puris made of flour and potatoes and served with gravy of mutter, onion and other spices sprinkled with spicy & sweet chutney. Originally it was available somewhere in Rander with a vendor called Khalid; with the passage of time, this item has been the fastest growing snacks and available all over the city at distance of every 200 meters on an average.

4. Surati Sarasiya Khaja

   

   Khaja is partially a seasonal item; it is mostly available in starting of Monsoon. Originally known as Sarasiya Khaja (because they are fried in Sarasiya oil – mustard oil). They are made of special flour called – Mendo. It is high on calorie and heavy to digest. The best places to have Khaja are – Joshi Farsaan at Bhagal, jay Shankar Dhanji near Bhagal/chauta bazar, G.Dada at Chauta Bazar & Nanpura, etc. Apart from this almost all farsaan shops are now offering khaja.

5. Surati Ghari

   

   Ghari is a surati sweet, it has the very old history; once an army of Tatya Tope stayed at Surat and a local Brahmin Gentleman named Mr. Dev Shankar prepared a high calorie sweet and made entire army to eat that. It was very appreciated by the army and Tatya Tope and in remembrance of that incident the custom began to eat Ghari every year on “Chandni Padvo”. Originally it was Mr. Devshankar who started making and selling Ghari but gradually he winded up his business and now a day some of the famous places of Ghari are – Jamnadas at Chauta pool, Thakkar Moti harji, Mohan Mithai, Thakore Sweets, Chunilal ni Mithai, etc all at Bhagal and Choryasi dairy near amba mata temple, etc are the destinations where you can find this wonderful sweet. If you eat one or two a day, you may not feel hungry the entire day!

6. Special Bhajiyas

   Bhajiya is the weakness of Surati people. There are so many varieties of bhajias available in Surat. If you want to eat Tomato bhajiya then Dumas beach is the heaven; if you want to have ratalu puri, onion bhajiya, potato bhajiya, etc the G.Dada at nanpura & chauta pool, Ratilal Tulsi das at Station road, chevli bhajiya at Bhagal, are the places you visit must. If you are samosa lover then Syndicate bank near salabatpura, Ashok samosa near Kailas nagar, etc are the spots. If you are the Gota lover then Subjail on ringroad, Somabhai at piplod, etc are destinations. Apart from these places all small and big farsaan shops, hawkers are offering various varieties of bhajiyas.

7. Eggs Ghotala

   Egg Ghotala is a special egg recipe which originated in Surat. It is a combination of half fry and pav bhaji curry with boiled eggs. Mr. Eggs and Amthakaka’s Egg Stall on Dumas Road is paradise for the egg lover, serving up Ghotala and over 50 eggy dishes.

8. Paratha

   Paratha is actually a Punjabi cuisine, but it has been adopted by Surati culture in such a way that it is now felt like a domestic cuisine. A huge variety in Parathas like alu paratha, gobhi paratha, muli paratha, are regular but more than 30-40 varieties of parathas are available in both Veg & non veg. Rangooni Paratha is one of the popular type which Muslims fraternity used to have. There is a special lane called – Paratha Gali near Pipload, Surat where there are hundreds of paratha hawkers are eager to serve you a huge variety of parathas.

9. Faafda

   One of the most favourite and most consumed variety of snacks – Faafda. They are yellow long sticks made of special flour, served with sour & spicy chutney. Faafda is also available in all over Surat, but originally it was started by Gaanda Kaka at Lal darwaja near Station road. Some other known places Jay Shankar dhanji at bhagal, Girish Faafda center at Subhash chowk, gopipura; shiv shakti faafda near Choksi wadi, rander road, etc a lot more.

10. Sev Khamani

    Sev Khamani, is one more variant of Khaman. Khaman is re-cooked by sprinkling some oil, adding some garlic and some spices and served with toppings of sev, pomegranate, coriander, etc. Famous place for the khamni are the various outlets of Madhi ni Khamani at vesu, Athwagate, Udhna magdalla road, adajan, varachha, etc. Other local vendors, street hawkers and farsaan shops also offer khamani.

11. Ponk & Ponkwada:

    

    This is a seasonal item which is available in winter. It is made of sorghum seeds. Experts, very carefully, separates the sorghum seeds from the plant and fresh seeds are so gentle that one can eat it easily. The sorghum seeds are also used to make special ponkwada and ponk petis. They are majorly available near Sheetal talkies, rander road and near swaminarayan temple, below the sardar bridge, adajan.

So these are the various specialities of food here at Surat, but the list doesn’t stop here. The Surati undhiyu, Umbadiyu, kulfi at Rander, khichu, Zampa Bazar and Amdavadi tawa for non veg lovers, Chandni chowk khau gali for sea food lovers, etc are the feathers in the Surat’s food varieties.