Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Back from India trip

Hello friends. Hope you have all had a good start to the new year. Wish you a very happy 2009. I came back from Mumbai a couple of weeks back, but just could not get myself to post anything since...I'll blame it on jetlag. Our trip was very relaxed this time, though it was marred by the events of Nov. 26 - 28. We hung out with family mostly. A highlight of the trip was our visit to Dapoli in Konkan. We were about 20 - 25 people, including extended family members. We rented a huge bus and drove there. Its about 6 hrs from Mumbai. We stayed at the Aryawarta resort in Dapoli (a fantastic place, highly recommended) and visited the beaches and temples around. I was visiting Konkan after a very long gap and was once again struck by its natural beauty - pristine beaches, rolling hills, greenery.

On the last day of our trip, after visiting the Keshavraj temple in Asood village, we stopped by Mrs. Vaishali Phatak's home-style eatery. My MIL, on her friend's recommendation, had informed Mrs. Phatak the previous day of our lunch plans and requested her to prepare a meal with Ukadiche Modaks as the star dish. And what a wonderful meal it was! Delicious modaks, dalimbyanchi usal, vangi-batata rassa...yummy...just writing about it makes my mouth water again. We all sat in her huge yard for the meal. She had a slew of family members and staff helping her cook & serve. The whole ambience was so good, I think it doubled our appetites. For me, something about the beautiful village setting and the Konkan soil and water made this meal a memorable one.


With her permission, I took this picture after our meal and am posting it here.

Now that I have gotten back into my routine here, I will start cooking and posting again soon.
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4 comments:

  1. UshaJanuary 15, 2009 at 12:28 PM

    Sounds like you had a great time...the picture with those huge modaks is making my mouth water too:-)

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  2. UnknownMay 6, 2009 at 8:02 AM

    hello, i am planning to visit dapoli next week. can you plz. send the contact no. or address or photos of the place you have described here? thanks, - sujit.

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  3. SupriyaMay 6, 2009 at 8:52 AM

    Hi Sujit. Here is the website for Aryawarta in Dapoli http://www.aryawarta.co.in/
    Since I don't have ur contact info, I am posting it here. Hopefully u'll come back to read this. Let me know if u need any more info. Have a wonderful trip.

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  4. UnknownMay 12, 2009 at 12:18 PM

    hello supriya, many thanks for your reply. actually i had been to dapoli once approx. 10 yrs ago. that time this place aryavarta didn't exist. i visited the web-site as you mentioned it in u'r reply. thanks once again for the same.

    i am also interested in the eatery place of mrs. phatak, as i want to taste the real local konkani-dish in the heart of konkan i.e. dapoli only. so plz. send me more info. or photos or contact no. of the same.

    thanks. and yes, let me introduce myself. i am 37 yrs. (quite) old, male, married, living with my wife, a daughter and mom in pune. originally from mumbai but shifted here 2 yrs. ago. my e-mail id is csujit09@gmail.com

    bye n have a nice day.

    ReplyDelete