A January-February specialty in the agricultural regions of Western India, ponkh (in Gujarati; in Marathi = hurda) are the young immature seeds of sorghum (jowar.)They are delicious raw, or roasted, and are eaten, among the Gujarati population, with a fiery peppery sev (= fried chickpea dough.) Sometimes people add sugar or sugar bits but the CC never cared much for that.
Unfortunately, they have a shelf life of about a day (after which they turn all sticky and nasty) and so they don't travel at all.
The CC used to be a big fan (as was his grandfather before him.)
[ On a side note, this idea for the post was a suggestion by a fellow reader who also pointed out its seasonal nature thus forcing the CC to write about it pronto. Take a bow, young lady. You know who you are. ]
2 comments:
Kavita, just like you, couldn't go without having it. She spotted the stuff at "CHEDA's" Matunga while we were out shopping for sweets to be taken to SF. In the evening, her friend, Khushnuma joined us for a dinner and she was delighted to taste it for the first time. What little remained, Shirish finished it. Looks like all our family members are crazy about it. I miss the time when we used to go to Surat and have fresh ponk.
Rajni
Me too!!!
Post a Comment