BENGALURU: Would you like to try an authentic khandvi or dhokla? Jalaram’s Farsanwala, with its first Bengaluru outlet in Basveshwarnagar, just does that.
Farsan in Gujarati means snacks and are eaten with almost every meal in a Gujarati’s house. Hence the name Farsanwala. This joint promises “premium snacks that are not expensive,” says Raakesh Rajpopat, co-founder of Jalaram’s Farsanwala.
“There are few places in the city that serve a fusion of Gujarati and Marwari food, but none are authentic,” says Raakesh who has outlets across different cities such as Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
Farsanwala has a variety of sweets. There is mohanthal made from gram flour, ghee, milk and dry fruits; churma ladoo with wheat flour, jaggery, coconut and sesame seeds; kutchi peda that is a hard, roasted peda from khoya and dry fruits; gulab pak that is khoya cooked with rose petals; and sata, a thick maida puri like a donut with a sugar glaze. They also have the regulars — motichoor ladoo, Bengali sweets and, the ever popular, kaju barfi.
In savouries they have 20 you can pick from. There is papdi that is deep fried wheat crackers seasoned with cumin seeds; farali chivda, a mixture that is usually had while fasting because it is made with potatoes and gathiya, again fries made from gram flour and condiments.
They also stock up about nine varieties of baked khakra. So it is all healthy.
Talking about its uniqueness, Rajpopat says “At Farsanwala, we serve the most authentic Gujarati food in the whole city. The fafdas (fries from gram flour and seasoning) that we serve are just like what you would get in Gujarat on a Sunday morning.” All their chefs are from Gujarat.
If you are at the store, you must try the ghugra (deep-fried sweets with a stuffing of coconut, cardomom and nuts), dabeli (toasted pav sandwich with coconut, fruits and potatoes) and fafda jalebi.
Other than this, they have twenty different kinds of farsan such as kutchi dabeli, kutchi ghoogra, Mumbai vada pav, undhiyu, khandvi and dhokla.
On Sundays, they add specials too. “We have Undhiyu (a Gujarati special vegetable made during the Sankranti festival) one day and Dal Pakwaan, the next, and somedays both. Currently, for the Shravan month, we have sabudana vada, sabudana khichdi and farali khakra, which people prefer during the fasting session”.
They plan to add chaats in time, including pav bhaji, pani puri and dahi puri. “But that will come in a little later,” says Rajpopat.
Rajpopat says, “A lot of people said that we were located a little away from the centre of the city... in Basveshwarnagar. But, it is the closest hub for the Gujarati community. About 70-80% of our customers are old time Gujaratis who have been in Bengaluru for 30 years or more.”