Something interesting struck me about the eggs I made for my breakfast today.
These are chutney eggs. I used the Gujarati hara chutney that had come with some food I had ordered in from Soam.
I seasoned the eggs with pahari hara peesyoon loon from Monsoon, Dehradun.
Incidentally Rushina Munshaw Ghildayal has worked with both restaurants on menu curation.
My visits to both places were originally thanks to her.
I had stayed away from Soam for years as it’s a vegetarian place even though many had praised it to me. Then Rushina called me for a food festival she had curated at Soam. I went there, fell in love with the food. Since then Soam became one of my favourite restaurants in the city, regardless of category, and its owner, Pinky, a dear friend.
My visit to Dehradun, Monsoon, and the hotel it is located in, LP Residency, happened when Rushina and Shruti Gupta invited me for the @dehradunfoodlitfestival which they had co-curated. I learnt that Rushina had helped curated a pahari meal section the Monsoon menu. It is named after her!
The idea of chutney eggs came to me from the cheese chilli eggs that we used to have at the (now shut) La Folie cafe in Bandra run by chef Sanjana Thakkar.
If I remember right, Rushina, had once developed some macaron flavours on world macaron day for them years back. Who would have thought that a simple plate of fried eggs would have so many stories to tell? With one name, Rushina, coming up in each!
Ps: One more thing. Rushina and her husband, Shekhar, have launched @aperfectbiteconsulting publishing and the first book coming up is called Chutney. And let’s not forget that her interest in pahari food is because she is a Gujarati married to a pahari. Even Manmohan Desai could not have thought of so many plot twists!
#finelychoppedbreakfasts
(Eggs, fried eggs, chutney, Indian food, salt, sunny side up)
