Shrewsbury - My Favourite Midnight Treat

MY FAVOURITE MIDNIGHT TREAT
By
VIKRAM KARVE

From my Foodie Archives
Mouthwatering Pune Memories
Shrewsbury Biscuit

It’s almost midnight and I’m sitting in glorious solitude on my favourite sofa in the living room watching a film on TV.

Wife and kids are fast asleep inside; only my pet dog Sherry lies curled up fast asleep on her “bed” near the door.

I tiptoe to the kitchen, pull out a tin from its secret hiding place, open it, take out my favourite midnight snack, and walk back to my sofa.

I have in front of me a Shrewsbury Biscuit from Kayani Bakery.

I look at the Shresbury Biscuit.

Embossed is the emblem of Kayani Bakery with the words Shrewsbury Kayani Bakery written all around. I smell the crisp appetizing biscuit.

Yes, I discern that unique aroma – the first test of a genuine Shrewsbury.

I take a bite.

Crunchy, crisp, scrumptious – words cannot describe the tempting taste, delectable lively flavor and delightful sensation as the Shrewsbury Biscuit dissolves in my mouth.

A Shrewsbury Biscuit entices you, perks you up and leaves a superb ambrosial aftertaste, which tantalizingly lingers on your tongue for a long long time.

That is why you should never have tea, coffee, or anything else with Shrewsbury Biscuits. It will spoil the heavenly experience.

I’ve seen people hurriedly washing down a Shrewsbury Biscuit with tea, even dipping the revered biscuit in their tea – that’s sacrilege…!

Sit quietly in solitude, focus your attention, stimulate your tastebuds, and mindfully savor the Shrewsbury.

Absorb all its distinctive characteristics – the taste, the flavour, the fragrance – in their entirety, till you experience sheer bliss.

Relishing a Shrewsbury is similar to enjoying a good wine – you lovingly admire it, caress it, air it a bit, imbibe its fruity aroma, lovingly nurture it in your mouth, then thoroughly relish it, and, finally, rejoice in the glorious aftertaste, and you will feel stimulated to a higher plane of inner joy.

As compared to Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, and many other places, Pune is way behind as a Foodie destination.

But there are some inimitable delights for which Pune is famous, which are unique to Pune and you don’t get anywhere else.

Like Kayani Bakery’s Shrewsbury Biscuit – it’s superb, unique, matchless, delicious – I don’t think you get anything like it anywhere else in India, or, maybe, in the world…!

There are many imitators, claiming to be Shrewsbury, but genuine Kayani’s is truly supreme.

No doubt about it.

If you’re dying for an authentic Shrewsbury Biscuit, you’ll have to come to Pune and head for Kayani Bakery on East Street…!

Dear fellow Foodie, the next time you’re in Pune, after you treat yourself to Shrewsbury from Kayani on East Street, try their inimitable Cheese papri, chocolate walnut cake, wine biscuits and other baked delights too.

And whilst you are in Pune, don’t forget Chitale’s Amba Barfi and Bakarwadi, Laxminarayan Chiwda, Budhani’s Wafers, Bhavnagri’s Shev Barfi, Dorabjee’s Biryani, Good Luck’s Mutton Cutlet Curry, Vaishali’s SPDP, Kayani’s Chocolate Walnut Cake, Marzorin’s Rolls and Sandwiches, Spicer’s Lamington, Hindustan Bakery’s Patties, Pasteur Bakery’s Macaroons, Shreyas and Durvankur Maharashtrian Thali, Sujata and Kawre’s Mastani, and genuine authentic Bhel (not the imitation pseudo bhel they concoct at Chowpatty!). Ironic, isn’t it? The way Bhel is associated with Chowpatty…!

But then, you get the best “Puneri” Misal in Mumbai, don’t you…?

To find out where, read my blog, or my book Appetite for a Stroll

Dear Reader and Fellow Foodie: For more such appetizing dishes do read APPETITE FOR A STROLL a treatise on The Art of Eating, Easy to Cook Recipes and Foodie Adventures in Pune and Mumbai. Click the links below to know more about this delicious book:

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Food-for-soul/358363/#

http://books.sulekha.com/book/appetite-for-a-stroll/default.htm

http://www.indiaplaza.in/finalpage.aspx?storename=books&sku=9788190690096&ct=2

http://www.flipkart.com/appetite-stroll-vikram-karve/8190690094-gw23f9mr2o

Happy Eating

VIKRAM KARVE
Copyright © Vikram Karve 2009
Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

vikramkarve@sify.com

http://books.sulekha.com/book/appetite-for-a-stroll/default.htm

Art of Drinking

DON’T DRINK WHEN YOU NEED A DRINK

[Food for Thought]

By

VIKRAM KARVE



One evening a friend of mine landed up at my place and said, “I’ve had a really hard day at work. I need a drink.”

“I’ll get you a cup of tea,” I said.

“Tea…?” he exclaimed astounded, “haven’t you got some whiskey or something…I told you I’m feeling terrible…everything went wrong today…I desperately need a drink…”

“I know you are dying for a drink, craving, yearning, thirsting for that “soothing” sip of alcohol. That’s why you shouldn’t drink now. Never drink when you need a drink,” I said.

My friend pleaded, I didn’t budge, gave him a cup of tea, which he drank with great reluctance, and then he walked off in a huff, calling me all sorts of names, a miser, a “good for nothing” friend, but I knew I had done the right thing.

Don’t drink when you need a drink.

Sounds funny isn’t it?

Let me try to elucidate.

Never drink when you need a drink.

Don’t touch the bottle when you are feeling any negative emotion, for the bottle will “unbottle” and release your pent up negative emotions and make you feel even more miserable and also spoil the mood of all those around you.

Let me tell you something I have observed in real life. If you want to know the true character of a man get him drunk and what is hidden inside him will come out and his true inner self will be revealed.

That’s what alcohol does, isn’t it? Reduces inhibitions, makes you more expansive, expressive, loosens you up, and amplifies releases and brings out your inner emotions, talents, passions, sentiments.

That’s why some persons become more creative after a drink or two – as the music, the poetry, the creativity hidden within you is unleashed – if you are happy inside you start outwardly physically expressing your happiness by laughing, cheer and bonhomie, you may even articulate your secret unexpressed love, become amorous, romantic, try to realize your hidden desires and reveal without compunctions your inner secrets which you otherwise wouldn’t disclose.

But the converse is also true. By reducing inhibitions alcohol may bring out the worst in you and pent up negative emotions like anger, envy, dejection, despondency, frustration may also be unleashed resulting in undesirable consequences. Have you noticed how some people get violent, argumentative, rude or even melancholic, moody, sullen, depressed, unsociable after a few drinks?

Dear Reader, in my opinion, the best thing is not to have a drink at all, but if you must have a drink please do make sure that you are feeling positive, peaceful and happy inside and you don’t desperately “need” that drink.

Never drink when you need a drink.

Do you agree? What is your experience?

Please do comment and give us your views.


VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2009
Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

vikramkarve@sify.com