Thathai Bhatia Cuisine

Thathai Bhatia cuisine is the cuisine of a subset of the Bhatia culture of India, who embraced the Bhakti sect of Hinduism while living in the Thatta region, and became Pushtimarg – strict vegetarians who eschewed even onions and garlic and devoted themselves to Srinathji, the child form of Shri Krishna.

Thatta was mostly a desert region, hot and humid. In the olden days, when the science of modern inventions had not been discovered, the cooking process was very slow using mostly charcoal or wood. The Thathai Bhatias devised different ways to make the cooking process simple and easy. The use of fresh vegetables and lentils made using minimum spices but cooked delicately to keep the flavour of the food intact was devised. They omitted the use of pungent flavours, that of onion and garlic, which emitted a strong odour and required a longer cooking duration. They also avoided the use of these strongly flavoured ingredients because food prepared was first offered to the gods – an act which the Bhatias call Bhog Dharanu. Use of onion or garlic rendered the food tamasic ("impure"), hence these were not used.

Bhog Dharanu is a ritual still followed in a lot of Bhatia households today, where the food prepared is first offered to the gods – as a token of love and to thank him for the daily meal. The belief is that god blesses the food. The food offered is then taken away by snapping the fingers twice to tell god that it is being distributed to the family members as Prasad.

Method

The cooking method adopted in Bhatia cooking is very simple. The vegetables are cooked with few spices and the tempering or the base spice is either of asafoetida (hing) or cumin (jeera). These serve the purpose of what onion or garlic is to other cuisines. Asafoetida and cumin are primarily used due to their medicinal properties of aiding in digestion. Vegetables commonly cooked in Bhatia cuisine are the ones which were abundantly available in dry places like Rajasthan or Thatta. The use of vegetables like brinjal (eggplant, baingan), courgette (turia) and bittergourd (karela) is extensive in the Bhatia cuisine. The concept of garnishing is quite simple and is mostly restricted to finely chopped coriander leaves or a dash of lime in most of the preparations.

Bhatias are amongst the few communities who commence lunch with a rice preparation and follow it up with breads (rotis, phulkas, poori) etc. Most of the other communities in India start their meal with Breads and follow it up with rice. The sophistication of Thathai Bhatia cuisine lies in its simplicity.

The first ever book on the Thathai Bhatia cuisine was launched in 2002 titled 'Panja Khada' - A Culinary Journey into Thathai Bhatia cuisine. The title Panja Khada means Our Food in the Bhatia Boli (a dialect of the Sindhi language). It was authored by Deepa Chachara & Bharat Chachara and was released by the Consul General of India to Dubai, H.E. George Joseph at the Consulate General of India, Dubai, U.A.E.

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References
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