I had the chance to visit a seriously underrated and honestly under-visited place along the Konkan coast-Roha. I'm sure everyone who's a beach junkie has heard of or made plans to visit Alibaug (which I did too), but thanks to an impromptu wedding invite, I made it to the small city not too far away from the quick getaway.
My husband and I packed a light suitcase, took with us some quickie bites, and off we drove. We were headed to Roha for a wedding alright, but there was another thing on our minds. A fun activity that sprouts up at the end of every winter that is, eating local food Popti style.
Like every road trip that has a beach at the end of it, our drive was beautiful too! Coconut trees all lined up, the jerk-less expressway, and the "must-have" road trip playlist made the 4-hour drive a dream.
A slightly roast-y afternoon of the coastal town welcomed us and made us want to sink our feet into the cool seawater immediately. Alas, it was not a seaside city! We wanted to do something before hitting a Popti spot for dinner and chose to take to the beach instead of whiling time in our room.
While we figured out that the shore was about an hour's drive from where we were staying, we got ready mentally to bear the heat of the late afternoon sun.
Surprisingly, the sand was cool, the water cooler and clear, and we couldn't have asked for a better afternoon! We dipped our toes, took a walk along the soft waves crashing at our feet, and sipped coconut water like we were in paradise.
Before we knew it, we were heading back to Roha where a local writer/poet was eager to meet us and enlighten us with a little history lesson. While the outskirts of the quaint town are well-known for forts and historical monuments, Roha itself became a hub for chemicals and factories that manufacture them.
Hundreds of Roha-ites or Roha-ans perhaps (however you want to call them) are employed with these chemical giants who make paints and such, but it was the local culture that my husband and I were fascinated about.
Not only are they a bunch of helpful people, but they are also very proud of their hometown and all that it has to offer.
And one such pride-generating local activity is the way they prepare their Popti dinners. No, it's not your regular cooking with naked fire, it is actually burying food in the fire. And Popti is not available round the year, thanks to one ingredient that grows only in the winter.
Bhamburdi leaves are used to give the Popti that stand out flavor and anyone who knows what food tastes like when cooked in the open fire knows that it's all about the char. But with Popti it's these epochal leaves that create fireworks in the mouth.
We were taken to Krishna Farm Hotel & Resort for the Popti experience, where the cooks are experts in timing the food and making a hearty dinner out of ingredients like peas (still in their pods), full potatoes, hyacinth beans, and for non-vegetarians, marinated meat and a generous scattering of eggs.
All these ingredients are layered with salt and pepper with the flavorful leaves separating them, in a clay pot that can withstand incredibly high temperatures. After sunset, Roha's temperature dropped like the POTUS did his mic, and suddenly it was the perfect weather for a bonfire-cum-cooking pyre for us to stand and watch.
The moon was out with few clouds in the sky, and the cook who had swiftly but skillfully layered up the pot brought it out onto a leveled ground around some bushes and trees. We silently followed him expecting him to place the pot atop a stove. Instead, we watched him carefully place the pot and bury it with firewood that made a teepee-like formation around the pot.
We thought we needed to give the pot and the fire a good amount of time alone to dance, but it was all done in under 30 minutes. Dominoes ain't got nothing! 20-something minutes later, the master cook brought a rag soaked in cold water, parted the white-hot logs, and picked up the pot with the rag.
"Zhala," ("done") he said to us, waking us up from the romantic fix we were in while warming ourselves with the bonfire.
We were seated under a short tree decorated with modern bulb lighting, like many other tables around us, and served the charred veggies, perfectly cooked eggs and meat, sans the special leaves which did their job in the infusing flavor.
We peeled the peas from their pods, which were a delight to the tongue, the rest of the ingredients were juicy and perfectly seasoned. You can pair the unique tasing ingredients with fluffy white rice or roti, but we did what the locals do, and ate it by itself. One by one the ingredients revealed their tastes, which you won't find if you cook them in any other manner, and were surprised by how they had turned sweet after the roast.
We couldn't have asked for a more adventurous dinner. While Popti is a winter must-try (I'm saying try because not everyone has a palette for char), I'd like to suggest, especially visiting Roha for it!
Take to the comments section if you have visited Roha or had a Popti experience you'll never forget!
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