Sanai Ke Phool and Social Networking

I am sure the probability of you knowing both of them is so low. Don’t even try to figure out what they mean using the web as one of them is going to give you links to Sania Mirza ( as search engines think that you mistyped Sania as Sanai ) and the other search term will give you so many results that you will be so confused.

Anyway let us get back to Sanai ke Phool. What the hell it is ? I was as clueless as you are just a few days back. I was on my annual trip to Lucknow for Diwali and we were driving back from airport back to our home which is right across the town. We stopped on the way to buy some vegetables where my brother saw a unique looking vegetable being sold on a small road side shop. There was a gentleman already buying that stuff and he was so eager to explain what it was. He was explaining in detail that this is called Sanai ke Phool and eaten in some small villages around Lucknow. The next problem was to figure out what was the correct way to cook it. Another gentleman on the road side was keen to offer help. His knowledge I guess was half baked but his eagerness was over baked. He was clear that you need to add a little bit of rice when you cook it but was not too sure in what form. We desperately needed some subject matter experts here and a lady walking by obliged us. She identified the vegetable and told some history about it. She also explained that it has to be cooked like a kofta ( with gram and rice flour ) and then you put it in a tomato based gravy. All of us listened to her expertise with patience. Soon everybody said the usual thanks to everyone and we moved on.

This is pretty much how conversation starts for lot of people who have not been blinded by technology like lot of us. A great example of social networking – desi style.

BTW we did cook Sanai ke Phool like a dry curry using another recipe version and it tasted great 🙂