No zing like 'bhujing': Why Virar's coal-roasted chicken-poha snack is totally unique

Every time Gautam Pardake goes home to Virar, he always seeks his fill of bhujing. While he eats some of it at home, it has now become a ritual for him to take at least two packets back - one for him and another for friends in Thane, where he now lives. "Whenever I leave to visit my parents, I place the order in Thane so that it arrives by the time I reach Virar," laughs Pardake. "Earlier, when deliveries weren't possible because my parents' place was beyond the distance they covered, I used to order it to a friend's address and pick it up from there."

Known to have originated in Agashi town in Virar, bhujing is a name and a dish that every person from the far-flung suburb has heard growing up. The dish comprises chicken and potatoes, roasted over coals and pan-fried with poha - all finished with a squeeze of lime and a side of chutney. The word itself borrows from the Marathi 'bhujane', which means roasting. Over the years, it has become more than just a snack and is even eaten for dinner with rice and chapatis. Despite its suburban following, many in the rest of Mumbai know little or nothing about this dish.

Parkade, now 37, remembers being introduced to it as a school-going child in 1997. "Somebody always used to get bhujing home on special occasions - either someone visiting us from Agashi or my dad," he reminisces. At the time, it was popular through word of mouth, "people used to say there is this one person Sudha Gawad who sells it", he adds. While he was a fussy eater growing up, over the years he has grown to appreciate the dish and it is one he can't do without. "It is very difficult to imagine pairing poha and chicken together," says Pardake, about the strange appeal of the dish. "No trip around Virar or starting from Virar is complete without picking up bhujing for eating later in the day," he adds.

The dish comprises chicken and potatoes, roasted over coals and pan-fried with poha - all finished with a squeeze of lime and a side of chutney. Photo: Chirag Gawad (special arrangement)

Beauty of bhujing
While bhujing is now available at many eateries in Virar and at a restaurant or two elsewhere in Mumbai, Pardake swears by the version served at the Agashi Bhujing Center -- a small shop known to be the pioneer of the dish.

Vipul Yadav, a Powai resident now who grew up in Virar eating the dish, agrees. "It is very unique to the region and that is why the best bhujing is found there." The 37-year-old considers himself a huge foodie, regularly researching the origin of dishes, and occasionally even conducting food walks for those visiting Mumbai. As we speak, he is reminded that it has been a while since he had bhujing. "I want to make a trip to Virar to feed my craving." Still, not enough people know about the dish, Yadav rues. "The lack of accessibility and longer travel time are the main reasons why people may have not tasted it yet."

Tracing the origins
To understand why the dish is so popular, this writer visited the shop that is now an iconic institution. It is a weekday and the last one hour of service but Agashi Bhujing Center is seeing a constant stream of customers looking to get their bhujing fix. The snack is neatly packed in paper bags bearing the name of ‘Sudhakar Gawad'. Visibly, the regular chicken bhujing (with skin and bones) is one of the most popular dishes on offer. Biting into the dish, the writer is greeted with a smoky flavoured meat, followed by a spicy-sour taste from the masala and lime marinade. The crisp poha flakes and potatoes add another layer and make it a perfect and irresistible combination.

The boneless and special (skinless and select pieces) are other bhujing varieties that feature on the menu along with mutton, which may not be as popular as it used to be but still has takers, according to Chirag Gawad. He is the third-generation owner of the business who stands at the counter to greet customers. The 34-year-old says mutton is not popular now because it costs more and is relatively tougher. He explains, "The mutton takes longer to cook compared to chicken because it is roasted on coal. Since it is a tougher meat to eat, it doesn't have as much of a demand and is eaten only by those who have always been eating it."

The Agashi Bhujing Center sees a constant stream of customers, who pick up the snack in neatly packed paper bags bearing the name of ‘Sudhakar Gawad'.

Incidentally, it was mutton that was actually a part of the original bhujing, served when people came to visit his grandfather Babu Gawad - who ran a business serving toddy to locals near his home back in the 1940s. "People used to visit my grandfather's house to drink toddy and over the years, they started asking if there was something to eat (chakna) along with it," says Gawad. Gawad, who has grown up with the stories, says 80 years ago, neither was broiler chicken available nor was the local or gavti chicken popular. "Mutton was much more famous than chicken at the time and so he served it to them as an accompaniment without cost, and that's how it started," he says.

While the dish initially started with just coal-roasted mutton, his grandfather experimented and went on to add potatoes and eventually poha. Once it got popular, customers would bring in ingredients from the kirana opposite the house and request Babu Gawad to prepare it. Today, the chicken is marinated, roasted and fried in oil with potatoes in the main kitchen, behind the shop. After it comes to the shop, the ingredients are heated and tossed in a ‘special' masala with poha, and packed in parcels.

Sudhakar Gawad (popularly known as Sudha Gawad), Babu's son and Chirag's uncle, first saw the opportunity in turning bhujing-making into a business. "While it initially began with people getting the ingredients, my uncle said we could buy the ingredients ourselves and make it for people. So, we started cooking it in an old house (which is now the kitchen) and selling it," he explains. It was also a turning point for the family, which stopped the toddy business after the death of their patriarch. In the early 80s, the family observed the change in consumption of meat from mutton to chicken and started making the dish with the latter. It was at this time that Sudhakar convinced his brother Jaywant, Chirag's father, to join the business, as he was still looking for a stable job too. The brothers have been managing the kitchen and the counter together ever since, with junior Gawad joining them full-time 12 years ago.

Sudhakar Gawad (left) who converted bhujing-making into a business was joined by his brother Jaywant and nephew Chirag (right) over the years. Photo: Chirag Gawad (special arrangement)

Initially, there was no automation and that is what younger Gawad brought with him - newer ideas. He explains, "We follow the same traditional coal-roasting process and don't use a gas to retain the same flavour, but have automated the process of grinding the spices." While people knew it as a bhujing eatery in general or as Sudha Bhujing, he gave the current name to the brand, and trademarked it. Gawad is a commerce graduate and did start a degree in hotel management but never completed it as he started spending more time at the shop. Spending time there also gave him an understanding of the business to help bring about more changes. While the bhujing was initially packed in banana leaves for locals, followed by milk packets, the shop now uses a food-grade bag, which keeps the snack hot. They also introduced microwave-convenient bags, which he says are taken by people overseas. Gawad, who believes in customer loyalty also packs the food as early as 8 am for regular train travellers and delivers them the previous day for those who travel earlier than that.

Like many other businesses, the Covid-19 pandemic also had an effect on Agashi Bhujing Center but luckily for them, the dish is very popular in the area and business picked up soon enough - starting with takeaways and deliveries. As of today, the shop dishes out as many as 100-150 kilos of chicken and 10-15 kilos of mutton bhujing daily. That fluctuates depending on whether it is a festival or a day of fasting; weekends are always busy. "We look at how many people are at the counter and coming in and how much time is left to close and communicate that to the kitchen staff, who then prepare the dish accordingly," he informs. With the demand being strong until the shutters are down, bhujing is clearly a dish that is on everybody's mind and that is what keeps the family business going.

Taking it beyond Virar
In Bordi, a coastal village in Palghar, a little over two hours from the Mumbai suburb where it became popular, Shama Kawli, a local, has been making the dish for the last five years. She has also been serving it at her farmhouse along with traditional home-cooked Maharashtrian cuisine. "I was introduced to the dish in 1999 after I got married. My husband is from Agashi, so I have been eating poha bhujing since then and kept trying to figure out the ingredients because I really liked it," explains the 45-year-old.

Shama Kawli was introduced to the dish after she got married in 1999 and has been eating it since then. Now, she serves it at her farmhouse in Bordi. Photo: Shama Kawli

Like Pardake, Kawli was fascinated with the flavour of the dish and the chicken and poha combination. Realising the potential in serving the unique dish at her family-owned CR Farm, where she gets approximately 50-60 people during the weekend, Kawli started making bhujing and has seen a good demand for orders since then. However, the demand is usually from only those people who know about it, she says, and many who come to the farmhouse only get to know about it there after she tells them. Kawli even puts it on WhatsApp groups, where she gets a lot of orders from locals who want it for the evenings and weekends. Last Sunday alone, she made as much as 11 kilos.

Interestingly, the Bordi local also makes a vegan version because of her daughter, who turned vegan more than five years ago. "The only difference in the vegan version is that it is without the coal-roasted chicken; otherwise, the process is the same with the masala, roasted potatoes and poha," says Kawli.

While the poha bhujing is still famous around Virar, Kawli is taking her love for the dish beyond the region and introducing more people to it. Meanwhile, the popularity of Agashi Bhujing Centre is taking the dish to the likes of New York and Dubai too, says Gawad proudly. While the dish is yet to enjoy mainstream success and a wider audience, it is available to be relished, if only one is willing to travel for the sake of food.