I recently became friends with a very nice gentleman, Ravi Jagasia, via the cookbook club, IncrEdibles. Ravi is a kitchen ninja, constantly challenging himself with new preparations and recipes, excelling at mutton and fish. His photos on Instagram @spanner2spatula are always mouthwatering, glorious curries from elaborate recipes. He has always been most generous sharing what he makes and we have often been lucky enough to get parcels from him.

Ravi’s culinary repertoire continued to increase unabated even through the 2020 Lockdown and I was keen to share his story here. Here it is, in his own words.

Lockdown 2020.

“The severest part of Lockdown 2020 took place from 25 th March to 3rd May and then eased out subsequently, initially shopping for groceries was allowed only for a few morning hours, every third day.

I cooked a total of 23 dishes, mainly Indian, since exotic veggies and herbs were unavailable. I know this for a fact because I maintain a culinary record on Insta.

As I stay a lane away from Shivaji Market and Dorabjee’s, getting ingredients was relatively easy, but even then marketing had its challanges.

The meat and fish section of Shivaji Market was closed and vehicles weren’t allow to ply.
For Mutton I walked 4 kms to Dhole Patil road as Tharu was one of the few vendors selling fresh meat.

Chicken, I was lucky. A medical store opp Modern Dairy has an agency for Zorabian .

Fresh sea food was impossible to get since no vehicles were allowed to enter Pune. Some people were selling frozen stuff, however didn’t go for it as I prefer my seafood fresh.

Eggs were being sold in the bylanes around Shivaji Market. Only Veggies grown around Pune were available. It is during this time that I realised that almost 50% veggies that we normally get comes from other cities .

From 3rd week onwards the situation eased with fruits and farsan kinda stuff starting arriving in the market.

I cooked quite a few chicken, mutton and chaat dishes. But my greatest achievement was when I made Dosa and Uttapam. It’s all about conquering your Demons isn’t it? Well, one down many more to go.

Thanks to my diverse cooking, I do have a well stocked pantry.
Couple of weeks into the lockdown a friend asked for some brown sugar. Apparently she cannot function without her ” morning coffee with brown sugar “

Luckily Dunzo was functioning by then, so I sent her whatever stock I had along with some Pakistani chicken karahi. That set her morning mood right.

In hindsight, it wasn’t so bad. Didn’t fall sick and learnt to appreciate the small things that one took for granted.
The current lockdown is not as bad as the last one . And you know what they say na?
This too shall pass……”

I have attached screenshots from Ravi’s instagram, with his own descriptions.