In A Gourmand's Eden

For in this Eden of gourmands, it's tough resisting the proverbial apple. Neighbouring Mumbaikars munch exotic fare only at five-star fests, and can only fantasise about the affordable prices here. But in Pune, the Food Craft Institute unleashes a regular army of food specialists and designers, while foreigners, who've made the city their home, carve out nostalgia on plates.

Thus Bee Institute offers eight varieties of honey, ABC Farms does it with 70 types of cheese, Malaka Spice's take-home menu boasts 45 southeast Asian items, while Guru's Café invites you to make-your-own crepe or just bocadilloo. Arthur's Theme spells variety with a 100 items on its menu and A-1 Food products stocks some 26 herbs. Few mind the half-hour wait at Sala Thai even as neighbouring Jazz Garden lures with Mexican cuisine and music on the riverbank. Cheese lovers exorcise their fondness through fondue at Cheese Farm. Trussed chicken wilts before Heinz's 10-kg turkey, even as the German and his wife Karita spike their enormous sausages with paprika, mushroom and what have you.

Domino's, Smoking Joe's, Pizzeria? All are old hat. Who cares if Tempeh is Indonesian, Tahini Lebanese and Tofu Buddhist, they're all low-cholesterol. If desi is your credo, Jangali Maharaj street-boasting the maximum number of eateries-is the place for you. Not your scene? Move on to upmarket Koregaon Park. Meanwhile Dorabjee's has enough to drool over and Kayani's bakery is where you can buy the fabled shrewsbury biscuit. Even humble chivda acquires legend status if it comes from Laxminarayan's, matched only by Bedekar's misal (equivalent of the Mumbai bhel). And to know your standing in the foodie sweepstakes, all you need to do, insists the Tourist Guide, is to "test yourself with an assal Puneri khavaiya (a true food-lover of Pune)".

And unlike Crumbs and Simply Delicious, there's more than plain German fare at German Bakery. Here you agonise over having the lemon-mint or fungal tea, the Raspberry tea or the Soya coffee. For health freaks there's the jamun powder or the amaranth porridge. Off Koregaon Park too, Green Grocers makes choice a delicious torture. Cherry tea, pickled gherkins aren't a pinch on the exotica offered. We're in that ultimate foodie Karen Anand's backyard. So her guava and plum preserve jostle for shelf space with Tify's pure fruit conserve.

Temptation makes for great business, if you ask Cheeru and Praful of Malaka Spice. Every month over 65,000 to 70,000 Punekars decide to eat out, of which 15 per cent become food fiends. Besides, there's a floating population of foreigners-lured by Rajneesh, yoga, education or lucrative jobs. "We've had 78 per cent annual growth rate. A foreigner influx since '76, flow from Mumbai since '93, a thriving job market (in the Pimpri-Chinchwad belt) and we know the food scenario will be more competitive in 10 years," predicts Praful happily.

Kaivan Bodhanwala of Sala Thai happily agrees. "We have a loyal clientele given that our cooks are from Thailand, all our sauces, spices (like kafir lime leaves or galangal ginger) are imported and everything is made on order. Our rates are also reasonable." Toss in the Thai ambience-cheerful puppets, multi-hued triangular cushions, even a tiny temple presided over by a Thai god- and you have the perfect recipe for success. Close by, Jazz Garden scoops out Burritos, Guacamole, Nachos, Tortillas, Tacos, food that rolls better on the tongues than the names. The rates-from Rs 40 to Rs 120-may pinch some Punekars, but sends Mumbaikars into ecstasy.

The very reason that draws gourmets to Arthur's Theme whose owner is never short on innovation. S.E. Chinoy of ABC Farms offers himself as living proof that cheese doesn't fatten. In a market that knew only Amul cheese, Chinoy and wife Marlene unleashed slivers of smoked Gouda, Edam ball, Cheddar, Colby, Parmesan, Blue Cheese (Roquefort or Stilton), Fromage Forte, Gruyere, Italian Gorgonzola, the world's oldest Greek

Feta, low-fat Tilster, and the Hungarian Liptauer. Cheese spreads are spiked with pineapple, mint, wine, cognac, almond. He's even concocted a lemon-tinged lassi which he calls Lemsi.

What he's done with cheese, his friends, the Heinzes, have done with the birds. To make turkey ham, breakfast sausages, crackers, they import eggs from Canada, the chicks from Germany. And they may crib of Indian refrigeration being Neanderthal, but thanks to them one doesn't have to wait till Christmas to tuck into turkey.

When Ashok Thadani's wife Sheetal stepped out of Ambrosia school she discovered that local vendors stocked only mint or coriander; mocked oregano, basil as firang cusswords. So the duo set about looking for herbs. Now Punekars can buy camomile, peppermint, marjoram, sage, sorrel, thyme, water-cress, rose-hip, avocados and kiwi fruits. Likewise Dr Soni's Wheat-O-Alfa (from wheatgerm, bran, olfalfa sprouts and honey) stocks French crepes, Cherry Tea, Mexican ready-to-make Yucatan, Irish Cream Coffee, Swiss Mocha, Italian Cappuccino, even fat-free dressing, iced tea in different flavours, Karen's Korean barbecue sauce, Spanish olives with pimentos, gherkin burger slices. And ravioli at just Rs 35!

Caught in this swirl, even the humble Khadi co-op's innovating with honey. There's white honey from bees sucking only on cotton flowers, golden from rubber, lichi or mustard flowers, amber from jamun, tamarind flowers, and a darker tone derived from "mixed flora". Eucalyptus supposedly keeps doctors away.

In Pune, foreigners behave the way Punekars do. American couple Naina and Akhil (Rajneesh sanyasis) ladle out ravioli and other pasta, spiced with love because they "want to give something back to India". Israeli Seemoh Shapiro laments the lack of "basic nutrition in India, and so with four others at Dakini Foods, he pulps sesame to make Tahini; nurtures Rhizopus mold to dish out Javanese Tempeh. "It's cholesterol-free, is a concentrated source of Vit B-12, and is highly digestible." Soon he'll be tossing up Buddhist Tofu.

Similar religious fervour attends Klaus Woody Gutzeit's German Bakery, managed by Nepalese Ram Gopal Karkee. Here it's not unfashionable to ask for yak cheese, wheatgrass juice, Kambucha tea with strands of fungus floating, Vitam-r-slici (Tofu with yeast extract and spices), Italian Lavazza or Jasmine tea. Says Karkee: "We are a tiny place. But people don't come here to sit down, they love food." Sure. How better to glut a glutton?