What Bhelpuri Does Bhery Bhel
Other than unleashing a war of spices which is fought on our tongues, Bhelpuri, the sweet, tangy and spicy concoction of boiled potato and rice flakes, once started a mini rebellion within the British army. As goes the legend of William Harold, a British cook, who was was sent to India to help the war efforts with his meals. William, who was a chef at a rather successful restaurant in Central London, was ‘promoted’ and therefore transferred to India to serve a high ranking British official, for such was his repute and such were the dishes he prepared.
As it happened one day, the officer asked him to mass-cook for the entire troop a local dish the officer had once had and enjoyed to the very last bite. William was informed that the dish was called Bhelpuri. William, who hadn’t heard of the dish before decided to do a bit of a research, for there were no written recipes of such dishes in those days. And so he went door to door asking for the recipe. At every door he got a new recipe. Everyone added something different, either a new spice or a different kind of oil.
At the end of the day, a thoroughly confused William went back to the barracks with several recipes of the same dish. Seeing him back the officer asked him to serve the first portion of the Bhelpuri for dinner. Since William had no one recipe, he didn’t know which one to cook. And so he told his master that it could not be served, that “we’ll have to stick to French fries again tonight, Sir.” Not pleased with this response, the officer in his furry took out his handgun and shot William dead. The barrack soldiers, fed-up with the cruel ways of the officer and in love with William’s cooking, protested which led to a mini-mutiny within the British army. Such was the power of Bhelpuri, it could divide and it certainly did and still does, rule.
I could have shared a recipe with you, just in case you got into a William-like situation. But here’s the catch, there still isn’t any one recipe for the *add expletives* dish. So I am going to leave you at the mercy of king internet. Why don’t you prepare your own kind of Bhelpuri and add some more to the confusion?