The Holy Hunger by Namrata Das

Introduction

I did not begin this project looking for restaurants. I began it while looking for a home.

After moving to Ahmedabad, I slowly realized that non-vegetarian food here was different from what it had been throughout my life in Delhi. Food was not merely a preference; it was a negotiation. It appeared in conversations about housing, neighbourhoods, marriage, friendship, religion, and belonging. I found myself constantly receiving directions in whispers.

“There’s one place in ……..”

“Don’t worry, I know a ……….”
“You get good chicken …….”

The Holy Hunger emerged from these conversations.

1.Scene from the Hotel Moti Mahal on a Sunday evening, Juhapura

I first heard about Moti Mahal through my friend Sheeba, a researcher deeply engaged with Ahmedabad’s culture, politics, and heritage, and a long-time resident of Juhapura. 

As someone who has spent years documenting the city’s social and cultural histories, she introduced me to places that often remain outside conventional heritage maps.

2. Chicken Changezi, old-style Mughal preparation on a table stove at Moti Mahal, Juhapura

Located in Juhapura, one of Ahmedabad’s most vibrant and misunderstood neighbourhoods, Moti Mahal has built a reputation for rich Mughlai dishes and family-style dining.

The bakery itself has existed for decades and has become part of everyday life for many families in the area.

Moti Bakery began as a family-run bakery in 1967 and gradually expanded into one of Ahmedabad’ s bestknown bakery brands.

While eating, Sheeba spoke about how many businesses in Juhapura were built through community networks after years of social and infrastructural
neglect. What began as a flood-relief settlement in the 1970s eventually developed its own schools, hospitals, food markets, and businesses.

3. Preparation of twelve non-veg items at Bara Handi, Old City

Tucked within the winding lanes of Ahmedabad’s Old City

It is known for its Barahandi—a slow-cooked preparation made from twelve different cuts and parts of meat, a dish with roots in Mughal and Deccani culinary traditions.

I arrived there during my explorations of the Old City, where many non-vegetarian establishments continue to thrive despite remaining absent from mainstream narratives about Ahmedabad’ s food culture.

The owner explained that most of their customers were workers, traders, and families who had been visiting for generations. Sitting among diners sharing steaming plates, places like Noorani Barahandi are not simply restaurants; they are repositories of memory, preserving culinary traditions that have quietly endured in the city for decades.

4. North Canteen Area of CEPT University, University Road, Navrangpura

I discovered Kerala Lunch while working as a Teaching Assistant at CEPT University.

Unlike many restaurants that cater to a broad clientele, Kerala Lunch primarily functions as a catering kitchen and canteen-style eatery, serving meals that resonate strongly with students from Kerala.

Their menu revolves around comforting staples such as flaky parottas paired with spicy chicken curry, chicken biryani, fried chicken preparations, and hearty rice meals that mirror the flavours found in homes and college canteens across Kerala. The students pick-up their lunch from a dedicated store box on campus, find shaded corners, and lay newspapers to enjoy the meals.

As students from different regions arrive in Ahmedabad, food businesses emerge to meet their tastes and cravings. During lunch hours, the space fills with conversations in Malayalam, discussions about studio deadlines, and debates about whose hometown serves the best biryani.

As students from different regions arrive in Ahmedabad, food businesses emerge to meet their tastes and cravings. During lunch hours, the space fills with conversations in Malayalam, discussions about studio deadlines, and debates about whose hometown serves the best biryani.

5. Students savouring their Kerala meals by KL 11 at CEPT University, University Road, Navrangpura

I discovered The Bawa Bistro during a final-semester dinner with the studio students from CEPT.

6.Pallonji Soda, Mutton Keema & Pav at Bawa Bistro, Swastik Society

The restaurant sits quietly in Navrangpura. From the outside, it appears modest. Inside, however, every object seemed to tell a story about Parsi food culture.

During my visit, I found myself speaking with the owner, Tiraz.
What began as a conversation about the menu slowly shifted into a conversation about migration.

At one point, Tiraz began explaining how Parsi communities arrived from Persia and gradually adapted to Gujarat while retaining distinct food traditions.

The menu itself functions almost like a culinary archive, serving dishes such as Patra-ni-Macchi, Dhansak, Sali Chicken, Akuri, and Pallonji sodas that continue longstanding Parsi food traditions.

The restaurant itself was established as a way of bringing homestyle Parsi food into Ahmedabad’s dining landscape. Rather than treating the cuisine as a novelty, the space attempts to recreate the feeling of eating in a Parsi household.

On the table beside ours, Gujarati parents were encouraging their children to eat fish. Another family discussed which fish preparation they preferred.

A young couple ordered Patra-ni-Macchi and raspberry soda.

For a city repeatedly described through vegetarianism, the scene felt significant.

7.A family introducing the skill of eating fish to their child at The Bawa Bistro, Swastik Char Rasta, Swastik Society

8.A group of friends hanging out in Amdos, University Area

The restaurant was recommended to me several times, but what finally drew me there was curiosity about how Tibetan food had found a place within Ahmedabad’ s culinary landscape.

Located in Paldi, Amdos occupies a modest space that can easily be missed if one is not looking for it. Yet for years, it has become a gathering point for students, artists, designers, travellers, and anyone searching for food that exists outside Ahmedabad’ s dominant culinary imagination.

The restaurant was established by a thirdgeneration Nepali family whose journey to Ahmedabad was itself shaped by displacement.
The name “Amdos” refers to Amdo, one of the traditional regions of Tibet.

Rather than opening a restaurant designed to appeal to local expectations, the family chose to cook the food they knew and grew up with, recipes carried across borders, adapted to new surroundings, but still rooted in memory.

When I visited, I found photographs, prayer flags, and traces of another geography quietly occupying the space. The menu read almost like a map: chicken momos, pork thukpa, thenthuk, shapta, and dishes I had rarely encountered elsewhere in Ahmedabad.

As I spoke with people eating around me, many described returning repeatedly over several years.

One customer told me:

“Whenever I come here, it feels like I’ve left Ahmedabad for an hour.
“The statement stayed with me.

The restaurant felt less like a business and more like an act of cultural continuity. Amdos exists in a city often described through a singular food identity.

While eating a bowl of steaming pork momos and chicken thukpa, I found myself thinking about how food travels. People move. Recipes move with them. Over time, those recipes create new homes.

Amdos is one such home.

9.Piyali Di is sharing orders with her mother, who heads the kitchen
at Shondharuchi, Bopal

My partner discovered Shondharuchi during one of my homesick phases.
It was around Poila Boishakh(Bengali New Year).

I had spent most of the week complaining about missing fish, Bengali food, and family lunches. One evening she simply said, “Get ready. We ‘ re going somewhere. ”

The restaurant had been started by Bengalis living in Ahmedabad who wanted to create a space dedicated to Bengali food traditions.

Over time, it became one of the few places consistently recommended whenever anyone asked where to find Bengali food in the city., which is in the area that also has a bengali temple, ideally known as Kalibari, whose presence remains across the country as an epitome of a cultural center.

10.Bengali Preparations: Prawns in coconut & Biryani at Shondharuchi, Bopal

As I spoke with the staff, conversations drifted toward where ingredients were sourced from and how customers often travelled long distances simply because they missed home

What makes the restaurant unique is that it does not stop at Bengali food. Many dishes carry influences from Dhakai and Bangladeshi cooking traditions, reflecting a food history that existed long before contemporary borders.

That evening, while eating fish curry and rice, I found myself speaking less and remembering more.

11.Venkat, a worker from Thrissur at Kerala Food Center, Juhapura

Kerala Food Center entered my map of Ahmedabad through a friend from Chennai who was then a fellow at the Centre for Social Justice.
Missing familiar flavours from home, he often spoke about the place with great affection.

Popular among migrant workers, students, and professionals from southern India, the restaurant serves dishes on humble steel thalis, embracing visitors with the feeling of a regular day at home with no fancy cutlery.

Conversations there often moved seamlessly between Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, and Gujarati, creating a space where multiple geographies met around a shared table.

12.Ali Bhai with his father, Ashram Road

I found Mastana Omelette on my way back from university one evening. Hungry and exhausted after a long day, I noticed a small egg cart near our residential area and stopped for what I assumed would be a quick snack.

Over time, the cart became a familiar part of my route home.

What began as a family livelihood has gradually become a neighbourhood landmark, serving students, office-goers, delivery workers, and latenight customers looking for a quick meal.

Egg stalls occupy a unique position in Ahmedabad’ s food culture. Eggs are often considered more socially acceptable than meat, yet they continue to occupy an ambiguous place within the city ‘ s predominantly vegetarian public image. Several people I met admitted that they occasionally eat eggs outside while avoiding discussions about it at home.

One evening, while waiting for my order, a customer joked,
“At home we’re vegetarian, outside we’re flexible.” The laughter that followed suggested it was a familiar sentiment.

For students, workers, and night-time commuters, omelette carts become discreet spaces of indulgence and convenience.

I realized that even something as ordinary as an omelette carries its own politics of visibility and secrecy in Ahmedabad.

For nearly a decade, and before that through his father, Ali Bhai has occupied the same corner of the neighbourhood, quietly serving generations of customers whose stories, routines, and cravings intersect around a hot griddle and a plate of eggs.

13.Scene from Rajdarbari, Juhapura

Rajdarbari, located in Juhapura, the restaurant has become known for its grilled meats and North Indian preparations that draw diners from different parts of the city.

The popularity of places such as Rajdarbari reflects the growth of Juhapura as one of Ahmedabad’ s most important non-vegetarian food districts. What began as a settlement shaped by displacement and community-building gradually evolved into a vibrant neighbourhood sustaining bakeries, cafés, restaurants, and food businesses that serve thousands of people every day.

During my visit, charcoal smoke, conversations, and crowded tables transformed the restaurant into something larger than a dining space. It became a reminder that food often succeeds where social boundaries fail, bringing together people from different backgrounds through shared appetites.

14.Food making at Dawat, Navrangpura

I discovered Dawat while taking an evening walk through the new neighbourhood we had recently moved into.
What initially caught my attention was the aroma drifting from the kitchen, followed by the steady stream of customers arriving throughout the evening.

Like many neighbourhood restaurants, Dawat is woven into the everyday rhythms of local life. It serves workers returning from long shifts, families celebrating small occasions, and students searching for affordable meals.

As a newcomer to the area, this small spot became one of my first points of connection to the neighbourhood, illustrating how food establishments often help migrants and recent arrivals navigate unfamiliar places.

15.Scene from Bera Samosa House, Old City

While attending an iftari gathering at Sarkhej Roza(Mosque)during Ramadan, as sunset approached and people gathered to break their fast, the historic complex transformed into a vibrant landscape of food, prayer, and conversation.

The groups started transferring trays of piping hot chicken samosas from Bera Samosa House, which has become particularly known for its meat-filled samosas. Unlike the potato-filled samosas more commonly associated with Gujarati street food.

Eating Bera samosas after roza opened a different understanding of Ahmedabad’ s food culture, one rooted not only in taste but in ritual, gathering, and collective memory.

16.A scene from Ronak Joint, Juhapura

Ronak was recommended to me by Jia, a student at CEPT University who was part of a studio where I worked as a Teaching Assistant.
Like many of my discoveries in Ahmedabad, it emerged through conversation rather than online searches or guidebooks.

Recommendations passed between classmates often form informal food maps that guide newcomers like me in the city. Following Jia’s suggestion led me to yet another example of how Ahmedabad’ s non-vegetarian culture survives through networks of trust, friendship, and shared experience rather than formal visibility.