Not really keen on having my hotel breakfast buffet at Nagpur, I asked around for ideas for where I could have some robust, typically Nagpur street food breakfast. The universal recommendation was aloo poha with misal. So armed with this knowledge I set out to find the best place to partake this breakfast.

My quest takes me to a street side joint called Shraddha Farsaan Samosewala, and that confuses me no end. My doubts are soon put to rest when I learn that this is a shop that wears two hats. It is a popular poha place till 1 pm after which it becomes what it is meant to be – samosewala.

So I wait patiently in the queue as I marvel at the split second precision with which the plate is getting assembled. One gent starts by scooping out a good helping of aloo poha into the plate as it gets passed on to the misal vat chap. The strong silent misal chap looks up quizzically at the waiting customer, at which point one is supposed to say “tikha” (super spicy) or “medium” (hot). When my turn comes, the macho me of course chooses the tikha version. After this the plate comes to the farsaan man, who adds lots of crispy thingies and some onions, chillies, a dash of lime and hands over the plate to the salivating lucky one whose turn it is.