Pre-breakfast Breakfast- the Bhakka Story

Many mornings after my walk, I come home to chiya and bhakka.  Bhakka is a rice cake a bit like idli from southern India for those familiar with them.  They are served warm and enticingly steaming with chili, tomato sauce or honey and we have one in case the gap between the hearty serve of dal bhat from the night before and the hearty serve of dal bhat at 9 is too long.I kept asking Kopila which shop at the little intersection at the top of their road sold the bhakka.  She always answered vaguely that it was just a small shop.  And try as I might, I could never identify a small shop amongst the many small shops housing motor mechanics, beauty parlours, tailors and kirana pasals (those small general stores that dot the countryside selling phone cards, shampoo sachets, Fair and Lovely Creme and biscuits) that may sell bhakka.I convinced Kopila's oldest daughter Bina to let me accompany her on her bhakka walk (at 6.00 am after she got back from coaching.  I kid you not) to see the shop.  She picked up the trusty blue thermos bowl and off we went.  And it all became clear.  The bhakka shops sprang up like mushrooms all over town in the wee small hours of the morning.  The bhakka baker would arrive with her basket of coarsely ground rice balanced on her head (I missed that bit-those hours are way too wee and small for me).She carried her pot lined with clay, her scraps of wood, her pots of sauce and chili powder and her newspaper to wrap the buns.  Then she'd set up her fire in the kerosene tin and bring water in the pot to a rolling boil.  She would scoop a metal bowl of the ground rice and cover it with musline which she then deftly upturned over hte mnouth of the pot.  The clay had been used to create an opening just the right size.  She covered it with another metal bowl and in a few minutes the bun was steamed and ready.  Regulars gathered, waited for their bhakka and chatted.  She stayed until the rice flour was gone.  And then, so was she.  I hope the photos tell the journey from shop to plate!