vadodara ever heard of bhajias made of dates or figs a citybased former businessman boasts to know the recipe to bizarre versions of the most popular indian snack although bhajias have been one of the most famous snacks foodies however are not known to the variety of bhajias that can be relished bhaskar patel 78 has a collection of recipes for 1026 verities of bhajias the seed of the dates are removed and the fruit is dipped in the batter of gram flour laced with spices and deep fried to make the unique bhajias the sweetsour bhajiya made using figs anjeer are made in the same method the variety includes bhajiya made of popcorn and paneer to those made of macroni said patel who has a hobby of collecting recipespatel who has collected about 41000 recipes has made 4000 food items out of them interestingly all his recipes are vegetarian dishes from across the country while his collection boasts of 70 different types of pickles there are nearly 100 potato dishes for daily dieti have been a foodie throughout my childhood i even went on to do odd jobs for relatives in my village in return of delicacies i got the inspiration to collect recipes after my younger daughter sent me few paper cuttings of several snacks said patel who owns the cash n carry store in ellora park while 25000 of recipes were collected from newspapers magazines books and handouts 16000 of the recipes were written down by patel in his books from pocket dairies to large files patels house has an inventory of vegetarian recipes about three hours in a day is spent in reading and watching cookery shows there have been times that i woke up in the middle of the night to catch a repeat telecast of my favourite food shows to note down the recipes added patelapart from food recipes patel has also accumulated a vast collection about 4000 clippings of ayurvedic home remedies of various ailments patel continues to collect recipes and aims to enter the guinness world records