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| Gitika Saikia. |
Imagine how refreshing it would be to experience meals that are different. Lighter on the stomach, seasonal, seasoned with stories and experiences; Like a Parsi Bhonu, washed down with stories of eccentric Bawas, beer and Raspberry at a period bungalow in a vintage Parsi Baug where time stops. Or a festive Assamese Bihu meal accompanied by dancing, anecdotes about looking for ant eggs cooking silk worms and learning about unknown North Eastern Cultures and Cuisines. Or a traditional Kerela Sadya served on a leaf, garnished with stories of coconut harvests and pepper picking…. Sounds like something you want to do? Well read on to find out how!
Until last year, the dining scene in Mumbai
was pretty dismal. New restaurant openings, menu launches or food festival were
daily occurrences. One hotel finished a Kashmiri festival and another announced
theirs a week later. An element of ennui had set in. Nothing new was happening.
They also caricature the cuisine in focus with the broadest brush, to appeal to
the largest common denominator, dishing up predictable unimaginatively-executed
menus. (Exceptions are ITC and Leela, where Indian food experiences are well
researched and respectfully served).
Regional food festivals at hotels also for
some reason, tend to be about royal cuisines… like they need to justify
charging what they do by tagging it with ‘royal.’ Until now, home cooking has
been largely ignored only seeing light in the recipe pages of columns like
'Ghar ka khana around festive times when papers are looking for something
topical to feature. Or on the rare occasions that a hotel chain deigns to
exploit a home-cook and showcase a cuisine their chefs cannot do (yes that is a
grouse I will air at some point as well). So it is a happy thing, then, that into
this desolate landscape of dining have arrived a tribe of extraordinary
culinary evangelists. There is a burgeoning underground food
scene that is mushrooming in our melting pot of a city and it is so exciting! Over the last few weeks I finally had a chance to catch up with some amazing women who are changing the dynamics of Mumbai’s culinary scene.
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| Perzen Patel |
First I
visited Perzen, who has been charming my twitter timeline with her
indefatigable enthusiasm in promoting Parsi cuisine. I was invited to a Dhansak
lunch at her new kitchen, in a vintage parsi bungalow. Perzen learned Parsi
cooking from her mother to connect with her roots. Realizing that Parsi food
was disappearing she decided to do something about it. The result? The Bawi Bride kitchen. She started taking orders for Parsi food,
conducting personalised cooking classes among other things. But her most
delicious offering is the Parsi meals she hosts.
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| Jer Villa |
Which climbed a few notches
higher since she began offering them at her new home, Jer Villa a retro Parsi
bungalow, in Malcolm Baug, Jogeshwari. I
got there on a humid Sunday afternoon to be welcomed by a smiling Perzen and a
tall glass of chilled Raspberry. Much talk, eating of Saria (sago crackers) and
sighing over Jer Villa’s antiquities (like a fan in the loo!) later we dug into
lunch. A delicious meal of Dhansak, Salli chicken and Lagan nu Custard washed
down with chilled beer. The Dhansak was perfect, but it was the Salli chicken that
I really savoured that day. Tender chicken in a spicy, subtly sweet gravy with
crispy salli to sprinkle over. I just could not get enough! Perzen has
something happening almost every weekend so check out her website and sign up
for one of her meals. For more info check – www.bawibride.com
Next on the
menu was an Assamese Bihu meal, right here at my studio.
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| Assamese Bihu meal |
In Assam, April is when young village boys go hunting for a delicacy found only on mango and olive trees. Red ant eggs, costly to buy, they make for a special delicacy during Bihu, the Assamese New Year. Gitika Saikia timed herself perfectly and flew in from Assam bearing these and bags full of exotic ingredients we had never seen before like silkworm eggs and proceeded to cook up a fantastic meal of ant eggs scrambled with egg. There was also polu lota, made from the cocoon of the silkworm, boiled and stir fried, and washed down with a fermented rice drink flavoured with 80 different herbs. Gitika has singlehandedly given the cuisines of the North East and identity in India. She regularly hosts meals of different kinds all over the city. Find out more about what she does here http://gitika.me
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| Sneha Niar |
Soon after
this I finally met Sneha Nair, an economist who started cooking to reconnect herself with Keralite
food but soon found it became a full time job under the name Poppadum! Sneha
invited me over and spoilt me rotten with a fantastic meal to give me a taste
of her cooking. There was a subtly sweet Pineapple Pachadi spiked with
mustard, Syrian Christian veg stew redolent of cinnamon, mutton pepper fry,
pomfret pepper fry, raw mango mustard chutney, mango ginger chutney, yoghurt
and Madras Cucumber Curry, Poppaddum and pickled mango ginger. And there was
Sneha of the dancing eyes who fascinated me with her memories and stories.
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| A Poppaddum Meal |
Every weekend Sneha
serves up sadyas (traditional and often
festive Keralite meals involving a selection of dishes served on a banana leaf)
inspired by traditional
Syrian, Malabar Muslim, and Kerela Hindu cuisines. The theme and menu varies with each lunch which – like all of
Poppaddum’s lunches - are served in the informal setting of Nair’s home on
banana leaves. For more information go to https://www.facebook.com/poppaddum
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| Perzen Patel |
It’s one thing to cook a meal occasionally for friends it is absolutely
another to do it on a weekly or often even daily basis. For me it is a great
measure of regard and affection when someone cooks me a meal with love. They
spend the most valuable commodity on us. Time. These three ladies, have taken
the onus of evangelizing their heritage and culture through the medium of their
food. They do what it takes, from going to any lengths to get the ingredients
they need, to refusing to compromise on anything that is part of the experience
they serve up. They are up there - my
culinary heroes.
I’d predicted that Indian food would be huge on
the menu in 2015, when I was working on the Natures Basket Food Trends report
for 2015,last year. With Indian food being discovered and rediscovered at every
level in our country on a daily basis, today, I’m happy to be proven right.
One of the areas that this is most evident in,
is that of home cooks and home cooking experiences in Mumbai. In addition to
contacting these ladies directly, keep an eye on the events curated by the
following, Trekurious
Mumbai (they have each of these ladies featuring in May), Secret Ingredient
home chef experiences and Bombay Local food festivals from Small Fry Co. (They
have the biggest ever Bombay Local edition on 16th May) and of
course the Culinary Legacy events I curate at APB Cook Studio (Rongali
Bihu version 2 on 16th May & a fabulous Maharashtrian
Mejwani Food Festival coming up on 23 May. .
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| Culinary Legacy event at APB Cook Studio |
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| Meal Sneha cooked for me |
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| Jer Villa and a band of happy foodies! |
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