Six Mumbai chefs and restaurant owners tell Roshni Bajaj Sanghvi about the snacks they absolutely crave.
Riyaaz Amlani
CEO, Mocha
When Riyaaz Amlani was a boy, he was introduced to the pleasures of chicken berry pulao at Britannia by his grandmother’s boyfriend. “I’d hang out a lot with him and he brought me here,” Amlani said of the man he considers father figure. Amlani is half-Parsi, so the Iranian Zirish berries in the pulao appeal to his “fully Parsi spirit”. He’s there often enough for the staff to look pleased to see him and for the octogenarian owner Boman Kohinoor to insist on ordering the day’s specials for him. While Amlani waits for his pulao, he normally sips from and occasionally caresses a bottle of Pallonji’s raspberry soda, which leaves his tongue candy-pink. (Amlani’s company Impresario Entertainment and Hospitality now runs the new Prithvi Theatre Café, which features dishes from several of Mumbai’s most popular eateries, including Britannia’s berry pulao).
Britannia Café Wakefield House, 11 Strott Road, Fort (2261-5264). Daily 11am-4pm. Berry pulao Rs 170.
Farrokh Khambatta
Chef-owner, Joss
Farrokh Khambatta is a self-confessed non-dahiwada guy. But put a plate of Trupti’s fluffy ones in front of him, swimming in creamy yogurt and tangy-spicy chutney, and he melts instantly. “This is the only dahiwada I eat,” he said. It’s also the one that makes him go into raptures over its clean texture.
When he calls in a parcel from Trupti to his office in Kala Ghoda, the dahiwada is accompanied by what he calls a khandvi roulade. It’s a khandvi stuffed and rolled with chutney and grated paneer. “Chefs never eat down even with street food,” he said. “This is still gourmet food and it’s hygienic.”
As she bit into a four-inch-high, butter-glossed grilled sandwich that threatened to explode, sending cheese and vegetables all over the table, Kainaz Messman decided to dedicate her snack to food writer Nigel Slater. “He once said, ‘Only the generous can make a sandwich worth eating,’” she said. “The people at Bharat Juice Centre are really generous then.” Messman’s parents used to bring her to Bharat when she was a child and now it’s where she brings her staff for a special treat. “Getting them a sandwich from our own shop doesn’t mean as much: we can have it anytime,” she said.
More often, Messman comes late at night with friends. On the street outside, three hand-cranked machines churn out whole-milk, dense, fruit-loaded ice-cream. It’s fresh, which is why it qualifies as the perfect dessert for this pastry-shop owner.
Bharat Dairy & Juice Centre KM Munshi Marg, opposite Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chowpatty, Gamdevi (2369-2921). Daily 10am-1.30am. Grilled veg and cheese double-decker sandwich Rs 65, strawberry ice-cream Rs 40.
Jaydeep Mukherjee
Chef de cuisine, Indigo Delicatessen
Late at night, when Indigo Delicatessen has cleared its last table and the kitchen stove has cooled down, the chef de cuisine Jaydeep Mukherjee goes into the office and picks up the phone to make an important phone call. Ten minutes later, a boy walks in with a warm parcel. It’s a chicken seekh roll from Bade Miya.
This routine was set 14 years ago when Mukherjee moved to Mumbai. It started as convenient, cheap and tasty dinner, a post-work treat for the trainee chef working at the Taj Mahal Hotel and living on a limited budget in Colaba. Mukherjee grew up in Jamshedpur and his parents live in Kolkata, but he doesn’t make any comparisons between Bengali kathi rolls and Bade’s rolls. For him, they’re in two different food categories. “Of course, the Bade Miya people are very amused that they send food to Indigo Deli,” he said.
Bade Miyan Tulloch Road, behind Taj Mahal Hotel, Colaba (2284-8038). Daily 7pm-1am. Chicken seekh roll Rs 75.
Matan Schabracq
Partner, Zenzi
Amsterdam native Matan Schabracq likes masala dosa so much, he actually wants to visit the source of his delights: the town of Udupi. “I have even learnt how to count in Tulu,” he said. Matan started eating masala dosa at Amrut Sagar in Bandra after a close friend introduced him to the snack two and a half years ago. Now, he has it thrice a week. If his Tulu friend is not with him, he needs someone to explain that he likes it without the red masala coating on the dosa’s inside. When he tried to call for it once on his own, they asked him if he wanted it “natural” and then brought him a sada dosa. “This would be a big hit in Amsterdam if it’s adapted a bit to local tastes there,” he said. “It’s simple, not too spicy and I can finish that coconut thing you dip it in.”
Amrut Sagar Fast Food Shop No 5, Adeshir House, 49 Hill Road, Bandra (W) (2640-7665). Daily 8am-12.30am. Rs 30.
Henry Tham
Owner, Henry Tham
Henry Tham thinks Kailash Parbat’s pani puri water is laced with an addictive drug. “It explains why you need to keep coming back here to have it, he said. “No other place quite satisfies the craving.”
A Sindhi friend introduced Henry Tham to Kailash Parbat 25 years ago. Tham liked it instantly, because it was the only place that put ice-cold pani in its puris. That was when Tham was working in his father’s Mandarin restaurant in Colaba and the family lived in a rented flat at Nepean Sea Road.
When he got married in the late 1970s, he introduced his half-Bengali, half-Uttar Pradeshi wife to the Mumbai cousin of puchkas and golgappas at Kailash Parbhat. Today, Tham lives with his family in an apartment in Cuffe Parade and Mandarin is now Henry Tham, a posh lounge and restaurant. Yet, Tham still takes his wife, every week or two for a “pani puri date to KP”.
Kailash Parbat Sheela Mahal, 1st Pasta Lane, near Colaba Market, Colaba (2287-4823).
Daily 11am-11pm. Rs 22 for a plate of six puris.
Source : Time Out Mumbai ISSUE 26 Friday, August 20, 2010
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