Finely Chopped

Eat Spain Love … Of twitter Connections & a fresh look at Barcelona

2013-05-19T15:09:00.001+05:30

I had just got back to the Hotel Melia after the first day of Casa Asia’s International Congress of Asian Tourism when my phone caught the wifi and a twitter dm came in.

“Hi Kalyan, if you are free tomorrow then I would like to show you a side of Barcelona’s food scene which you haven’t experienced”.

The dm (direct message) was from @EatLoveSpain with whom I had exchanged a couple of tweets before this. Never to let go of a chance to see a place through the eyes of a local I quickly agreed.

We met up next evening in front of the General Post Office of Barcelona. EatLoveSpain, whom I got know as Carmen through subsequent tweets before we met, told me that her dad was visiting her and would join her.

If one looks back at the magical evening in Barcelona, seeing the city through the yes of Senor Manuel Rios Lijó helped make it doubly special. This is the city where the kind gentleman with a warm and benevolent smile was apparently once quite the wild kid.

Carmen had quite a clipped British accent and I soon figured out why. Senor Manuel was of the few Spaniards of his generation to learn English. He loves languages in fact. One of the ‘fruits’ of young Manuel’s love for learning new languages was meeting his future wife, a British lady whom he convinced to stay back in Spain. They now live slightly away from Barcelona where they run a school to teach English, provide translations, grow local produce and make olive oil.

Carmen is one of their children.

We set off down the winding roads of Barcelona, The picture postcard effect of the pretty city the strongest when the street lights came on and everything around got painted in hues of gold.

Our first stop was La Plata. As Carmen promised, very different from anything we had seen before.

This was a tiny little place. Packed with folks. Smelling of fried fish. Very reminiscent of the original Los Damiantes branch in Granada. La Plata is one of Carmen’s favourite places now and her dad used to hang out here when he was young. The twinkle in both their eyes was touching.

This restaurant was opened in 1945, has only 4 dishes in the menu – small fried fish, tomato-and-onion salad, cured anchovies, and pork sausage – and six tables which have been packed with parishoners, tourists and even folks like Bono and Adrian Fera at times I was told. The crunchy fried fish and iced draught beer were the perfect start for the evening with my two lovely hosts.

We walked down a few more lanes to reach our next stop. Another family inn. This one called Restaurante Bidasoa.

Surrounded by Spanish families we were made to feel at home as we were led to our table. Carmen and her dad were again fully at home here as the owner and his family and the much hassled waiter welcomed us in. If I needed any proof that its a place for locals to eat I suddenly saw Arturo Ortiz of the Spanish Consulate in Mumbai sitting there with his folks. Arturo had come to Barcelona for the conference and his folks had taken him to Bidasoa for the home food which he missed in Mumbai.

There was a certain honesty to the food in this unpretentious restaurant which really touched one’s heart.

From the batter fried calamari that stayed juicy well after it was fried and was lying on our table, to one of the best potato bravas that I have had with a bewitching hot sauce and after four weeks in Spain you’ve surely had loads of potato bravas to compare it with, the ubiquitous pan tomate and some great fried chorize that stood out on our table that evening.

And then the revelation that there was more the ‘creme catalan’ when it comes to Spanish desserts. Carmen introduced me to the delectable curd topped with honey and on the way out one had a look at the pineapple covered with cream flan.

Bidasoa reminded me a lot of Bhojohori Manna in Mumbai. A place folks would go to when they would miss simple food they have grown up on.

As I chatted with Carmen and Manuel it became increasingly evident to me that her dad’s broad mindedness and openness to cultures had rubbed on to her. I found it very interesting that unlike that unlike everyone else in Barcelona who spoke of ‘Catalonia’, to Carmen it was ‘Spain’. Which to many of us from outside is what Barcelona is, a Spanish city till you get to know more about it.

Carmen is working with local producers of Spanish produce and trying to make their products available to a larger audience through her website EatLoveSpain.com

To end the evening we walked down to Santa Maria Del Mar which is a beautiful cathedral, the square surrounding which was full of beautiful cafes and bars, once again bathed in the golden glow of the street lamps and the moon above us.

Can I use the cliché ‘picture postcard-like’ for the hundredth time during these Barcelona posts?

We went to La Vinya del Senyor, a wine bar where Woody Allen either drunk in or shot at, or possibly did both as Carmen told me. I finally managed to convince my hosts to buy them a drink and we said goodbye to the night with some cava and great truffles.

Yeah, twitter is indeed good.

As is opening oneself to new experiences.

Note: Carmen and I did meet up the next night as I went to a dinner at posh Barcelona restaurant on a hotel on the beach on an invite by a 'rockstar' musician cum biker cum chef from Barcelona who has a restaurant in his name in Mumbai too… while I have lot of pretty pictures of the food from that night…problem is that I threw up through the night after the dinner…the chef told me on twitter that he was shocked to hear about this and promised to investigate. Am yet to hear from him

IceRocket Tags: eatprayspain,carmen,barcelona,la plata,bidosoa,finelychoppedwalks

Scoring a Nigerian meal in Mumbai…The Green Onion Restaurant

2013-05-17T21:26:00.001+05:30

“I am Mr BK Dalal and I am your host today”, said Mr Dalal as he stood up to greet us when we entered the restaurant.

The welcome smacked of a certain vintage charm and graciousness which is a fast fading memory in today’s world. We had come to join our friend, Jamshed Adrianvala and his neighbour and friend Mr Dalal for lunch. We were at the Green Onion. This is a restaurant in South Mumbai’s Marine Line area beside Gol Masjid, Jaffer Bhai and Sassanian Boulangerie.

Mr Dalal & Jamshed Uncle had read Antoine Lewis’s article in HT Cafe about the Green Onion and had come to try the Nigerian fare that is available there.

The prospect of a Nigerian meal seemed pretty interesting as I was not aware of any other place in Mumbai that serves Nigerian food. I asked another food loving friend, Suprio, to join in too.

What followed was an afternoon of great conversation as I sat and listened to the journeys and experiences of the three well travelled folks. It was great to have many of my Mumbai food choices vetted by an original Mumbai gourmand. Mr Dalal too felt that Ideal Corner serves the best Parsi food in Mumbai (his wife is Parsi), he loves the kebabs of Sarvi, approves of Swagath for dosas in Mumbai and isn’t too impressed by Swati Snacks (he is Gujarati). A well travelled man with exposure to the best food experiences available, he too believes that good food is rarely to be found in posh places and their food festivals. The place has to have a soul and commitment of the people who run them said Mr Dalal as all three of us agreed.

We also enjoyed our introduction to Nigerian food.

We started with the prawn egusi. We had been warned about the possibly fishy smell of the curry which is made with dried fish and melon seeds. We loved the choppy, Bangaldeshi bharta-like, texture of the curry and its intense flavours. The prawns seemed like they were spiced separately and fried and then added in to the curry. The taste of the prawns stood out from that of the curry and didn’t really gel though one must say that in absolute terms, the prawns tasted really juicy and fresh and the dish was a hit with us. Jamshed Uncle noted that the taste wasn’t very unfamiliar to our palates.

Next on was a Nigerian fish stew. A tomato based stew, delightfully woody in taste with the odd bites of red chilli adding a hint of fire. What won us over was the very tender and fresh fish which, on asking, we found out to be red snapper. If one was to connect with a taste memory then the stew had a slight hint of a Parsi tomato-based ras (curry) and that of a Moroccan tagine stew as served in Mumbai restaurants.

We had the stew with a steamed rice and then had a Nigerian goat jollof rice. Rice cooked with tomatoes and goat meat and served with fried slices of banana, like the Spanish paella, a not so distant cousin of the biryani family. I guess folks all over the world thought that cooking meat with rice at one go wasn’t a bad idea. The sweet taste of the sliced fried bananas went well with the sticky rice and the pretty good quality meat giving the dish a nice sense of contrast.

We also tried the Nigerian fufu balls…white pasty dough balls… made with semolina and the other with yam. Then there was a yellow one made with something called kasava. Can’t say that I took to either.

For desserts, the manager suggested Nigerian puff puffs with vanilla ice cream and honey. Tiny crunchy, refined flour fritters, sweetness levels just right…a nice end to the lunch.

Once done and once we all agreed that we liked the meal, Jamshed uncle smiled at us with a twinkle in his eyes and said “I’ve been to Nigeria thrice. Didn’t really like the food there. This is different though. Not like what I had eaten then”

Well there were a few content looking Nigerian gentlemen in the restaurant when we entered and they left before we could go up to them and asked how they found the food.

The history of Nigerian food in the Indian and Oriental serving Green Onion is interesting. Ruby Dogra, the Punjabi lady who runs the place, and who guided us through our orders (the waitstaff were quite conversant with the food too) said that Green Onion was attached to the Hotel Sapna Marine. The relatives of Nigerian patients, who came to Mumbai for treatment, would often stay in the hotel. Ruby, got these Nigerian ladies to teach her how to cook some basic Nigerian dishes which she could then offer in room service. Once these worked Ruby and her team got the confidence to introduce these in the Green Onion too. A story slightly similar to that of Kasturi in Kolkata which too was set up to feed the relatives of Bangladeshi patients who come to Kolkata for treatment.

The lunch at Green Onion took me back to the mid 80s in Kolkata and the entry of Cheema Okerie, a Nigerian student who joined the football clubs of Kolkata. Suddenly the goal-less matches between East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammaden Sporting changed. The phenomenon called Cheema Okerie, the new player who towered over the Bengali footballers of Kolkata, whose rippling muscles awed all, would take the ball and whip it through the field to score the lone goal of the match. Suddenly we realised that football matches needn’t be draws between two teams that would soon loose steam in the heat of the Maidaan.

Whichever team had Cheema in their side, and he would often change teams, would win the League.

(pic from: Hard tackle)

All of Kolkata would tried to deconstruct Cheema’s diet and wondered what fuelled this goal machine.

Wonder if I found some answers three decades later in Mumbai’s Green Onion

IceRocket Tags: cheema okerie,nigerian food,south mumbai,green onion,marine lines

The steak that all steaks want to grow up to be…Bos Taurus Iberico at Can Xurrades, Barcelona

2013-05-14T20:17:00.001+05:30

Suprio and I are both back at base in Mumbai reminiscing on some of the great meals we had there. Coincidentally K is in Barcelona right now. What were the chances of both of us returning to the city within 3 months of our first visit. Some hold the city has on us.

There are many reasons why I’d prefer to meet Suprio Bose, of the government of Catalonia’s ACC10, outside his office at Barcelona’s Diagonal than at his office at Andheri E…Can Xurrades is just one of them.

I went to meet Suprio at his head office in Barcelona for a late lunch after I stepped out of the Casa Asia International Congress of Asian Tourism. Suprio was in Barcelona too luckily and offered to take me to a place he often goes to when visiting Barcelona. He spoke highly of the meat tasting plate there.

We walked down a pretty lane, close to one of Gaudi’s houses, to Can Xurrades. It was closed for lunch with the last guests finishing their lunch.

Suprio had spoken so highly of the place that I took a chance and suggested that we play the emotional card and the blogger card. We walked in and Suprio saw the chef and owner and flashed my card and told him in Spanish that we had come all the way from Mumbai, wanted to write about the food in Barcelona etc etc…or that’s what I think he said in Spanish and hopefully not “this guy’s come out of the asylum and will dismember me if he doesn't get some meat”.

Well something worked and the genial looking, tall and thin, Chef Rafa let us in. I later learnt that he often visits India and specifically Calcutta work in charities such as Vicente Ferrer Foundation In Anantpur. His restaurant, Can Xurrades, is a decade and a half old and has a nice traditional look to it and was packed with locals.

On hearing about my love for meat Chef Rafa decided to order for us. He took out a slab of lusciously marbled meat and headed towards the kitchen.

Then he came out with the ubiquitous pan tomate (tomato, garlic and bread with olive oil), the olive oil here so exquisite that I knew we were in a special place. The very kind Chef Rafa then sliced and got us a plate of the Iberico jamon (cured ham from acorn fed pigs) I so fell in love with during my previous trip to Barcelona. This meat had evident pedigree and bewitching bits of plump fat. Rafa said something to Suprio who then translated it as “this is a gift from the chef”.

Come to think of it I did speak Spanish later when I started my talk in the conference with “Little did I know when I left Barcelona that I would be back in two months” translated into phonetic Spanish by Suprio. I only remember the word ‘pronto’ from those lines.

Must have been the call of jamon, the caviar and champagne of cured meats that had called me back.

In a short while Chef Rafa came back to our table with a stone plate. On it was our steak. On it was sprinkled some sea salt. Cooked medium rare as we had requested. Chef Rafa sliced the beef on the stone plate and then told us that we could leave it longer on the stone plate if we wanted it cooked more.

This meat was sayaguesa or Bos Tauras Iberico..the Spanish Kobe. Experts have apparently certified it as being equal to Japanese Kobe and Wagyu beef. I was told that there are only 4 places in Spain authorised to sell it and that apparently Can Xurrades is the only one in Barcelona ‘licensed’ to do so.

The way Chef Rafa cooked it is that he put the slab on a grill plate and turned it around to seal the flavours, sprinkled sea salt to season it and that’s it. The meat cooked in its own marbling (fat) and needed no other condiments.

He then put it on a hot stone plate and got it to us and then sliced the meat. As the heady aromas wafted out and the Chef looked like a saint in heaven as he was shrouded in the steam coming out of the meat.

How did it taste?

I can tell you about the juiciness of the meat, its rich flavours, the sheer decadence of the fat …or I can ask you to shut your eyes and imagine that you have got hold of your favourite pillow and snuggled into it forgetting the world around you…this was beyond food porn and carnal analogies…this steak about the sheer peace and tranquillity.

When I travel I seek out experiences that one can get back as memories of the places one visits. With the Taurus Iberico at Can Xurrades, Chef Rafa & Suprio ensured that I found myself the steak which all steaks that follow in my life have to beat.

Now that’s something to look forward to.

PS…the story didn’t end there After my umpteenth creme catalan we tried the one at Can Xurrades…once again, like with the steak, with its thick creaminess the creme catalan at Can Xurrades is the one all future creme Catalans will have to beat.

Suprio and I later went to the Plan Marcet football academy in the outskirts. Kids train here under world class facilities and coaches and the academy is a nursery for the Spanish football clubs I am told. They plan to offer training programmes for kids in India in a bit and hopefully something great will come out of that

IceRocket Tags: can xurrades,barcelona,chef rafa,spain,catalonia,steaks,pan tomate,iberico jamon,kobe wagyu,tauras iberico

A Maharashtrian Brunch at Dadar & announcing the next Finely Chopped Walk on 19th May 2013

2013-05-12T18:18:00.001+05:30

Update: Firmed up on 19th May 2013 as the date for the walk basis the initial response. Walk details at the end of the post:

Lead up to the walk: A novel Mumbai brunch

I met food blogger Sassy Fork for brunch last Sunday.

It was a strange kind of ‘brunch’. There were no egg Benedicts, Belgium pancakes, French crepes, British scones and clotted cream, sushi, caviar on toast, champagne or macarons in sight but then we weren’t in the rarefied air-conditioned climes of one of the five star coffee shops of Mumbai. We were actually restaurant hopping and stopping to shop in between

We were at Dadar in central Mumbai. A Maharashtrian dominated locality. Your best bet to get a sampling of Maharashtrian food in Mumbai, some say, unless you get invited home by someone, and frankly what better to know a city than through the food its people eat? My Guide, Sassy Fork, half Maharashtrian half Bengali, someone who has grown up in Dadar and lives there

A snacky start at Aaswad

What followed is one of the best food experiences that you can have in the city of Mumbai in my experience. Sample some of the food in offer. Aswad and its Amba daal, a seasonal delicacy made with pulses and mango, a dish which straight away took you miles to the East to the streets of Thailand. The sharp and refreshing flavours of mango making the amba daal the first cousin, twice removed of Som Tam, the Thai salad.

I tried the Maharashtrian version of panha and at Aswad they add a touch of saffron which makes the drink so refreshing.

I have sample some of their snacky delights in the past including the thali peeth. Wonderfully textured thick rustic rotis to be had with a wonderfully contrasting white butter…these multi-grained breads were served in Maharashtrian households way before dieticians from the West made multi-grains the answer to all of life’s questions.

Shopping for the flavours of Maharashtra…Santosh Masale, Kokan Bazar

We then crossed across the road towards Sena Bhavan and went into Santosh Masala. A small spice shop run by a Santa Claus without a beard.

This genial man sells home made pickles and spices. He asked us to taste a bit of the bitter gourd or karela, preservatives free pickle and I couldn’t say no to his smiling face. Tasted fairly interesting…not as scary as I thought it would be. The blend of the heat of the masala and the bitterness of the karela grew on you. The shop a treasure trove of condiments and we tried quite a few while we bought some stuff.

There was more interesting shopping. Kokan Bazar for example set up by a lady who retails products made by women from the Konkan region of Maharashtra. They welcomed us in the shop with a refreshing glass of kokum sherbat. A drink made with the juice of kokum berries which are also used to make sol kadi and is added to fish curries by the Konkanis. The relatively unsung Kokum juice, rarely available in restaurants even in Mumbai, is a world beater of a drink and deserves to be put out there with one of the best indigenous drinks in the world which tastes great in absolute terms too. They have a pretty good range of stuff here from local spices to unpolished rice to Maharashtrian snacks and some ready to cook eats. I took the methi paratha mix for K and she just loved it.

What makes Kokan Bazar a treasure trove is something else though.

For years I had scoured markets in Mumbai for a mortar and pestle. I finally gave up and carted one back all the way from Chiang Mai. Well, there in front of us were Maharashtrian versions of mortar and pestles. Some pretty similar to the Thai ones. Smaller sized than mine. Stone-made, starting at about Rs 200. They can get bigger ones too. Then there were the flat ones for grinding. Similar to the Bengali sheel batas. I think the Maharashtrians call it khaal batta I think. Then there were cutting boards similar to the Bengali botis. This place is a treasure trove like Aladdin’s cave.

Sweet Maharashtra: Panshikar, Gadgil’s

There was more shopping to do. We headed to a sweet shop called Panshikar. Now my key exposure to Maharashtrian sweets so far had been through the pebble textured, yellow food colour heavy pedas served in office functions. Add modaks during Ganesh Chaturthi. When one thinks of ‘Indian sweets’, Bengali Sweets, the jalebis, rabdis and gulab jamuns of the North and Mysore Pak of the South comes to mind more immediately than Maharashtrian sweets.

Sassy Fork still took me to Panshikar and I was quite impressed by the tender and delicate flavours of the pedas and the shreekhand wadi and some of the halva. As a sign of gratitude for introducing me to the shop I got a box of the delectable sweets packed for Sassy’s very sweet parents.

Just beside Panshikar is a tiny shop run by a gentleman called Sanjay Gadgil. He comes over every day from Dombivli to sit in the shop his dad had started. According to Sassy Fork you get the best puran polis here. Puran polis is a sort of chapatti stuffed with a sweetened channa dal paste which Maharashtrians love. The Parsi version of which is called daal ni podi and I am told is stuffed with a tur daal mix. There were some other interesting food products in Gadgil’s shop including a stuffed colcasia leave dish which you took home, slice, fry and eat. A tiny shop packed with interesting Maharashtrian food products.

Missal at Prakash

We moved on and stopped once at Prakash. I had to have the missal there. So different from the spicy, Bengal gram based missals which one has had in office canteens and some South Indian Shetty run places that one has eaten it. The missal at Prakash is made with sprouts and hast that simplicity and lightness to it that makes it tastes like something made in somebody’s house. Plus it is one of the few Indian dishes that match up to the dishes of the Orient in terms of balance of contrasting textures, colours and flavours.

Don’t give up so easily on ‘Shetty run restaurants serving Maharashtrian food though.

For the lunch part of brunch we went to Sachin, a restaurant which serves coastal Gomantak food and is a big favourite of locals. Sassy Fork herself has been picking up food from here for years.

I let her order and what followed to start with were amazing juicy fried prawns. These were fried with a very mild, near-invisible spiced batter coating which added loads of flavour and embellished rather than took away from the purity of the prawns. The Spaniards who believe in very little coming in between a good prawns and them would appreciate the prawns at Sachin I am sure for at Sachin they treat their prawns with love, respect and care.

We also ordered a mutton thali. There was a mutton kheema (mince) curry that came with it where the curry was very intensely flavoured and was robust and meaty.

The special mutton Thali had mutton masala and mutton (goat meat) curry which were sheer works of passionate art. The mutton very very tender. Gave in easily to the nudge of a spoon. The masalas once again bringing the flavour of good meat to the fore rather than shrouding it. Was a delight to scoop it up with thin chapattis.

On the way out we met the lady at the counter. Turned out she was the daughter of the founder (in the pic below). The place, which shares the name with Maharashtra’s most famous son, is named after her bother, Sachin.

Sachin used to be an Udipi restaurant till 1974 when her father decided to turn it into a Gomantak place.

Now, here’s the thing. This place serving Maharashtrian food, which is a favourite of the community, is actually run by a Shetty family. Shetty’s are South Indians who are famous as hoteliers in Mumbai. A bit like how New Martin’s, the favourite for Goan food in Mumbai, is actually run by a Mangalorean gentleman.

Sassy Fork said she was surprised to hear about Sachin’s Shetty ownership. As were some other Maharashtrian fans of Sachin whom I later told this. I guess the sincerity of this family, the lady had quit her job in the hotel industry, to devote her time on the restaurant and the fact their cooks have been here for more than forty years helps.

Aamras at Gypsy Corner

Wanting dessert we walked back to Gypsy Corner, a relatively new outlet from the folks at Gypsy corner, whose Chinese all Dadar’ites have grown up on. Gypsy Corner serves an array of vegetarian mains from the Brahmin cuisine of Maharashtra. We went and sat at the tables by the boulevard which led to Shivaji Park. Future Gavaskars and Tendulkars walked past us after their matches at the maidan on which the legends of Indian cricket learnt their art. We were surrounded by Maharashtrian families and friends sharing a Sunday lunch of traditional Maharashtrian food. They looked happy which is always the best certificate a restaurant can get.

I wanted to have an aamraas which is the mango pulp based dish which the locals are besotted with. Not just any mango, but Alfonso mango which all Mumbaikars…whether they are Maharashtrian, Gujarati, Parsi or Muslim will tell you are the best in the world. Folks from Bengal, UP etc have a different point of view but then this is a country where folks can’t even agree on which political party will lead the country…and mangoes obviously elicit stronger passions.

Sassy Fork demonstrated the ‘right’ way to have amraas as she broke a bit of the accompanying puri and scooped up the aamraas.

I decided to be a bad boy and have the aamraas by itself as our wonderful Sunday brunch came to a refreshing end.

I now plan to do a Finely Chopped Walk around Dadar. I think that it’s a great area to discover and unlike say Fort, Bohri Mohalla, Agripada Colaba or even Matunga, Dadar is rarely spoken of while talking of ethnic food trails in Mumbai. I thought that it would be a great idea to walk down the leafy boulevards of Dadar to see what is it that makes the Maharashtrian community of Mumbai tick. To understand the food culture of the majority community of the city which we all like to call home. To listen to the city’s soul and get charmed by it.

So what do you think? Sounds like a plan?

Announcing the The Dadar Marathi Finely Chopped Food Walk

Here’s the plan

We will walk through some of the leafy boulevards of Dadar in the area around Shivaji Park and Sena Bhavan. The area is a treasure island of ethnic Marathi restaurants and stores. We will go to a few of them to sample what’s in store. This will be a walk whose flavours might inspire you to come back and explore more of the rich food heritage of this area and get to know more about the Maharashtrian community.

In the walk we will cover 3 to 4 food stops. Past walks have shown that a big part of the experience is the conversations that participants have during the walk and the connections that they make. This sets to the pace of the walk and has a bearing on how rushed we want to be and how much we cover.

In terms of food we will look at the diversity of Maharashtrian food and will start with intricate vegetarian snacks from the cuisine of the Brahmin community and savour some of the seasonal mango based delicacies. We will then go to some food stores where the legend goes that no-one has ever come out without buying something at least. In case you pick up a mortar and pestle then do book a session in the spa the next day. The early start of 6 pm ensures that we catch the stores before they shut at 8.30 pm. From the appetisers of vegetarian snacks we will move have some of the seafood and meat-based Gomantak dishes. These places do make a few vegetarian options using base spices.

Chances are that though full at the end you will be left hungry for more. Hungry to discover more of the marvels of Dadar.

Specs:

Date: 19th May 2013, Sunday

Timing: 6 pm to 10.00 pm

Start Point: Aaswad, opposite Sena Bhavan, Dadar Shivaji Park

Things to get: Camera, hand sanitizer, a big appetite, bigger shopping bags,

Planned food stops: Around 3 to 4 and a couple of shop visits

Inclusions: Stops at some of the restaurants in the posts where we will cover a mix of vegetarian snacks, seasonal mango based dishes and a Gomantak dinner. We will space out the food to make sure that you don’t miss out on any dish. Bottled water included. Not soft drinks. These can be ordered separately. Eating will be at the participant’s risk. No responsibilities on the food. The walk will cover the lanes around Dadar’s Sena Bhavan

Cost: Rs 2000 per head (inclusive of food tastings)

Write in at k.finelychopped@gmail.com or tweet me at @finelychopped or write to me at the Finely Chopped Facebook page. Given limited seats please don’t change your minds.

So catch you at Dadar on Sunday

My earlier posts on:

Prakash

Aswad

Finely Chopped Walks

As a non-Maharashtrian some of my post might be incomplete. I have tried to share whatever I have learnt so far. I know that this is just scratching the surface as Dadar is a treasure island of eateries. Do feel free to add anything you would to this post. Perhaps one can plan many walks

IceRocket Tags: food blogs,maharashtrian food,mumbai,finel chopped walks,dadar,brunch,aswad,thali peeth,prakash,missal,sachins,praw fry,mutton thali,konkan bhavan,panshikar,santosh masala,gypsy corner

A weekend getaway to Dadhikar Fort, Rajasthan by Rekha Karmakar

2013-05-11T18:42:00.001+05:30

While I was in Gurgaon, my younger son Sid and his wife Soy decided to go to a Fort resort during a week-end. The decision was taken rather impulsively and a short week-end holiday was booked at Dadhikar Fort, Alwar in Rajasthan. The whole of Rajasthan is dotted with such forts, turned into resorts to soothe the frayed nerves of the guests.

We started at 8.30 a.m as it was rather a long drive.. The car passed through the beautiful localities of Gurgaon and soon we were on the swank highway of Haryana, being flanked by high-rises on both sides, which gave us a U.S-like feel. Having had excellent ‘idli’ breakfast at the new ‘Haldiram’ in an upcoming mall, situated ideally on the border of Haryana and Rajasthan, we proceeded towards Rajasthan.

Beautiful clean ‘toll’ roads passed through the state of Rajasthan and we were overwhelmed by the rugged stony rocks of the Arrival ranges on both sides of the road. Clear blue sky , green stretches of wheat fields, thorny desert trees , barns, drying cow dung and a few rustic women in ‘ghagras’, carrying dry sticks on their heads added to the picture perfect.

GPS of ‘Map My India’ was our tourist guide in our venture from one state to another. The dull and monotonous nasal voice of a lady guiding the way by saying ‘100 km-turn right/left/take a u turn’ was a great comfort at the back of our minds though , nevertheless, Sid did take a few wrong turns, now and then, which had to be corroborated with the directions of the locals. It took me four decades back to the U.K when Sid’s dad would take out a huge folded map from the dashboard to find out the directions while driving to the continents and other faraway places. “GPS” was distant reality at that time.

After a few hours, we entered Alwar in Rajasthan and decided to see the town before finally retiring to the resort. Alwar is like any other common town in India but the beauty of the place lies in being surrounded by the hills of the Aravalli ranges. Though this trip was meant simply as a relaxing holiday, I ended up finding that Alwar is, in itself, a place rich in history. It was here that Swami Vivekananda became the guest of the Western minded Maharaja Mangal Singh in 1891.

We decided to make a short trip to the ‘city palace’/ Vinay Vilas Mahal’ , which is an architectural marvel as it blends both Moghul and Rajput styles. Though this palace, at present, houses the office of the Collectorate, it also has a museum inside which displays a wonderful collection of the exhibits of the personal wealth of the Maharajas of Alwar, the richness and rarity of which left me dumbfounded.

A two hundred yard scroll of ‘Mahabharat’ written in Sanskrit, a Persian translation of the same epic inscribed in gold, manuscripts of Persian literature which included the writings of Firdousi, Khusroo, Hafiz etc. formed a part of the legacy. There were also a copy of ‘Waqayat Babari”, the autobiography of Emperor Babar and a spectacular copy of the gold inscribed “Quran Sharif”, which formed a part of the treasures of the museum.

Armours of different Rajput and Moghul kings, including those of Akbar, also aroused a lot of interest and curiosity among the visitors.

I was very surprised to find a white marble bust, brought from Seville in Spain and a black marble bust of Queen Victoria in the museum. But later I felt that they were probably a part of the collections of the Western minded King Mangal Singh

The museum is, however, in utmost neglect and there are not even proper labels. This can happen only in India! The silver lining, though, is that it is being renovated now.

As we came out on the roof of the museum, we noticed a fort on the topmost hill and a ‘Great China Wall’ like path winding up to it.

We stopped at a hotel lounge for lunch, ordering mostly north Indian food as we wanted to save out appetite for the anticipated sumptuous Rajasthani dinner at the resort.

The drive started again. By this time we were very tired. Heat of the surrounding rocky mountains added to our woes. After a while, we reached the threshold of the mountain from where we could see the ‘Dadhikar Fort Resort’ on the top of the hill. The real arduous journey began after that as the road was uphill as well as ‘kaccha’ making it very difficult to drive up.

Finally, we reached the resort. The guard of the fort held the huge gate ajar for the car to go in. The steep path to the fort was designed with white ‘rangoli’ on both sides to make the guests feel special.

The cool breeze and the beautiful ambience of the hill top made the Dadhikar Fort look like an oasis to us. The staff of the resort welcomed us warmly with lemon juice

Exquisitely cultivated gardens made the whole place stunningly beautiful.

The history of the Dadhikar fort goes back to the 9^th or 10^th century when King Chand made his ‘dera’ or residence here. With the passage of time, the residence was shifted to ‘Bal Qila’ in Alwar and, thereafter, the fort was used as a military camp. Though a few structures of the original fort have been retained, it is built anew to make it look like a real fort.

We were taken to the suite that we had booked. The interior was decorated in a way to give it the look of fort room. Stony walls, high beds, holes in the walls to keep lamps (‘kulungi’), a two feet high barrier between the washroom and main rooms, dim light etc took us back to a by-gone era.

We went to the roof of the fort, after getting changed, for tea and snacks. Sid and Soy went down to explore the fort while I decided to lie down on a deck–chair and simply relax. As I lay there, the surrounding hills seemed to close in on me and I felt being nestled in the lap of the hills. Clear blue sky, fragrance of flowers and screeching of the peacocks on the gateway made me feel great.

In the evening, there was arrangement for the performance of Rajasthani folk dance. A group of gaudily dressed up artists danced beautifully and performed various feats with fire. Not only that, in order to make the guests feel like Maharajas and Maharanis, they showered rose petals on them.

After 8 p.m, there was nothing to do. Most of the boarder liked to keep to themselves. A kind of eerie silence fell on the fort, being far away from the maddening crowd.

Sid and Soy played table tennis while I went to the Fort souvenir shop to have a look. The lonely salesman was more than happy to talk to me and showed me the old stamp papers of the Rajput Kings, insisting at the same time that there was no need to buy them if I did not want to.

After watching ‘Flimfare’ awards on t.v in the lounge, we were called to have dinner. The dinner was served in an open-air garden, beautifully lit with candles and lighted by hurricanes. Separate tables were laid for each family

Our ‘great expectations’ of the fort dinner was, however, soon foiled when the waiters brought in food. It was a vegetarian ‘hotch potch’ of continental and Indian food consisting of cabbage and cucumber soup, a small bowl full of pasta in white sauce, daal, stuffed potatoes,paneer curry and ‘gatte ki sabji’ (which was very tasteless) along with a small portion of rice and two very small ‘chapatis’. ‘Gajar ka halwa’, at the end, was the only saving grace. The cook certainly needed to be sent for a refreshers’ course.

We retired to our suite after dinner. The dim light and the stony walls produced a kind of uncanny sensation. The whole night , I lay in a semi-awake state as I clung to the side-pillow fearing a fall from the very high ‘3 ft wide’ fort bed or tripping over the 2ft high barrier in-between the bed room and the washroom, in case I used it at night without putting on my glasses. I know these are only the problems of the aged but the world is not meant for them.

The morning was bright and cheerful. We preferred to have our breakfast downstairs as the sun was quite hot on the roof. The management tried their best by serving us with ‘chilla’ , ‘bada pao’, ‘poha’, saltless ‘upma’ and fruits. By this time, I was convinced that the chef must have been a descendant of some Rajput prisoner who wanted to take revenge by cooking tasteless food.

After breakfast, it was time for us to depart though we did not feel like leaving the beautiful fort resort. We took several pictures of the fort and then started on our way.

The way back seemed much shorter. The car drove through the winding hilly roads. At some places, trees formed bowers over the road. Flocks of sheep, grazing on the way, did not dampen our holiday spirit .

After having lunch at Haldiram, we reached Gurgaon ,in time, for Sid and Soy’s weekly shopping.

It was a great experience spending the weekend at the Fort resort, especially for a person like me , who is closeted mostly at home.

Good bye !

Kolkata

Dated 10/5/13

IceRocket Tags: Dadhikar Fort,rajasthan,india travel,rekha karmakar

The man with a heart of chocolate…Godiva Barcelona’s Joan Llovet Berenguer…also feat Moncho’s

2013-05-08T18:53:00.001+05:30

I am often a bit out of sorts when I am travelling alone and land at a destination. Specially after a long flight. I begin to ask myself whether the trip was worth it.

Sometimes a nap fixes fixes my mood. Sometimes a good meal could like the one that I had on the streets of Chiang Mai. At times a eureka moment happens. Like the time I landed in Sydney, stepped out to the Rocks and fell in love with it.

This time it was the kindness of a noble man with a heart as pure as chocolate that made me feel welcome and at home.

I landed in Barcelona for the Casa Asia conference. Exhausted after a long flight with a hurried stop at London. I entered my room in the Hotel Melia and was listless and sapped of energy. I was hungry too after some lousy airline food.

Suprio Bose, Director of Trade for Catalonia in India, was around and he suggested that I head to a place called Moncho’s nearby for a tapas lunch. The hotel concierge vetted the suggestion and I walked down the pretty streets of Barcelona. A lovely pot of prawns in garlic and olive oil, ajoli not the frothy gambas pil pil, and suddenly the trip began to make sense.

In our last visit in Barcelona we were at the Jazz Hotel which is closer to the touristy city centre of Universitat and La Ramblas. Melia, on the other hand is closer to the business district, so I wasn’t sure where to go after lunch. I spoke to K on the phone when she suggested that I walk to La Ramblas and retrace the path of the long walks we used to take in February post meals to our hotel. She specifically recommended the helataria (hand made ice cream shop) on the street of La Ramblas where she had a most incredible ice cream during our last trip.

The plan made sense and I did want to have that ice cream so I stepped out. I knew it would be a long walk but I had a couple of hours to kill before my dinner engagement. As I began to walk down the tree lined Diagonal, the road that sew Barcelona together, I began to cheer up, surrounded as I was by pretty houses, pretty roads, pretty people…it was all very modern fairy tale-ish.

As I crossed over to the inner lane I felt very nostalgic about our recent trip to Barcelona. There was the Enrique Thomas store from which we bought jamon in our last trip. Then there were the lanes near Velodroma & Espai Boisa and possibly Paco Meralgo where K and I came to in the previous visit and would walk back the long road back to the hotel egging each on in the cold.

Gosh was it just two months back?

As I passed by those familiar lanes I noticed a shop where a couple of folks were doing up the shop display. It was the Godiva shop. The only one in Spain as I was later told.

Suddenly the gentleman at the window pointed at the camera hanging around my neck, smiled and called me in.

“Would you like to take a picture?” he asked with a big warm smile.

I happily took one and then joined him inside for a chat when he called me in to see the store decorations. We begun talking and I got to know that Joan Llovet Berenguer, the gentleman with a kind face standing in front of me, has been a chocolatier for about a quarter century now. He goes once ever three weeks to Brussels to pick up supplies from Godiva for his shop.

As we spoke a lady came in to buy chocolates. Turned out that she liked milk chocolates like I do while her husband likes dark chocolates like K does.

“Taste some chocolates” said Joan to both of us.

“Where are you from?” Joan asked me and on hearing the answer he broke into a big smile.

“India!!!! I have been to India in 1978. And to Bombay too on my way to Goa. Such a lovely country.”

Joan excitedly told me about his trip to India, where all he went, the people he met and then suddenly, “ I want to give you something”

He took out a box and layered it with the prized Godiva truffles.

“Wait,” he said, “I will tie a ribbon around the box as Monday is a big day for us”.

He tied a ribbon with the Catalan (and East Bengal) colours of yellow and red around the box. I later found out from Manel of Barcelona Tourism, that Joan was referring to the festival of St Jordi. This was a day when men apparently gifted roses to the women in his life, normally one stick from what I understand. The women in turn give their men a book. Any book! This is what the Catalans of Barcelona celebrate instead of Valentine’s which Manel told me that they find to be too Americanised.

Joan put the chocolate box into a bag and kept telling me about his tales of Indian and then suddenly with each city he mentioned he put in some mini Godiva chocolates into the bag and then some pins too…”this is for your wife”…”I went to Chennai from Goa and met the daughter of some people I met in Goa”…in went some chocolates…”then I went to Delhi”…more chocolates in…”from Delhi I went to Agra”…more chocolates in…”I went to Calcutta too”…in went some more chocolates

Finally I said, “Stop, stop you are too kind but I possibly can’t accept so many chocolates…you can’t run a business this way”.

Joan looked at me, broke into a smile so big that his eyes almost disappeared, somewhere it seemed as if I could see faint tears in them as he said, “When I went to India in 1978 it was almost as if my life changed as everyone welcomed me with such love and made me feel so good and special. These chocolates are for those wonderful days. I love India”

I stood there looking at Jean. Soaking in the the rays of sunshine around us. Feeling so warm and welcome in a land so far away. Thanks to a man I had never met before. I felt humbled and very lucky and with a big big big bag of chocolates very happy too.

Joan said goodbye. I found out that it was his wife’s 60th birthday and he was actually about to leave when he met me.

The evening with Joan seemed to set the the tone of a great trip in Barcelona and London where I was made to feel so welcome by so many folks. A couple of weeks later I was back home in Mumbai and headed to the fridge and reached for the red bag in which I had kept the chocolates. As I bit into one of exquisite Belgian chocolates I remembered the face of the kind gentleman from Barcelona who had made me feel like a kid in a candy shop once again.

Thank you Joan…India is waiting to welcome you back.

Next morning I saw that K had stuck Joan’s card on our fridge and this is what she had to say about it on facebook after she posted a picture of the card:

“A man who sends a bag full of chocolates all the way from Spain, deserves to be remembered forever. And the times that we live in, it means putting him on Facebook.”

IceRocket Tags: godiva,barcelona,chocolates,moncho's,diagonal

A Tale of two Paellas & the Congress of Asian Tourism, Barcelona 2013

2013-05-08T01:13:00.001+05:30

I was recently in Barcelona as a guest of Casa Asia.

I was there for the 3rd International Congress on Asian Tourism where I was invited to speak on how to use Social Media to drive tourism from India. I used our recent holiday to Spain as a case study. A holiday where everything from the choice of destination to the choice of hotels to the choice of walks and the tours and of course, the choice on what and where to eat was driven by social media.

I was really impressed by the fact that the Spanish and Catalonia governments were taking such pains to foster tourism and their focus on Asia was very welcoming. Sitting in a tourism congress was a new experience for me. There was a speaker from Madrid who said, ‘it is time for the tourism sector to develop a soul’. I was quite impressed as I don’t think there would be too many industries where people would bother about the ‘soul’.

As I sat in the conference I wondered if the Indian government would ever learn from the experience of countries like Spain and get really serious about tourism. There is so much that is there in our country. Someone quoted a US government study which apparently said that for every 10 tourist visas that the US issues there is a new job created in the US.

We need to get serious about this in India too.

In the conference one met folks from different countries, cultures and sectors including academics and entrepreneurs. During the coffee breaks we had some interesting chats on immigrant cultures and the cultural differences between the North and South of Europe.

I pointed out some similarities that I saw between Spain and India over my two recent visits. To start with, in Spain folks share food at a table, including in restaurants, as we do in India and large parts of Asia. Apparently in the North of Europe people stick to individually plated meals. Then there is the family orientation of the Spanish which seems to be a lot closer to ours than that of Northern Europe where apparently folks live more nuclear lives.

Then we both have our national rice dishes. Biryani in India, Paella (the ll’s are silent so you say pa-ee-a) in Spain.

Of course, just as there are many versions of biryani, as are there many versions of paella too. Both dishes lead to intense debates in their respective countries about the ‘right’ version. I would like to believe that in India, Calcuttans are the most finicky about their biriyani. Which is of course because that’s the best biryani in the world. The equivalent of the chip on the shoulder Calcuttans in India would be the Valencians in Spain. The difference being that unlike Calcutta which adapted the biryani of Lucknow, Valencia is apparently the home of the paella.

There will be Valencians who say that paella shouldn’t have peas, should definitely have seafood, shouldn’t be too firm…just as we in Calcutta say that Biryani shouldn’t have masala, shouldn’t be veg, should have potatoes.

My sense is that the rest of their respective countries politely indulge both the Calcuttans and the Valencians when it comes to biryani and paella fetishes.

Paella by the beach

I had two great paella experiences this time. First was courtesy Guillermo Martinez of Casa Asia. Guillermo was the one patiently guiding me right up to the trip and the conference and was the key coordinator from Casa Asia’s side. At the end of a successful conference, the very exhausted I am sure, Guillermo kindly said “you are a special guest and I would like to take you out for lunch”.

Turned out that we were in a bit of luck as Guillermo is originally from Valencia and took us to a paella place he approved of. He took us to the beach of Barcelona which K and I couldn’t go to in February as it was too cold then. This time in April there was a pleasant nip in the air, the beach was full of joggers, surfers, happy families… the sky and sea the sort of blue that you have only seen in colouring books…the sand so picture perfect.

“This is a restaurant where tourists go. We will go to the next one where locals go. I don’t know the logic or how it turned out to be this way” said Guillermo.

A bit like the more touristy Leopold in Colaba here versus the favourite of locals, Cafe Mondegar, I guess.

We were at L’escamarla by the beach at Barcelona. So that’s where you should head if you want to go to a Valencian approved paella place.

We started with mussels…cooked for just a minute or so and with every bite tasting of the freshness of our surroundings. I had once heard of a Chinese chef talking condescendingly of his Spanish counterpart in a culinary meet. He scorned the lack of ‘Asian’ culinary art in Spanish cooking which he apparently dubbed as ‘simplistic’.

Well with produce as good as this I don’t blame the Spanish for treating the mussels with such tender, love and care and serving it to us the way mother nature meant things to be.

I wanted to try out the famous Gazpacho and Guillermo ordered one for me. Again all about the freshness and quality of the tomatoes and cucumbers which made this cold soup special. The had served some cucumber and capsicum bits on the side which gave a great textural contrast. Seemed to make so much more sense, and yet be healthy, in contrast to croutons in soup. Just as the Catalan in pan tamate (tomato bread) is in comparison to bread and butter.

Like the mussels earlier, the paella too, was shared by us. In fact in restaurants in Spain, paella orders are normally for at least 2 portions. The paella at L’escamarla had this incredibly buttery texture which came from the starch of rice and the creamy goodness of great seafood…the prawns, squids, mussels….all elevated the dish to a celestial level…on the side was some garlic pureed aioli to give a more rustic flavour.

This paella was the sort of dish that gave supreme pleasure. Then again, I was brought there by Guillermo, an excellent host. A big heart, as i always maintain, leads to a great meal.

The Sunday Family Lunch Paella.

My brush with paella didn’t end with the feast at L’escamarla. The next day I headed to the house of Manel Casanovas. Manel is the Director of Gastronomy for Barcelona Tourism and last time he met us in his official capacity.

This time Manel called me and said “Kalyan, i couldn’t meet you during the week but would you come to my house tomorrow? I will be making paella for my daughters, my wife and a friend. Will you join us. This is not official. This is personal.”

I immediately said yes fully aware how big an honour to be invited home for the Sunday paella which is so precious to Spanish families.

I landed at Manel’s beautiful house close to 2 pm on Sunday.

'”Come Kalyan, we will cook together”.

Now the thing to know about Manel is that he is a trained chef. For two years he used to go to a restaurant called Greska to train in their kitchen before going to work. The result of this was that by the time I had finished chopping one artichoke Manel at Superman speed had cooked the most delectable chicken and cheese croquettes (best i have had and I had many), made tiny fried fish and tossed some mini clams together…aperitif on the lovely balcony by the sun…while the paella got ready.

Manel told me that they normally have dinner in the kitchen but on Sundays it was in the dining room. That’s where Chef Manel brought out his delectable work of art….a squid ink based paella which was again so buttery and creamy thanks to the starch of the rice combining with the fresh seafood which had been cooked with great love.The paella at L’escamarla was good but this was cooked by a Masterchef. The flavours and taste were so majestic, so royal…it was a true privilege to taste this.

Incidentally Manel had put only seafood and not meat as his eldest daughter is ‘vegetarian’. Seems that the Catalan of vegetarian is similar to that of the Bengali one where fish is not really considered to be non-veg.

Lunch done and many hugs and kisses later it was time to say goodbye to Manel’s family as he and I rode off on his bike to see a bit of the city .

Manel looked at my squeamish face and said “Kalyan, many writers (his words) are taken around the city but you are the first to see it on a bike” as we drove away first to a hill for a breath taking view of Barcelona and then down to the city centre, past Universitat and Las Ramblas and the Pakistani quarters which the locals call ‘Kashmir’ to the Moritz Beer factory bar.

Not exactly scuba diving, or air gliding or the bull run but this pillion ride was my Zindagi Na Milega Dobara moment!

As I think back on the recent trip of Barcelona and London, I think of how lucky I have been. For the trips to happen of course. And the love and warmth with which folks at both places welcomed me and made me feel at home. I was truly privileged.

All thanks to blogging in case you needed a reason to start blogging.

IceRocket Tags: paella,casa asia tourism,international congress on asian tourism,manel casanovas,barcelona,seafood,beaches,culture,spain,india

A Bohri & Khoja feast at Nooresha & Anil’s

2013-05-06T02:30:00.001+05:30

This post is about a dinner at a friend’s place

Last night I realised that there is a lot that I am yet to discover about Indian food. A realisation that made me so happy.

A few days back fellow ex-Bansdroni boy with Borishal roots, financial journo and food friend, Arijit Barman, and I chatted about how the Bengali palate has a greater natural affinity to Oriental cuisines than other Indian cuisines as our cooking philosophy is more understated and demure than many of the more robust and fiery ones of the North or South India. Keralite, with its avials and ishtews, being an exception. Whether rajma chawal or alu posto daal bhaat is your comfort food depends entirely on the social milieu in which you were raised we concluded.

Yes, we’d had a couple of beers at the Gulab Gang Wrap party and our dinner chat at Bong Bong post that was getting a bit quintessentially intellectual or ‘aatel’. * Last night’s dinner showed me that there is a lot more to Indian food than we think of. Bohri and Khoja cooking for example.

We had gone over to Anil and Nooresha’s for dinner. Some of you might know Anil Kably as part of the Bagel Shop, and erstwhile Zenzi, founder owners. Anil’s all around great guy and a wonderful host. We’d dropped into his place last night for a long pending dinner.

As Anil, poured out our drinks from the bar he said, “today’s dinner is all Nooresha (his wife). I just drove around and shopped”.

Well, here’s what we had last night…cucumber and carrot sticks with a refreshing dip and then some really bouncy cocktail kebabs with a mustard sauce which livened up the evening.

Nooresha then laid out the table. To start with there was a soup. A Bohri Soup. A cold soup.

Now, while Spanish gazpachos have made cold soups fashionable in Mumbai, the Bohri cold soup that Nooresh served turned out to be a real pleasure. I am sure the Spaniards would get as besotted with it as we seem to be with Gazpachos. The Bohri cold soup, which was yogurt and sprout based was smoked too and had a mystical Sufi ballad like taste and flavour to it which was so delightfully calming. It was just what Mumbai needs in its muggiest best and that cold soup is the sort of stuff which could help one attain moksha. As I remembered last night’s dinner this evening I so craved for a barrel of the soup. I think Anil should definitely stock it in the Bagel Shop.

Then there were bombils or Bombay Duck fried in the Bohri “style”. In other words, the water wasn’t squeezed out before frying unlike in the flat crisp versions. Instead, you had Bombay ducks which were crisp outside and plump and juicy inside. We kept lifting one Bombay Duck after the other from our plate and stuffing them into our mouths. This was not the time to be polite.

Nooresha had made a dahi vada which was flavoured enticingly with fried chillies, mustard seeds and the odd curry leaves. The sort of stuff that the Roca Brothers had in mind when they announced their Gastronomique Opera in London’s Mandarin Oriental a few hours before their restaurant in Spain was declared number 1 in the World 50 Best list. They had showed a video which included a bit about looking to Indian spices for inspiration. Nooresha’s dahi vadas would have given them plenty of food for thought.

Then there was a prawn curry which she made which was a tribute to the Khoja side of Nooresha’s family. Juicy prawns in a very well balanced, light and multi flavoured and textured gramflour based curry with drumsticks in them. This is meant to be had with khichdi but I took a big bowl of curry and had it straight out of it the way I would have a poetic Thai or Malai curry.

Nooresha had also made a goat’s mince meat ‘kheema chaap’ which looked dry and was yet so full of life and soul. The abundance of mint leaves giving a cooling balance to the solidity of real red meat. Yes, don’t let Indian restaurants fool you, Indian dishes too can give the world a lot to think about with their intricacies and balance…this was ‘beyond garam masala cooking’ at its best.

I believe that the famous Bohri thaal meal has sweets in between meals. At Anil and Nooresha’s we had desserts at end of the meal. The most delectable caramel custard which Nooresha had baked which I kept digging into and then a Bohri dry fruit adorned firni. Torn between both the desserts I kept piling them on to my plate. It’s been a while since I have eaten with such gay abandon as I did last night. Of course, I was feeling at home and I am sure some of that warmth had infused into the food but the food was, in absolute terms, the sort which defines the word ‘epic’. I hadn’t taken my camera because I hadn’t planned to blog about it but sorry Anil and Nooresha, this story I have to share.

So how do you get a taste of Nooresha’s cooking?

Well, you can’t really unless you get lucky the way we did and and get invited to their home for dinner. Could be a bit tough otherwise.

Nooresha is a caterer but from what I understand she only caters the world cuisine stuff that Zenzi used to serve and sushi through Sushi Koi. When I asked her why she doesn’t cater the sort of food we were privy to last night, Nooresha said “but who would be interested?”

Well I think, loads of folks would be. Folks who are hungry to discover more about Indian food. And folks who like and appreciate good food. Plus with Nooresha and Anil’s understanding of the modern urban psyche I am sure they would do a great job in unearthing traditional Bohri and Khoja cuisines and make them accessible to us.

So guys, I am happy to come over and have more meals at your place, but for the making the universe a better place, Nooresha and Anil you should definitely go public with this.

PS: Just back from an amazing trip of Barcelona and London. Have loads to write about. To start with, here’s what welcomed me when I returned, Rashmi Uday Singh’s update from London.

Rashmi had actually come to meet me at the Chowzters Awards Ceremony, which I was part of the jury of, as she had come for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants which she was part of the jury of (so proud of you Rashmi). Next day she got me on the list of the Roca Brothers event. Still speechless with joy from her kind words. Rashmi, you are really the best and the most big hearted person that I know of and I am so honoured and flattered to read this. You are too kind and made my day and year.

* The high point of the Gulab Gang party was sharing the same frame as the face from the collages on the wall from my teenage years…fond as I am of Soumik Sen, the director of Gulab Gang, I have to photoshop him out of this frame

IceRocket Tags: bohri cooking,khoja cooking,indian food,anil kably,bagel shop,rashmi uday singh,nooresha

My Canterbury Tale

2013-05-04T03:47:00.001+05:30

This post is not about food

I didn’t really have a plan when I landed in Canterbury last week.

Which was strange given that I knew that I would be heading to this Cathedral town in the South of England from the moment I got to know that I might be going to England. This was a trip which had taken almost 34 years in the making after al.

The thing is Canterbury, for me, is not just another town. It’s a lot more than that. It has been a part of my identity from right since when I remember. I moved towns, countries and continents yet one thing that was constant in my life, no matter what turn it took, is that I am a ‘Canterbury baby’.

I had grown up to stories of our times Canterbury. Of the hospital there where I was born, the same place where my father worked as a doctor, the address of the house we lived in, the octogenarian English lady, Mrs Taylor or ‘Canterbury Nana’ who used to live next door and would come over to look after my mother and me. To whom I used to ‘write’ letters when we left England and whom I remember meeting when we had come back on the way to India after we had to leave Iran. Stories captured in photographs in albums carefully preserved by my mother as we travelled through the many rocky paths of life.

As I grew older, there were a million forms to fill…school exam forms, college entrances, company HR requirements, passport and visa applications, driver’s license, voter’s id, pan card….everywhere under place of birth would be ‘Canterbury, UK’…yes, I almost wore this as a badge.

As my UK plans began to crystallise…a by-product of speaking and judging invites that came out of blogging, I began to make enquiries on how to go to Canterbury. First leg, Barcelona done, I headed to London. I was going to be there for a about a week…three engagements…loads of folks to meet… yet I knew that I wanted to go to Canterbury before anything else. .

A couple of days into London as I began to get my bearings back and I was ready to head to Canterbury. My friend and food writer, Meera Sodha, who hosted me for the first half of my stay at their place, helped me go online and book train tickets to Canterbury for the next day.

I took the tube (Calcuttans still call it that even if the Londoners have sold out and call it the Underground or worse, the Metro). I missed the train as the ticket machine refuse to read the card and give me the ticket I had booked and soon I headed to Canterbury with a copy of the ticket from the booking counter, armed with a bacon and potato pasty, sold by a lady from Surat at the station.

I got a seat easily and soon the train’s rhythmic beat lulled me to sleep. Barcelona had been hectic and I hadn’t really rested much. About a couple of hours later the train came to a halt. I got off at the station to a banner which said ‘Welcome to Canterbury’.

I stepped out of the station, got onto the bus and asked for the Kent and Canterbury Hospital. Surely a hospital is not what you would expect on a standard list of things to see in Canterbury. The bus took me to the main bus depot and another bus and I was at the hospital. A huge complex and I finally decided to get off near a sign that said ‘main building’.

I got down and walked towards the building. I still didn’t have a plan.

There was a counter which said ‘enquiry’. They would probably be used to patients or relatives coming in for treatment, to fix a broken leg perhaps…in distress…a place for questions more serious than…”I was born here…can you help me find my roots”

I spotted a sign that said ‘hospital management - second floor’. I decided to walk up. Again no plan.

I went up on tiptoes. Past a patient being rolled out on a stretcher bed. Past a sign that said ‘oncology’. Calm, neat, clean…yet ambling around a hospital can be unnerving.

I reached the second floor and walked around. Suddenly I saw a sign which said ‘Chapel’ and peeped into the door. It was a mini church. By the alter there were electronic candles (!) which one could 50 p and light for someone one wanted to pray for. I am not really a very religious person but decided to light one in memory of my father who had studied and worked here. I looked back and saw that there was notice board which said that one could leave a note with a prayer if one wanted. I thought I would leave a note for my dad. There were slips of paper there for this but no pen. So I popped into the next room.

There was a gentleman sitting there checking his emails. Turned out to be Paul Kirby, the chaplain of the hospital.

I told him what I had come for and he broke into a big smile. He gave me a pen to write down the note and asked me to join him once I was done by which time he would clear his mails.

I scribbled down a note and on second thoughts added the names of the others in the family too though later my little brother pointed out I spelt his name wrong.

“Come let me take you downstairs”, said Paul when I went back. He explained that the Canterbury no longer had a specialised maternity ward. It was more of a cancer treatment based hospital with most of the other wards had moved to a larger town in Kent.

We went down to the maternity ward, the basic one, which was still there. Paul told the sister, “this gentleman was born here and has come back to visit us”. The nurses broke into big smiles which reminded me of the picture we had of me as a baby surrounded by the nurses.

Paul took me to one of the rooms and said “this is probably where you would have been after you were born”.

I then told him the address of the house where we used to live in.

“It’s obvious why your father stayed there. It’s just behind the hospital and lot of doctors preferred that area” said Paul as he led me out through a passage.

“This is probably the path that your father used to take to come to work” said Paul as I could almost feel goose bumps springing up.

Paul pointed me to the address that I was so familiar with and then headed back to the hospital after asking me to join him for a coffee. I walked down the lane which looked as if it was out of a picture postcard. I texted home saying, “In Canterbury and it’s so pretty!”

I walked up and down trying to find our house. The lane looked the way it did in the photos of our albums from close to four decades back. As did the houses. Frozen in time and yet so full of life and colour. Time seemed to have left The Gap untouched.

I went past the houses. All the houses were ‘semi detached’ or divided into two. All the numbers were there. Except ours. I kept looking. Yes, all the numbers except ours. There was one house which didn’t have any number though. At the corner of the lane. Was this ours? I kept peering into it. Camera in hand. I should have asked my mother before coming here to describe where we used to. A lady stepped out and I asked her. Yes, this was the house and the section next to hers was ours.

I flipped out my phone and called my mother from in front of the the house we used to live in. This is what she later had to say on facebook about my call when I put up a picture of mine in front of the house:

This is the house in Canterbury, U. K where we lived years ago. My son Raja/ Kalyan came to this house from Kent n Canterbury Hospital. Last night (IST), he called me up standing in front of this house cutting across the barriers of ' saat samudra tero nadi'/ distance of seven seas and thirteen rivers. Remembered how a young girl used to wait for post from home which took minimum 2/3 weeks to come. The world has indeed become a global village!

Having seen the house to my heart’s content I was ready to step back, not entirely sure if I was at the right place. As I was about to leave a young man approached the house. I stopped him and asked him the address.

Yes, this was the right house. Turned out the young man was one of the 4 music students sharing the house. He very kindly let me in and I walked up and down the stairs, past the rooms, in those few minutes trying to live and relive a lifetime of stories. I had had my share of happy moments and finally headed back to the hospital.

The chaplain was waiting for me with a big smile. He took me the cafeteria for the promised coffee. Strangely enough they had a Starbucks machine there, K’s favourite. Strange that the hospital where her father in law worked had one. I’ve never seen a cafeteria with a coffee machine before. The chaplain asked me to have a bite too but I politely declined and sipped on the coffee he bought me. He then gave me an energy bar his wife had given him.

Yes, I was the Canterbury baby after all.

I pointed out to the chaplain that it was quite a coincidence that I had walked into the chapel, given I am not really religious. That I met him and then he opened the keys to our Canterbury to me.

Mr Kirby looked at me and said, “Well chaplains are not just about religion…we are here to help”. Then with a twinkle in his eyes he said, “perhaps we could say its a God-cidence and not a coincidence”.

Coffees done he walked me around the hospital. Showed me the old doctor’s canteen, which my mother had mentioned, which is now the library. He called up a matron from our time in Canterbury and we tried to see if we could pick up a common thread. He then took me out and pointed to parts of the building which would have probably been there during my parent’s time.

It was time to take the train back when the chaplain suggested that he drop me near the famous Canterbury Cathedral so that I could take a look at the institution that defined this little town. I walked past the high street of stores and fast food joints and pubs and cafes and reached the Cathedral a bit after the closing time. I hadn’t planned to stop there but did since I was there, I walked around in the pleasant chill of the evening taking in the magnificence of the structure before heading back to the station to catch the train for London.

I faintly remembered that we had come to see the Cathedral when we had returned to England from Iran before we headed to India. Later, through a facebook comment by my mother I found out that my parents had actually got me to the Cathedral on the way home from the hospital after I was born!

So thanks to the kind chaplain I had in one day seen where I was born, where I was first taken to when my parents took me home and then the house where I first lived…

Sitting in Mumbai, when I look back at that day in Canterbury I realise that it never struck me that things could go wrong that day. That I might not find find what I was looking for. That my childhood memories might dwarf reality. That I might be underwhelmed and disheartened by what I saw. Unhappy at the end of it all. That memories could have been shattered.

I had gone to Canterbury without a plan and things worked out pretty well. The day couldn’t have been scripted better.

It was good to be home.

The following are the links to my mother’s blog posts about our time in England.

Part 1 & Part 2

IceRocket Tags: canterbury,UK,Kent & Canterbury Hospital,The Gap,Catnterbury Cathedral

Post Poila Boishakh Musings & the Bengal in Bandra Finely Chopped Walk…Hangla, Sweet Bengal, Bong Bong

2013-04-17T02:37:00.001+05:30

I leave town on 18th morning for Barcelona where I will have honour of speaking in the Asia Tourism Congress as a guest of Casa Asia. The topic, ‘how to use social media to drive tourism from India.

From there I head to London primarily as a guest of Chowzters as a part of the jury behind the Fast Feast Awards. Over there I will also go to Asma Khan’s Pop Up restaurant in The Cinnamon Club to talk about Calcutta food which is the theme of the lunch. I will also have to loosen my trousers as Zoe Perrett, who is the biggest lover of Indian food that I have come across has enlisted me as a judge of the International Chocolate Awards. I also hope to go to Canterbury while in London and also meet up with Meera Sodha who is writing a book on her mother’s recipes.

Do drop in a mail if you are at either city at k(dot)finelychopped(at)gmail(dot)com

Talking of quaint Bengali mannerisms, much is said about the way in which Bengalis speak Hindi. This YouTube link is of the ABP Majha segment when I tried to talk about Bengali food in Hindi to the channel’s Maharashtrian audience during the walk.

Poila Boishakh or Bengali new year

It was the Bengali new year on 15th April.

Wished folks on the 14th? No problem. The Bengali new year date fluctuates as most Hindu calendars don’t coincide with the English one. There were a spate of new years which happened recently. The Irani Nowroz, Sindhi Chettichand, Punjabi Baisakhi, Maharashtrian Gudi Padwa…ours was the last of the lot.

So what do we do on New Year or Poila Boishakh as it is known?

When I was in Kolkata fifteen years back, before Bengali restaurants came up there, PB was primarily a day to wear new clothes. In many families including ours, this was the only occasion to buy new clothes except Durga Pujas. Apart from wearing new clothes we would go to the neighbourhood shops who would hand out Bengali calendars and the more coveted boxes of sweets. The opening of the new books of accounts is called Haal Khaata if I remember right. Apart from this, neighbours in an apartment complex like ours would send boxes of sweets to each other.

Yes, celebration in the pre-liberalisation, pre-consumerist era were fairly Spartan.

Bengali New Year attained a much bigger meaning in my life after I moved to Mumbai. As hey say immigrants often make a stronger attempt to hold on to their roots than those who haven’t left home.

“Holding on to one’s roots” for many Bengalis is often just an excuse to eat with a clear conscience. Over the years I have gone to Oh Calcutta and gorged on the multi-layered buffets with friends and once we even went to Ling’s Pavilion!

At the end what matters to us Bengalis is good food and a good adda when it comes to making a fresh start. The rest takes care of itself.

The Bengal in Bandra Finely Chopped Walk

This time I brought in the new year a couple of days before the 15th with the Bengal In Bandra Finely Chopped Walk on Saturday evening.

It was hot and humid, sweltering in fact. I was worried about how the walkers would hold up. At the end they did me proud…right from the 17 year old to the senior most. We had an interesting mix for this walk. It was not a traditional Bengali walk after all. It was more a walk to experience how the roots of Bengali food have grown through this suburb of Mumbai. In this walk we had folks from Mumbai including those who had moved in from Pune, Chandigarh and Chicago. We had folks who had come in from Bangalore and London to visit Mumbai and who joined in. We had a couple of Bengalis. Probashis who don’t reside in Bengal. Folks like me. We had a Punjaban who loves food. A UP-Mumbaikar who has come to each of the four Finely Chopped Walks so far. We have had others too who have encouraged us by coming for more than one walk, but Jyotika, is my lucky mascot. We had a probashi Bengali who was trying to show his vegetarian non Bengali wife that Bengali food needn’t be as daunting as the machhed jhol or kosha mangshos make it seem to her. We had a Tambram who was here with her Bengali mother in law looking to connect on food. We had lawyers, we had marketers, we had publishers, we even had a former Mumbaikar and now Londoner who is a restaurant recruiter.

A motely mmix of 12 walkers…a cross-section which was so typically Mumbai.

The idea of these walks is to keep them personal and to replicate a walk with friends. I feel that 8 – 12 at the most is what works and which is why I hardly advertised the walk this time as we got filled up pretty soon.

A big part of the Finely Chopped Walks is the warm up where people get to know each other. This time we started at 6.30 pm in the little park opposite Hangla. A relaxed setting for a good Bengali styled adda.

Unfortunately we were cut short as the park shuts at 7 pm and only half the folks got to introduce themselves. We crossed over to Hangla where Apoorva Subedar of ABP Majha joined us. She and her crew were shooting the walk.

Soumitra Ghosh’s Hangla

A crowd begin to gather outside Hangla with the shoot on. I ditched the intros and ordered the food at Hangla. Mutton rolls, egg rolls and paneer rolls as per dietary preferences. Rolls cut into two so that one didn’t get stuffed. I gave my tips on ordering…fried onions, no ketchup (except in egg rolls) and a history lesson followed with tales of rolls from Nizams and then a biryani tasting with tales of how the biryani came to Kolkata from Awadh. All this while K hopped across and got bottles of water for the walkers. Fish chops, cutlets and camera bytes and we were ready to leave when Soumitra Ghosh dropped in.

Soumitrada, a photojournalist, is the man behind Hangla. He told us how he started with his first stall in Lokhandwala when he realised that Mumbai doesn’t have good snack options unlike in Kolkata. Response was initially slow as people came in expecting frankies and walked off when told they would get rolls. He then started giving out free rolls to convert the frankie loving Mumbaikar and soon the Hangla footprint spread. Bandra is the third store of this chain which serve Kolkata street food prepared by cooks from Kolkata.

Chanchalda at Sweet Bengal

We then walked down Waterfield Road down some seriously traffacked inner lanes to reach Sweet Bengal where Chanchal Chakraborty was there to welcome us like the elder brother of the groom in a wedding. He is a part of Anjan Chatterjee’s Speciality Restaurant Group and manages Sweet Bengal and helped set it up.

He told us a story similar to that of Hangla’s. Probably the inspiration for folks like Soumitra later to take the brave step that that they took. Chanchalda told us tales of setting up their first shop with sweet makers who had come from Kolkata. He too told us how it took a while to get local Mumbaikars to get used to the idea of a Bengali sweet shop and that too in the Maharashtrian heartland of Dadar. He spoke to us of patiently waiting for footfalls to begin. Of belief and conviction that made Sweet Bengal establish its presence in Mumbai.

It’s institutions like Sweet Bengal & Hanga that have made Mumbai seem more like home for ex Calcuttans.

We listened to Choncholda’s tales as folks tried out the dual textured kheer kodom, their highest selling item. Pantua, which is made from chhana unlike the mava based gulab jamun. The soft and juicy ‘unladdo’, dorbesh and some salty stuff too…veg chops and kochuris to go with shondesh.

In Bengal sweets are not about an after meal dessert. They can can be had at any time of the day and that’s what we did as we headed for dinner after the jolkhabar (snack) of sweets.

Surjopriya’s Bong Bong

Our last stop, the newest of the Bengali establishments in Mumbai, Bong Bong. A restaurant which it’s owner, Surjopriya, says represents the ‘modern Bengali mindset’. A menu put together by the very talented Chef Joy of Bohemian in Kolkata.

No, our dinner didn’t have a multi coursed shukto, daal, bhaaja, alu posto, chochchori, machher jhol, bhat, luchi, kosha mangsho, mishti theme to it. The truth is that many immigrant Bengalis don’t have the time or patience to have many coursed meals on a regular basis. Plus there are multiple influences that have entered our kitchens now. A reflection of where we live, of our travels, of the people we meet, of the experiences that we have had, of who we are.

So instead of alu posto, at Bong Bong we hade their chilli & 5 spice potato which we just love and which beautifully brings alive the simplicity of Bengali cooking. Instead of regular macched jhol or fish curry we had a prawn in coconut cream (cauliflowers for vegetarians). The famous Malai curry where ‘Malai’ comes not from cream but from Malay after the Bengali workers in Malaysia who had got back this recipe. The Bong Bong touch lies in the fact they keep the prawns juicy here unlike other Bengali and Indian restaurants here which overcook the prawns. That’s old school. Today you ‘respect’ the produce and Bong Bong does that. We didn’t have kosha manghso. Instead we played tribute to the Anglo Indian community of Kolkata with their unique peppery vindaloo…this was served in pork and mutton options while there was vegetables in tomato and mustard for the vegetarians. For desserts there was mango pudding and not sondesh.

All dishes using ingredients and influences that define Kolkata and yet are evolving.

This time’s goody bag had Mukhorochok dalmut and jhalmuri packs which they retail at Sweet Bengal.

Here’s what some of those who came to the walk had to say:

On Twitter:

Table for ONE ‏@TableforONE_PV 13 Apr Fantastic meeting @Finelychopped & going on my 1st food walk in Bombay. Who knew Bandra was so hot on Bong food! pic.twitter.com/KjqclpxyJ8

Mohte Chand ‏@Mohtte 13 Apr @Finelychopped So. Much. Fun. As expected & more! So great meeting owners of Hanglas, @billi_bong & chanchalda (?)! & everyone in the group!

Vipul ‏@Sporty_Baba 14 Apr A big shout out to @Finelychopped for another fantastic food walk in Bandra. Massive Foodies must definitely goto one of his walks !

From Facebook:

Pooja Vir

Hangla's, Sweet Bengal & Bong Bong ... A Bong journey in Bandra led by the superb Kalyan Karmakar. Cannot decide whether I liked the food more or his stories...

(pic by Pooja Vir)

Vidya Murthi Lahiri: All three of us had a great time, which in itself is a big achievement, given our varying levels of exposure to bong cuisine. The highlight for me was Bong bong - like you said so rightly, it is so what 'bandra bong' should be. Also, meeting all the owners just gives such a different perspective of the food - I found that in all the three places..
Thanks once again for a super time and hope to be with you again in your future walks!

Thanks so much folks and thanks for walking with me through the heat and traffic of Bandra that evening.

Mumbai folks, hope to see you soon.

IceRocket Tags: food walks,mumbai,bandra,bengali food,hangla,abp majha,sweet bengal,bong bong bong,chowzters,casa asia tourism

Announcing the Bengal in Bandra Finely Chopped Walk…13th April, 2013

2013-04-10T02:04:00.001+05:30

Please scroll to the second half of the post for walk details

I never thought that I would miss Bengali food when I left Kolkata a decade and a half back…but I did.

Options were limited for Bengali food in the late 90s in Mumbai but we have come a long way since then.

There was the terrace mess in the budget Hotel New Bengal near CST. There you could have a 70 Rs thala, which included a tiny piece of rui. You would sit surrounded by boudis in nighties & dadas in singlets & white parallel pyjamas which would reach only up to their ankles. The hotel guests. Meal over, you washed your hands at the basin with a much used cake of Lifebuoy soap. A very humble thala (meal) which helped one connect with home for folks who just had moved out to start a new life. The mess, alas no longer exists, and has been replaced by a wannabe posh restaurant called Howrah which hasn’t really set the city on fire.

There was Only Fish too then which became Oh Calcutta. It was, and remains, the place for a regal Bengali raj baari (royal) experience in Mumbai…a bit of a budget buster. A taste of the good life. Not the sort of food you would eat at home everyday.

The other option was waiting for Durga Pujo and then going to the pandals at Bandra, Shivaji Park etc to pay one’s respects to the goddess, or, for those whose religion is food, to sample over priced Kolkata street food of dodgy festive quality.

A few years into Mumbai I got my own kitchen at home and began to cook …rui kaalia, kosha mangsho, alu posto, macched mudo diye daal. I finally felt at home in Mumbai.

What I still did miss was the street food of Calcutta.…the phuchkas and biryanis and mutton rolls of Kolkata remained a distant dream in Mumbai. As were the sweets.

Very few Bengalis make sweets at home given the abundance of cheap sweet shops that dot the lanes of Kolkata. Thankfully Sweet Bengal in Mumbai plugged that need. Some find it expensive but last time I checked, the flight to Kolkata was more expensive than the cost of kheer kodoms in Sweet Bengal.

Things began to change in the mid 2000s in Mumbai. Two of our friends got married and through that happy occasion one discovered Pratap Caterers. Pratap delivers Bengali dabbas within Bandra. Suddenly I could get Bengali home food delivered at the dial of a number.

Then Calcutta Club opened in Oshiwara in Andheri and finally there was a restaurant where one could find mid-priced Bengali food in comparison to the finer prices of Oh Calcutta and a food experience that was more ‘homely’, the favoured term for women in Bengali matrimonial ads. This was followed by Bijoli Grill in Powai after a couple of years.

Then came Bhojohori Manna at Oshiwara which after a rocky start did a magnificent turnaround and is now my favoured choice for traditional & deglammed Bengali fare. The happy faces of people eating there and the high decibel levels tell you that this is where Bengalis in Mumbai feel at home.

Suddenly it was all happening for Bengalis in the relatively distant suburbs of Mumbai, a reflection of a city whose centre of gravity was moving Northwards too. These new places were located a tad far from Bandra though.

In Bandra we once had Chowringhee Square, a roll shop set up at Pali Naka before I moved in there in the early 2000s. They even added a Sweet Bengal counter. The folks behind Chowringhee Square, more food lovers than business folks, couldn’t keep up their efforts. Chowringhee Square shut down and was replaced by the very Punjabi Papa Poncho. Sweet Bengal came up in a different location in Bandra but for a while that and Pratap was all we had. Even Munna’s fish shop at Pali Market shut down and one had to head to Khar for fresh water ‘Bangali macchhi’.

Then one day I spotted, a stall coming up opposite Amarson’s on Bandra’s Linking Road. Calcutta Rolls. Finally the rolls one grew up on were there next door. Calcutta Rolls didn’t last and was replaced by Hangla’s, a street food cart set up in Lokhandwala by a former Bengali journalist, and they have been going strong since then.

Then came Arsalan at Khar’s S V Road, the new age Mughlai place from Kolkata. ‘New age’ defined as from after I left Kolkata. Not a favourite of mine in Kolkata but the one at Khar has hit the spot. Their Calcutta biryani, mutton rezala and chicken chaaps becoming my regular orders in Mumbai. They have opened in Oshiwara now.

And then Bong Bong happened. A modern Bengali cafe. If Bandra was to finally get a Bengali restaurant then it had to be something like Bong Bong. A casual, young at heart place, with the sort of food you would be served in the house of many a Bengali in Mumbai. Plated one dish meals and not the multi-coursed meals of traditional Bengali households… the latter often unreal to expect in today’s day and age. The food at Bong Bong reflects the multiple influences that have gone into the making of Calcutta…British, Malay, Anglo, Muslim…and is clearly influenced by the exposure of its chef and its owner to the world around them.

When they they sprinkled paach phoron or Bengali 5 Spices in Bong Bong and added in a touch of crushed chilli to baby potatoes and then sauted these in hung curd, then they came up with a dish which ascribes to every tenet of the modern global culinary idiom…’respect the produce’, ‘eat with your every sense’, ‘respect your traditions’, ‘open up to the world’…a simple dish which is so Bengali in its delicate suave balance of flavours, tastes and textures. The antithesis of the frog in the well cries to not play around with the cliches that define Bengali food. The food at Bong Bong is indeed forward thinking.

Now one waits eagerly for the next chapter in Bandra’s Bengali food history to be written

The Bengal n Bandra Finely Chopped Walk

15th April is the Bengali new year and I thought that it would be a great to do a Bengali walk a couple of days before so here’s the plan.

What to expect:

We start off the evening with some Kolkata street food fare. Rolls, chops…just as you would in a balmy evening in Kolkata. In the best traditions of Kolkata we will have an adda (chat) and talk about the origins of the rolls and biryanis of Kolkata. We will muse over the different strains of rolls in Kolkata from the saucy fat paratha’d ones of the suburbs of Kolkata to the original kebab rolls of Central Kolkata. Share tips on what roll to order when, how to order and when should you ask for ketchup and when not. The customisation one can try in the more customer friendly shops of Mumbai. In Kolkata these rules might not work. Also get to know how rolls are different from Frankies and why we find rolls to be way better! While at the roll shop we could also try out some Kolkata biryani and see how the biryani of Kolkata is unique and get a lesson in history too.

We then walk down for about 15 minutes to our next stop. On the way you could do a quick grocery stop to buy some paanch phoron or Bengali 5 spice & posto (poppy seeds). In a Guajarati shop! If you plan to cook at home that is. Or we could walk straight on in search of more food.

After rolls, chop and biryani we will go to a mishtir dokan for sweets.

Traditionally sweets are had as desserts after meals , right? Well not in Calcutta!

You could pop into a sweet shop at any point of the day in Kolkata…breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea, pre-dinner, post dinner…when it comes to sweets Bengalis don’t live by the clock.

If you thought that Bengali sweet shops are all about mishti doi and roshogollo then try out the various other sweet marvels and then the kachouris whose origins lie in Rajasthan and brought to Calcutta by legendary folks such Ganguram and Bachharam and then the British croquette inspired ‘bhej chop's’ and then the very unique shingaras distant cousins of the samosa…a visit to a mishtir dokan is not just about sweets after all.

Our last stop is at a modern Bengali cafe where we try out dishes which show the way one can extend Bengali cuisine to a more global format by using tradition as a base. We will also try out a couple of dishes which show the influences of non Bengali communities on the food of Kolkata. In starring roles would be red meat, prawns, the favourite vegetable of Bengalis…alu or potatoes and some zany creations for any vegetarians who might walk with us.

They say that meals are best accompanied by stories and each course here will be sandwiched between more and more food adda.

Check the 2nd half of this edit where Aneesha Baig of Will Travel For Food & I go to Bong Bong to get a flavour of the place.

The walk will be peppered with chats on Bengali food, tips on what to order in a Bengali restaurant, a bird’s eye view of what to expect in Kolkata, what to hope to get in Mumbai when it comes to Bengali food.

What not to expect:

Alu posto, kosha mangsho, shukto, bhaapa maachh, luchi or very traditional Bengali fare. For this you should head to Oshiwara and Bhojohori Manna. No Arsalan either as this is a ‘walk’ and one had to look at the best route. Arsalan would be a stretch.

No phuchkas. You can’t get them even for a king’s ransom in Mumbai.

There won’t be a lot of rest or bishram. Only our last stop will be a sit down place and we would need to walk at least 20 minutes between each food stop. The walking makes the food rest easy on the conscience though.

It will not at Encyclopaedia of Bengali food sort of walk….it will be a perspective of Bengali food through the eyes of someone who loves Bengali food, is proud of it and yet has a palate which is influenced by many cultures.

This is not the walk of a puritan. Or a purist.

It’s the walk of a Bengali in Bombay (Mumbai).

Specs:

Date: 13th April 2013, Saturday. A couple of days day before the Bengali New Year or Poila Boishakh

Time: 6.30 pm to 9.30 pm

Start Point: The little park opposite Amarsons at Linking Road, Bandra. Beside Hangla, This park closes by 7 pm so be there by 6.30 pm

Things to get: Camera, hand sanitizer, handkerchief or tissues AND comfortable walking shoes.

Planned food stops: Around 3

Inclusions: Tasting of Calcutta’s street food and some of its Lucknow originated Mughlai Food. Tasting of Calcutta’s sweets and snacks. The famous jol khabar. Tasting of multi cultural mains at a modern Bengali cafe. Places I go to when I crave Bengali food and when the kitchen at home falls short. We will space out the food to make sure that you don’t miss out on any dish with some brisk walking to help digestion. Bottled water included. Not soft drinks. Eating will be at the participant’s risk. No responsibilities on the food. The ‘walk’ will cover the lanes around Bandra’s Linking & Waterfield Roads.

Cost: Rs 2,000 per head (inclusive of food tastings).

Write in at k.finelychopped@gmail.com or tweet me at @finelychopped or write to me at the Finely Chopped Facebook page. Given limited seats please don’t change your minds.

Catch you at the adda.

Links to posts on earlier Finely Chopped Walks:

1 Bohri Mohalla

2. Fort

3. Bandra Food Legends

IceRocket Tags: bandra,food walks,finely choppped food walk,bengali food,calcutta biryani,bong bong,hangla,sweet bengal

A Dollop of Sunshine…Between Breads, Bandra

2013-04-08T23:27:00.001+05:30

I must tell you about Between Breads, the new place we just went to, in Bandra.

It’s near 16th Road. In between Khane Khas and Hawaiian Shack. Kurush went there and went ballistic with his praise and Kurush knows his meat. Like Imbiss, a few months back, Between Breads too has generated a positive buzz on twitter.

We went to Between Breads at about 11 pm on Friday night but they were already sold out. Landed up there this evening around 8.30 pm. A last minute decision while out for burgers. One of those unplanned moments that define the history of mankind. Or fix a desultory evening at least.

Between Breads is a small place with about 10 bucket bar stools. The look, a bit of a throwback to Pop Tate’s, a point highlighted by the Archies Digests strewn on the tables. The place lit well enough for good iPhone pics.

Two of the three friends who started the place were around just as they were when went to BB the previous night. They were taking the orders, clearing the tables. Always a good sign. Nice to see small places started by young, first gen restaurateurs, that embody the spirit of the proprietor run eating places of old Mumbai, coming up in the suburbs too. I was told that the mood that they were trying to get in the Between Breads was that of a simple, casual fast food joint that was, in their opinion, missing in Bandra. Well, they do serve stuff that give unabashed pleasure here…no lean steamed meat, multigrain breads, or protein wheys here. Bandra has plenty of those. Like Imbiss, Between Breads is about eating for joy. It is not about the Protestant Ethic that Max Weber spoke of. This is the closest to spring break that food can get. In fact one of the owners told me that they plan to serve the sort of food you see in US based fast food programmes that are aired on TLC.

Hopefully with Indian portions though as some of those American servings on TLCs gross me out. In my book, it should be ‘food for man’ and not ‘man versus food’.

I wanted to go for a milk shake but K looked sternly at me so we settled for a lemonade based ice tea that they have. Pretty refreshing on a grimy evening.

We zeroed in on the beef cheese burger and requested them to cut it into half. We did plan to have dinner later.

The beef patty is well done and you cannot ask for medium rare here. That said, the patty was moist, pink, packed with juice, seductively tasty to a point which breached public propriety and all dictums of middle class morality. Served with crisp, crunchy fries.

The food is designed by a chef I am told who drops in occasionally with the regular kitchen cooks keeping things going otherwise. Well, the man had done a good job as we found out from the food.

Each table had ketchup, mustard, relish & thoughtfully, a hand cleanser. You didn’t need any of the sauces though as the meat, mayo, pickle and gouda in the burger came together to give a very complete taste experience. Reminded me a bit of the Meat & Wine Company in Sydney where I had ordered a cheese dip to go with my steak and later realised that I didn’t need the dip.

The only thing I used from the table was the hand cleanser at the end, and that too barely, as the burger wasn’t really messy. In fact we were so engrossed in the food that I didn’t even look at the Archies Digests.

Oh yes, we had the bacon fries as well. Bits of plump, luscious, very good quality bacon strewn in the fries. The smoked flavour of the bacon soaked into the fries. A dish so perfect that K told me that I should not even think of instagramming the dish.

The burger was good no doubt, but the bacon fries were evil.

Between Breads is the sort of place that packs in a dollop of full fat sunshine in your plate.

If you are the sort that worries about calories, cholesterol and kilograms while eating then you might want to leave the seats at Between Breads for those of us who simply like to eat.

IceRocket Tags: burgers,bandra,imbiss,between breads,bacon fried rice,fries

A green evening…Fusilli in a Vegetarian Romesco Sauce & Cheesy Grilled Aubergines

2013-04-08T02:05:00.001+05:30

They say that necessity is the mother of invention and, as I found out, there is no better time than a Friday evening with friends to test out an old saying.

I had just come back home from a customised & exclusive (yes, you can get those too) Finely Chopped Fort Walk with Anita Breland & Tom Fakler of Anita’s Feast, Chef Joel D’Souza & Baking Sorceress Reshmy on Friday evening when some friends of ours dropped home after ages. Dhruti and Kaushik who had brought a shirt they had got specially Tailored ® for me. Dhruti, a convert to non vegetarianism through marriage, was reminiscing about the veg Thai curry I had made when she had come over last. She said, “I hope you cook for us today”.

Well, few things charge me up at the end of a tiring day as the idea of cooking for people so i readily shook my weariness away and entered the kitchen. We had another friend, Harshad, dropping by who had converted to vegetarianism so I knew that I had a challenging brief for the night. While bacon, pork belly, mutton and prawns would work for our usual guests, I had to think green this time.

I was about to order some vegetables from the market and checked with D, “do you eat mushrooms?”…”no”…”do you eat baigan?”….”no”. Much later I figured out chicken would work for her.

So this is what I cooked up. Thought I will share the recipes if you wanted ideas for vegetarian dishes that are quick to put together.

Pasta in Catalan Romesco sauce (for 4-5)

Prep:

Boil 200 g pasta…I used fusilli which was at home…and set aside
Romesco sauce: Pound 6 garlic cloves, 50 g of mix of almonds & walnuts, 3,4 springs of finely chopped parsley in a mortar and pestle. Add 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, and 5,6 tomatoes cut into small pieces and blend together
Other ingredients: Chilli peppers, sea salt, sharp cheese ( I used feta), more olive oil, more garlic

Cook:

Heat 2,3 tablespoons of EVOO on a low flame
Add 4,5 cloves of garlic
Add, 3,4 red hot chilli peppers, sliced
Stir and then add in the blended Romesco sauce
Cover the sauce pan with a lid and let the sauce cook for about 3,4 minutes
Take off the lid, add in the pasta
Gentle mix, add sea salt to season. About a tablespoon of it. The grainy texture gives the dish an uneven bite of salt which is so Spanish
Add some feta to the pasta and then top with some olive oil. To add colour I sprinkled some Mediterranean sumac on top and sun dried tomatoes. You could add paprika too.
That’s it

Now I had already called for some brinjal before Dhruti said no. I was planning to call for portabella too but by then I knew she was not into mushrooms. Vegetarians, even quasi ones, can be picky.

I didn’t want to waste the aubergines so this is what I did

Grilled Aubergine with Cheese

Prep

Cut thin flat slices of aubergine. Brush on both sides with olive oil. Stick on bits of slice cheese on one side. Place on a greased foil on a baking tray with the cheese side pointing up
Preheat oven at 200 C for 10 min
Other ingredients: sliced cheese. For plating: a bit of parmesan, parsley, chilli bits

Cook:

Put the tray in the pre-heated oven for 20 min at 200 C.
Once done let it rest for 10 minutes or so inside
Take it out. Carefully take out the slices of aubergines and put on a plate with the cheesy side facing the top
Grate some parmesan on top of the aubergines and add some colour with a touch of parsley & chilli

Even the brinjal hater amongst us loved this cheesy crisp brinjal bake

In case you are regular reader and are worried, don’t be. I added some jamon to the pasta of us non vegetarians

Technorati Tags: recipes,vegetarian,pasta,spanish,italian,aubergine,brinjal. Anita's Feast,finely Chopped walks

The Bandra Food Legends Finely Chopped Walk… Feat Candies, Snack Shack, Khane Khas & a group that walked and rocked

2013-04-02T02:02:00.001+05:30

Some folks have asked me about how to enter the walks, who can enter the walks and so on…this is how it works. I announce it on the blog. This post is an example. I post about it on twitter and on the Finely Chopped Facebook page. Those interested in joining write in. Then we meet. And walk. That’s it

It was Saturday evening and I was feeling quite relaxed as the warm up for the Legends of Bandra Finely Chopped Walk was going on.

This walk was different. It was the third walk. More importantly this was at home. In Bandra. And we were starting off in Candies. My ‘spot’. I suddenly realised why people make a big deal about home conditions in cricket. This was like India playing at the Eden, with Dada as the captain and at the crease. (By the way this is just a metaphor and have no ‘Dada illusions, thought best to clarify)

Yes, it was good to be ‘home’. Yes, after over sixteen years that’s what Bandra has become to me. Or was it on the first day itself?

Yes, as Anil said during the warm up, I can’t think of living anywhere else.

Warming up at Candies

I have always maintained that a big part of the Finely Chopped Walks are the participants themselves. What one has tried to replicate in the Finely Chopped Walks is the experience of an outing with friends.Hence the warm up in the best traditions of a focus group in the beginning where folks get to know each other and then connect as the walk progresses.

Sample a bit of what we started with this time. Eavesdrop in. Close your eyes and listen to Vipul talk about his trips across India cheering for the Indian cricket team, meeting fellow Indians across different stadiums and spending the 5 days of test matches discovering the food of the host city while Dhoni and his boys plotted our victories. Listen to Shubhranshu talk about the amazing food one can get in the railway stations in Rajasthan and about how it makes so much more sense to stay in railway stations than in hotels in towns on North India.

Hear Reshmy talk about how she wanted to make pancakes since when she was 5 years old and get infected by her passion for food and listen to her plans to organise a motorcycle food trip from Mumbai to South India. If you are lucky, as K & I were, get to try out the decadent buttery chocolate cinnamon babka that she baked for us…’chocolate bread which actually has chocolate in it’ as K said …and divine meringue chocolate chip and hazelnut cookies…this lady is a baking sorceress and you would do well to go to one of her baking workshops.

Sit back and listen to Anvita talk about her love for the food in Delhi and her search for good North Indian food in Mumbai, a city she had earlier spent 20 years in. Later in the evening look at the smile of bliss on her face as she has a second plate of black daal or maa ki daal as they call it. The defining moment of the walk for me.

Talking of other cities you can tune into Amrita and Geetha compare the food culture in Mumbai vs. Bangalore …we win by the way … and get to know how good the understated food scene in Chennai is. And then listen to Bandra boy and owner of another Bandra Legend The Bagel Shop, Anil Kably, talk about the various zones Bandra is divided into and the cultural and sports programmes that they participated in way before it became fashionable to ‘Celebrate Bandra’.

Smile fondly as you look at the mother and daughter combine talk about food. Smile as you hear Bhavna talk about how her daughter Malvika’s love for food has ‘pushed’ the boundaries of her cooking as Malvika smiles and says, “yes, she is a great cook”. High praise when your daughter is a curator of the best food from Mumbai on twitter herself.

Listen to Jyotika, who came to each of the first three walks giving us a huge dollop of encouragement, talk of the cook ups who would throw for the friends in the US. She is on the look out for folks for who could offer a kitchen closer to Mumbai than Thane for her to throw a pop up dinner.

Listen to Shormishtha talk about the travails of setting up not one, but two agencies, an advertising one and a digital one and of her discovery of, not sure if linked with her setting up agencies, small bars in Versova which serve excellent food. The prawns in Satyajit are her pick. See the look of glee on Suprio’s face as he explored each level of the Candies at McRonnels…the tiles, the mosaic, the many levels, the backlit stained glass…a slice of Gaudi’s Barcelona in a Bandra suburb which made this Director of Trade for Catalonia so happy.

Listen to Candice, after whom her father Allan named Candies, talk about the history of the this family of bakers that Bandra is so proud of and of the growth of Candies over the years. The design of Candies, which had everyone gaping with awe as they walked up the stairs at Candies, a labour of love by her dad, Allan Pereira.

Listen to these tales as you munch on the mutton and veg potato chops so typical of Catholic households of Bandra, the uniquely Goan spiced mutton and veg puffs, the sticky brownies that I so love, the lemon tea cake from the original inventory of the store …some of the classic favourites here and wash it down with some wild berry ice tea (K’s fav) and the cappuccino which we both love.

If the walk lasted for close to five hours instead of the planned three hours it was because we were all so comfortably nestled in Candies. I finally gently nudged folks to leave and after a stop at the Marry Me Store, in Candies a non food stop but if there are things to shop women will buy as the old jungle saying goes, we headed out.

Pali Market

Next stop Pali Market where you get to meet Mrs D’Sousa in the 44 year old Mark’s Cold Storage. You buy your meat of choice, ask her for a recipe and note down what she shares with a smile. Then a stop at the fifty year old Lalu’s where people dashed and bought some ‘exotic’ vegetables. Say hi to Jatin of Meghna Agro, my shop for meats and then head down to Pali Naka.

A taste of the Snack Shack Parsi love

Walk in with us to Snack Shack, a Bandra institution. An unheralded Parsi place with a huge band of loyalists. A small place with four or five tables and yet its beaming owner, Ashmick, welcomes us and makes us feel at home and comfortable. Watch the look of excitement and awe on the face of the walkers as they discover sali par eendu or fried eggs on potato straws. The only Parsi dish that K can make. Almost on cue, she walks in from her Carter Road walk to give in a goody bag and then thunders off in to the night while Ashmick serves us chicken cutlets with toothpicks exactly the way K does at home when she calls for these when guests come. Uncanny.

Since the walk was at home you would get occasional glimpses of K through the walk as she would drop in with the goody bags we had picked from another Bandra institution, the American Express Bakery from South Mumbai.

Next on at Snack Shack was sali boti…soft, juicy, boneless mutton in a vinegary tart meets sweet meet savoury spicy onion based curry. Ashmick explains that he doesn’t put apricots a la jardalu sali boti as he has figured out over the years that people don’t like food to be very sweet. Our walkers OD’d on the sali boti.

Well fed, ready to leave, Ashmick takes out some laganu custard (the Parsi wedding feast dessert of choice) to energise the walkers.

Join us and walk down the retro pub Toto’s and then the newer Hawaiian Shack and then hit the 16th Road.

If Pali Naka with its Thai Baan, Toto’s, Pot Pourri, Sahibaan and Tiffin was one food hot spots in Bandra even fifteen years back then so was, and still is, 16th Road. The very famous Mini Punjab and then Pal’s Fish Corner which I realised that it belongs to a Punjabi and not a Bengali ‘Pal’. Then there are new entrants with the chic Bengali cafe Bong Bong and the purveyor of great Bangalorean tiffins, South Side Cafe.

Our destination here is Khane Khas.

Feeling at home in Khane Khas

We were welcomed in to Khane Khas by Atul and Hardeep, two of the most loved people in Bandra.

Once again with the big hearted owners and the familiar wait staff, we felt as at home in Khane Khas as we did earlier in Candies and Snack Shack. Plastic tables and chairs, a tandoor and grill in an open kitchen from a time before 5 stars made them fashionable, steady stream of people walking in, this was an honest dhaba experience in the middle of Bandra.

Join the walkers and taste some hot nurturing roomali and tandoori rotis. Have a bite of tandoori chicken which is so incredibly full of taste, zest and life. And of course the famous ma ki daal that Anvita made even more famous with her million watt smile of joy.

Wash it all down with some fresh lassi or aampanna. Perhaps a swig of the mini bottle of whiskey that Anil nipped into Janta and got, ever the hospitable Bandra’ite.

Atul looked at me and said “I know you are going to Punjab Sweets but do you mind if we serve you some home styled rabdi?”

“No we don’t” said Shubhranshu as we dipped into this delightful dessert.

Head back with us down Ambedkar Road past Yellow Tree Cafe and then Brownie point and Sweet Bengal, Bandra’s Sweet Street with Le 15 Patisserie next door and head to our last stop, Punjab Sweets, Folks were stuffed and could barely nibble on the kalakhand and gajar ka halwa there, purchased from a testy owner, impatient to shut his shop.

Nothing like an evening spent with some wonderful folks in a suburb one has grown to call home.

Finely Chopped Walks will be back with the Oshiwara Bengali walk preceded by an exclusive Fort Tasting Walk next Saturday for travel writers visiting us from Basel in Switzerland.

Read more about the earlier Finely Chopped Walks here:

1. The Bohri Mohalla Walk

2. The Fort Tasting Walk

Here are what some of the participants had to say about the walk:

Hunger Games: A write up by Amrita on Live Mint on the Walk

From facebook :

Shubhranshu Das: The Foodies Wok in Bandra - lovely start at Candies - with the original Candies herself - with the mix of Wokers in the group - it's a smorgasbord of foodies here. It was so nice to meet the group - a very, very talented group - so the conversation flowed and food consumed ... and then we ambled on and outward into Pali Market & Pali Naka .... Snack Shack ... small little joint but such good Parsi food ... with the owner providing his own insights .... will now pay attention to these smaller places that have been around for a long time ...

Anil Kably: Kalyan this walk is fun, social and so needed today. Connected & building new relationships! I enjoyed it.

From Twitter

‏@agentgreenglass 30 Mar Great food. Walking. Interesting people. What's not to love about @Finelychopped #foodwalk. First candies. Now snack shack. Yum.

‏@Sporty_Baba 20h @Finelychopped Not sure about you guys - but i am still having A Food Hangover \m/ @ReshmyKurian @HungryMumbai @rainb0wt00

‏@ReshmyKurian 31 Mar @Finelychopped is a veritable encyclopaedia of the best food in Mumbai. Thanks so much for the deliciousness.

‏@ReshmyKurian 31 Mar Pics from the gorgeous foodwalk by @Finelychopped. The most delicious, fun time ever. #finelychoppedwalk http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.430711700338216.97488.177277169015005&type=1 …

‏@HungryMumbai 11h Another highlight of @Finelychopped's walk was the lovely Candice @MarryMeWeddings speaking abt the Bandra institution that is @CandiesCafe

‏@HungryMumbai 11h Parsi food gem in Bandra #snackshack best #saliboti "@ReshmyKurian: Perfectly balanced sali boti #finelychoppedwalk http://instagram.com/p/XfPy3bFjWW/

‏@HungryMumbai 31 Mar @Finelychopped thanks u r the biggest rockstar of all...had a super time !! Feel bad I missed the end. Will tweet more tom :-) Nite

‏@rainb0wt00 31 Mar @Finelychopped still reeling from the food hangover :)

anil kably ‏@bandrabugger 31 Mar @Finelychopped @agentgreenglass @ReshmyKurian @JyotikaPurwar @Sporty_Baba @HungryMumbai #finelychoppedwalk. WORLDBEST

Whatsapp

Suprio Bose: Kalyan, great fun at the walk. Thanks for organising yet another fun evening and with such an interesting group of people

Aren’t these guys the best? Thanks so much for the encouragement folks. See you soon.

IceRocket Tags: food walks,mumbai,bandra,finely chopped walks,khane khas,candies,snack shack,tandoori chicken,daal makhni,roti,sali boti,sali par eendu

A Window to the Wazwan Wonders of Kashmir…Taj Land’s End Mumbai

2013-03-31T18:59:00.001+05:30

This is not an anonymous review and the dinner was hosted by The Taj Land’s End. This was my first taste of Kashmiri cooking

Today is the last day of the Wazwan festival at the Masala Bay in The Taj Land’s End.

It is a part of their ‘Windows of India’ programme initiated by the Kafka quoting, Kava quaffing, media shy Executive Chef of the Taj Land’s End, Anirudhya Roy.

Anirudhya decided to to ‘come out’ from the confines of his kitchen to host a few of us bloggers at a chef’s table at the Taj Land’s End a few evenings back. This was apparently one of the few times that this behind the scenes operator was interacting with the ‘media’. In today’s localised world of hospitality reporting, Bloggers and social media content generators are now included in media outreach plans. Chef later told us that he thought the evening would be ‘a pain’. Apparently we were able to change his mind or so he said.

Chef Roy didn’t subscribe to the chef at the front of house school that is so prevalent these days. In fact he took pains to make it clear, as he spoke to us, that he wasn’t the one who had put the dinner together. “I am here because I speak good English” he said with disarming Mahinder Singh Dhoni like non grandstanding honesty.

They had flown in two chefs from Kashmir who were the men behind the dinner. A dinner so exquisite that we gave a standing ovation at the end when Chef Roy got one of the chefs to meet us.

I rarely go to five stars to eat and that too for Indian food. If at all I pay and go to 5 stars, it is to try out cuisines that one doesn’t get exposed to otherwise here. Which is where The Windows of India programme caught my attention. They had earlier featured cuisines that included the Keralite Moplah and the Uttar Pradeshi Banarasi Satvik and after the Kashmiri Wazwan one are toying with North Eastern cuisines. None of these Indian regional cuisines are available in Mumbai but then Mumbai is a city which doesn’t have a Kohli restaurant that features the food of the local fisher folk. The modern fine dining food scene here unfortunately is more about Italian, French, Spanish, Far Eastern and not so much about richness and diversity of Indian food. There is more focus on discovering Indian cuisine in London than in Mumbai for sure.

In this context I found the Windows of India of the Taj to be an interesting concept. In this case it helped whet my curiosity about Wazwan food which was aroused by the last Rushdie book that I was able to finish reading, Shailmar The Clown.

What we got to try at the Chef’s Table was a taste of all the dishes in the festival. For paying guests it is available as part of the a la carte menu at Masala Bay till this evening.

What stood out for me in the food was purity of the taste of the produce in some very complex preparations. I am a big believer these days in simplicity in cooking which allows the essence of the ingredients come out. The beauty of the Wazwan fare at the Taj lay in the fact that though the preparations were intricate and the ingredients manifold, there was a certain innocence and beauty that one associates with the valley which came through in the menu.

It was all about ‘respecting the produce’, whether it was in the robust flavours of lamb in the mild Kashmiri Shorba or the bewitching flavours of saffron in the juicy yet tight textured mutton sheekhs.

There were croquettes made with lotus stems brought in from the valley which had a woody texture and taste to them which was just so pure.

The chefs and the lotus stems are not the only thing that the Taj has flown in from the Kashmir Valley for the festival. Once every three days, chef Roy told me, they flow in the wood pounded meat for the luncheon meat textured meatball of Rista & Gustaba…names which sound straight out of Arabian Nights tales and stand for meatballs in a red chilli based sauce and a yogurt based tangy sauce. Both very different preparations and yet starting with a very similar meat base. The flavours of lamb quite dominant in both sauces.

Then there was the ‘tandoori chicken’ equivalent of Kashmir, the much traumatised and bastardised ‘rogan josh’. The one at the Taj was a dictionary definition of ‘fall of the bone’. There was a rajma too, very common across North India, but the red beans here were slightly smaller and a lot fresher in taste.

I’ve had morel or guchhi biryani twice before and was completely unimpressed by those experiences. In both those places despite there being very famous Mumbai chefs in charge I was left wondering what these mushrooms added to the rice. The morel biryani in the Taj Masala Bay was a work of art with the flavours of finely chopped morels enshrouding the rice and gently kissing each grain of basmati. Chef explained that the doyens of Wazwan would actually store morels with rice before cooking so that the flavours would get intricately mixed. This apparently is not commercially viable anymore.

After the long grained rice in the guchhi pulao, the Chef insisted we try out the short grained rice which they had flown in from Kashmir and which is apparently hardly used there too. The rice looked sticky but was surprisingly light and bouncy and did combine beautifully with the sharp, crunchy textured Kashmiri river trout curry.

And there was a very soft, near Bengali shoojir payesh textured, suji halwa with desserts and some Kava to wash it down with.

If you though that was a lot of food, then you are right. It’s the sort of meal that left you feeling like Rocky at the end of a movie, victorious but exhausted.

Apparently they have 36 or more courses in a Wazwan meal!

IceRocket Tags: wazwan,taj lands End,masala bay,anirudhya roy

Announcing the Legends of Bandra - Finely Chopped Tasting Walk, Saturday 7 pm, 30th March 2013,

2013-03-25T15:42:00.001+05:30

I moved into Bandra about a decade and a half back and have been addicted to it since.

The warmth of its people, the relaxed sense of susegaad (to use the Goan word) at one end & freshness of thinking and spirit of entrepreneurship at the other, the sense of freedom which lets people be, the sea, the pot pourri of cultures and communities, the big smiles from its shop keepers, its quaint by-lanes and cottages and bungalows and of course the great food around…these are some of the million things that have made me fall in love with Bandra.

There were a number of places one ate at when I was new in Bandra, some have stood the test of time, others are history, new legends have been created.

Pot Pouri is now Lemon Grass, the Mexican place now Gloria Jean’s, Tiffin has had a facelift and serves Lebanese too, Sahibaan has become more kitsch, Pali Presidency is now Costa, Thai Baan is still there, the Daewoo showroom gone but it has been replaced by many new restaurants instead. The old bakeries…American Express, Hearsch & A1 holding strong in the age of artisanal pumpkin & raagi breads. Boat Club came and went, Toto’s still has its regulars and is still the place to be in if you are not the ones who go to the Shack, Janta has become the suburban Gokul. Kobe’s doesn’t sizzle as loudly. Stomach has grown, JATC has become EATC. Out of the Blue & Olive which brought in the Western fine dining touch to Bandra are going strong as are Salt Water Cafe & Basilico that followed, Shatranj Napoli is now a distant Bollywood memory. China Gate has been joined by the every popular, buy by the Kilo, 5 Spice & the Bengali Bhadrolok owned Mainland China though many still swear by the spare ribs of Jimme’s. Lucky, Saybaa & Tawa still remain road landmarks from a time before Google Maps. There is a Bengali element to Bandra now. Chowringhee Square, the pioneers have shut down, but slowly and steadily have been followed by Sweet Bengal, Hangla, Arsalan & Bong Bong which have established a strong Bengali presence here.

New Bandra legends have been created if you can call Bagel Shop and Gostana ‘new’. More legends coming up…Imbiss, South Side Cafe, Golconda Bowl and the Bagelwallah. The august lady of South Mumbai, Indigo, has walked in graciously with the Indigo Deli and Busaba with the young & pretty Busago. Crepe Station is gone, Suzette has come in and there is Mocha Mojo with its pancakes and waffles.

Yes, there’s loads happening in Bandra and what I have spoken about is just a fraction of it centred around Pali Naka, Turner Road & Carter Road but then a blog, as I always say, is a collection of personal notes and not a directory.

The Bandra food scene has seen many changes but there are some folks that old timers and new entrants swear by. They are the food legends of Bandra after all.

Punjab Sweets which Gulati paaji set up three and a half decades back when he decided to get out of college and build on the family catering business. The result…chaats which many swear by, kalakhand and gajar ke halwa which are unabashedly full fat, full cream and full of love. The samosas and freshly fried jalebis which I just love. I would often cross the street and go and get 1 samosa & 50 g of jalebi to come back and have with my coffee at home when we lived in Pali Naka. The Gulatis have diversified their repertoire into khaakras & pastries but the one extension I am really fond of is their restaurant Laskara and the amazing kulchas there.

About a quarter of a century back the Pereira's decided to start a small shop at the end of Pali Hill where some of the marvels from Mrs Perrier”s kitchen…the mince chops, chicken mayo sandwiches, roast chickens would be sold. Since then Candies has grown and grown and the tiny shop at Pali Hill was joined by the Candies at Reclamation & then the Gaudi inspired Candies at Mc Ronnels at Pali Naka. You can’t sit on the fence when it comes to Candies. Many throw their hands up in frustration trying to be heard there so they can place their order at Candies. The rest of us consider it our home away from home. My Candies love started with the Candies at Reclamation and when they opened next door in Pali Naka it became the only eatery to have its own label in the blog.

Talking of ‘home away from home’ there is Khane Khaas which is about to complete 24 years. Started by 4 partners from 2 hotel management schools. Today two of the original band remain…Atul & Hardeep who had coincidentally started their careers on the same day in the President (Taj Vivanta today) in 1989. Then one day they quit and started Khaane Khaas. A place I was first introduced to by Presidency classmate, Promita, through its black daal, tandoori chicken & rumalis. It was the place where I would call for a single serving of rice when we inaugurated our first kitchen with chicken cooked in RTC masalas on an electric stove. It’s the place I would call for food if my stomach was out of order or K would call from when she wants a tasty meal with no guilt or butter attached. It’s the place where Anchal from Chandigarh finds Punjabi food that reminds her of home. It’s the place of which Sue, like me and many others, talks of the of the melodious, chirpy and warm voice of welcome that says ‘Khaane Khaas’ to greet you when you call up to place an order.

Then there is ‘new kid on the block’, Snack Shack. Set up 16 years back by Ashmick who made up with his love for food and love to feed people what he missed through the lack of formal catering training. Relatively unsung in comparison to the Parsi legends of South Mumbai Britannia, Military Cafe, Yazdani & Kayani but a favourite amongst those who eat here, Their prawn patio, patrani machhi & sali boti were approved by my late Parsi grandmother in law, K approves of their chicken cutlets and I just love their home styled hearty dhansaak. Locals would also know Gregory, the slim & bearded manager here & the Maushi who makes Tibb’s Frankies outside the shop.

All legendary stuff.

The Food Legends of Bandra Tasting Walk

So here’s what we will do as we walk through Bandra. We will get a taste of its various flavours, check out its various food shops, get a sense of where some of the new entrants to Bandra are to be found, talk about Bandra stories.

On the way we will sample some snacks typical of a Goan household…some mince and potato chops if you would like. Some mayo and chicken sandwiches perhaps. With lessons added in on how to get your food amongst the mayhem of Bandra’s most popular hangout.

We then walk down the more than 50 years old Pali Market and figure out why I never bother to go to super markets or malls for my food shopping. From asparagus to pork belly, decaf coffee to Gruyere, strawberries to pine nuts just let your food imagination run wild and chances are that you will find what you want in Bandra’s Pali Market. Munna and his fresh water fish shop is long gone though but for that you can hop across to the Khar Fish Market.

Goan done, shopping done, we head for a bit of Parsi love. Cutlets, sali boti…a sampler because there is more to eat.

We walk past and do some more sight seeing and walk by 5 Spice, Totos, Poco Loco, Hawaiian Shack (a pub crawl anyone?), Pal’s Mini Punjab and then we sit down for some hearty fare from the land of the five rivers, as the cliché, goes for some tandoori marvels.

Walk a bit more and some more sight seeing… walk past Le 15 Patisserie, Yellow Tree, Sweet Bengal, Brownie Point … all to make space for some Punjabi desserts to bring in that Delhi’s Bangali Market flavour to end our night in Mumbai’s Bandra.

Specs:

Date: 30th March 2013, Saturday

Timing: 7 pm to 10.30 pm

Start Point: Candies at Mc Ronells, Pali Naka. Tentative

Things to get: Camera, phone, hand sanitizer, a big appetite, shopping bags

Planned food stops: Around 4

Inclusions: Stops at some of my favourite restaurants and cafes. Places I have eaten at ever since I fist came to Bandra. Mix of cuisines and communities … Parsi, Goan Catholic snacks, Punjabi and North Indian. We will space out the food to make sure that you don’t miss out on any dish. Bottled water included. Not soft drinks. Eating will be at the participant’s risk. No responsibilities on the food. The ‘walk’ will cover the lanes around Bandra’s Pali Naka.

Cost: Rs 2000 per head (inclusive of food tastings)

Write in at k.finelychopped@gmail.com or tweet me at @finelychopped or write to me at the Finely Chopped Facebook page. Given limited seats please don’t change your minds.

See you next Saturday in my Bandra.

Links to earlier Finely Chopped Walks:

1 Bohri Mohalla

2. Fort

IceRocket Tags: pali naka,bandra,food walks,khaane khaas,punjab sweets,candies,snack shack

Sada Dosa Pure & Simple…South Side Cafe, Bandra W, Mumbai

2013-03-25T02:51:00.001+05:30

After almost giving up on the possibility of getting a good sada dosa in Bandra I came across the near perfect dosa here this Saturday.

The dosa was crisp on the outside and then soft and pillowy beneath the crispness. Each bite a beautiful symphony of great taste, texture, aroma and flavour. Yes I know that there are as many, or more, types of dosas as there are biryanis but the basic fact is that the dosa in question was an ethereal, out of body experience. And it takes a lot for a dosa to stun my out of my morning stupor.

This dosa epiphany of mine was at the South Side Cafe in Bandra’s 16th Road beside Khaane Khaas and Bong Bong. A quiet, relaxed oasis just by the hustle of the traffacked roads with cars, rickshaws and delivery vans passing by.

I had heard of this new place & often passed it by but hadn’t had the chance to drop in. I felt like a light breakfast on Saturday after physio and had dosas on on my mind. I was headed to Shiv Sagar, the only option around, when I passed by South Side Cafe. On a whim, I stopped in front of the Cafe and got in.

South Side Cafe is as different from Shiv Sagar or the average suburban Udipi joint as it gets. South Side Cafe was not smelly unlike most Udipi joints in the suburbs that have this peculiar musty odour around them. Nor was it crowded and busy like the average Udipi. There were 3,4 customers when I came in, most lazing, one lady sitting by herself playing a game on her phone. In fact I was the lone customer by the time I finished. Nor was the sambar sweet here unlike in Udipi joints. It was savoury and tangy and not pandering to sweet Gujarati taste buds unlike the sambar in most suburban Udipi joints. Most importantly the dosa didn’t have the recycled plastic texture of the dosas of suburban Udipi joints. The texture of the dosa in South Side Cafe was nuanced and brilliant at so many levels.

The pricing at Rs 65 (1.2 USD) was similar to what Shiv Sagar variety of places in Bandra charge for sada dosas in the AC section.

I later had a filter coffee too in South Side Cafe which was frothy with the flavours clean and strong. .

The texture of the dosa here reminded me of the dosa that I had eaten at the hallowed MTR in Bangalore & I soon found out the reason for this similarity.

There was a gentleman sitting in the corner counting cash and signing bills. On asking I found out that he was Aditya, the owner of South Side Cafe. Turns out that Aditya from a small town called Ankola In Bangalore. His chef us is from Bangalore, the MTR city. As is his chef. Hence the memories of Bangalore in the dosas here.

Aditya came to Bandra about 16 years back, Same time when I did. Got addicted to Bandra. Just as I did.

Aditya doesn’t make any bones about the fact that he loves his meat even though his restaurant is vegetarian. Nor does he have any qualms about not being a ‘foodie’. Nor is he a trained restaurateur. He comes from a mining family. Aditya makes no effort to build a culinary story to sell his cafe.

South Side Cafe is Aditya’s attempt to do something worthwhile in his adopted home, Bandra, so that he can stay back. In the process he wants to give back his very best to Bandra. He showed me his kitchen. Apparently the fact his hot plate is 3.5 cm thick and this is what gives the two toned texture to the dosas versus thinner hot plates which lead to plasticky dosas. The kitchen has a lovely steamer with idlis steaming them. The vadas are fried after customers pay an order. Yes, the Cafe did have a rough beginning but Aditya said that he has learnt through the process. The only suggestion one has is that they should add a bit more character to their rather plain crockery that they use which is neither here not there

The honesty and sincerity of the people behind Bandra’s South Side cafe showed in every bite of the sada dosa that I had there.

Part 2

I went back one evening a few days later. The place again largely empty.

I ordered an idli vada plate (60 Rs). I sat down and could hear the sound of oil bubbling from the kitchen. Aditya had told me that they fry the vadas once the customers place their order.

Well, let me say that I have never had an experience like this. I nudged the vada with a fork and it gave in and broke into two pieces with a clean cut. Amazing freshness. I have never had a vada so bouncy & juicy and so pure.

The idli was nice too, flat, not huge, moist…well what else can one say about an idli…

I am planning to do a Food Legends of Bandra Tasting Finely Chopped Walk this Saturday, 30th march 2013. Keep watching this pace for more. Something tells me that soon Aditya and his South Side Cafe will soon be one such legend. Fingers crossed. Don’t want to jinx a rare good dosa place in the hood.

IceRocket Tags: south side cafe,sada dosa,south indian in mumbai,vegetarian food,tiffin

The Taste of Mumbai…also feat Deluxe on BBC Good Food India, Irani Cafes on Dishoom, London, plates

2013-03-23T14:03:00.001+05:30

Update: Since I wrote this post, I met young food enthusiast, Vipul who has gone and found out that Cafe Excelsior is going strong and is not shut. That's great news

Original Post:

Yesterday was the first time that something Cyrus Broacha said made me sad.

We met at the Taste of Mumbai event and I am a big, pun intended, fan of him. Cyrus told me that Cafe Excelsior, the Irani Cafe, near Excelsior cinema had just shut down. A favourite place of both of ours, we were both a bit sad at the prospect of most Irani cafes shutting down eventually. In case you are wondering, apart from when reminiscing about Irani cafes, Cyrus is laugh a minute off camera too.

I was at the press launch of the Taste of Mumbai and the opening hours reminded me of day 1 of Auto Expo where industry folks catch up with each other before the general public comes in. I caught up with loads of folks there, Shobita of Imrpessario, food writer Antoine Lewis, Raunak of Times Guide Bangalore who shared a lot of what he was eating with me. Sona and Kainaz of BBC Good Food, good old Chef Vicky Ratnani of Aurus, Chef Jehangir Mehta and Saransh Goila who broke his head trying to interview me in Hindi for byte on Food Food. Was great finally meeting Riyaz Amlani finally in person. Great guy. Then more chefs, Abhijit Saha from Caperberry & Ajay Chopra of Westin and the folks from Weber. Bloggers Samir, Romi & Prachi and loads of readers. All round good fun.

The event is from 22nd to 24th of March 2013 at Marine Lines. Many upscale restaurants are there and I tasted the stuff from Kofuku & Westin from Raunak’s plate…great squids & prawns & then Riyaz treated us to some John Dory & Prawns…all the food very fresh. There are stalls selling cheese, meats, a farmer’s market including some folks selling organic teas & a Sweet Bengal stall too. Most of the dishes are priced at around Rs 150 – Rs 300 I think and a great place to do a Mercador San Miguel sort of Tapas Crawl.

While Taste of Mumbai captures the modern world city aspirations of Mumbai, including the lousy traffic while trying to reach there, I wish they had a corner which represents the DNA of Mumbai. A corner with Koli fish fry, Malvani fish curries, Irani kheema pao, Parsi cutlets, the ubiquitous vada pao, pao bhaaji, frankie or even Chinese Bhel!

Still it’s a good start and I hope that they make an effort to help bring out the heritage of Mumbai in the Taste of Mumbai while capturing its future.

Talking of the taste of Mumbai I am very happy to share my article on Hotel Deluxe, one of my favourite restaurants in Fort, which has featured in the April issue of the BBC Good Food Magazine. Lovely photos by Bajirao Pawar in them. Hope you like the article.

Talking of Cafe Excelsior, yesterday photographer Ming Tang-Evans from the UK tweeted me a couple of Finely Chopped Irani Cafe stories which are on the plate designs of Dishoom, the Indian restaurant in London. Coincidentally the tales were from Cafe Excelsior. Just wish they got my surname right! I am fed up of everyone interpreting my surname in different ways.
Very happy to see the tales from Mumbai in London on the other hand.

IceRocket Tags: taste of mumbai,dishoom,deluxe,bbc good food india,riyaz amlani

Gambas Pil Pil from Granada to the Man’s World (MW) magazine…more tales of Spain

2013-03-22T15:16:00.001+05:30

Finely Chopped in the Man’s World magazine and recipes on dude food including the gambas pil pil at the end of this post.

We reached Granada after a picturesque, sleepy and a tad noisy train ride from Seville but then large family groups setting off on a holiday can be noisy whether in Bengal or in Basque.

It was early February, and as the Sevillas has warned us, chilly in Granada which is up in the hills. In Granada too, we had the wonderful Shawn Hennessey of Seville guiding us. She helped us choose our hotel, Room Mate, a chain others had recommended too. A very young and cheerful hotel. Lovely rooms. We upgraded ourselves to a room with a view with 10 euros more per night which was completely worth it as one opened the windows and looked down upon the picture book tale like tiled roofs. Shawn mailed us a list of restaurants in Granada and what to order there. This turned out to be our guiding light to great food in Granada.

Shawn had also told us that Granada is one of the few places in Spain where the ‘free tapas’ (her air quotes) culture still exists. The way it works, as Shawn explains is that you get a free tapas every time you order a drink. The tapas apparently gets better with each drink. Which we never got to experience as we never ordered more than two drinks, usually one at the most including the tinto con lemon which Shawn introduced K to. Shawn also said that the free tapas disappear the moment you order a racione (portion) even if you order more drinks. We saw that happen.

Well, there is something of the free tapas culture that shows in the inherent big heartedness of the folks of Granada too. Sample this collage ..

The kind owner of Gamboa who cancelled our order for a meat platter with no fuss when our dish of gambas arrived and we realised that it was enough to feed an army. There was Rafa, the concierge at the Room Mate, who would patiently and enthusiastically answer my questions on food and even went to a computer to show a pic of pionona, his favourite dessert in Granada, and where to have it, Fernando. The security guard at the Alhambra castle who very kindly waived off the security deposit on the audio guide which I dropped down the ravines while managing my camera. Then there was the owner of El Mentidoro who very kindly gave us the table by the window where he had earlier planned to catch up with his friends over wine. And the cook at La Morago who came back to cook for us on the waiter’s request though he was about to leave for home.

Yes, Granada is a warm city.

So what did we eat there?

First stop, Taberno De Gamboa where we were welcomed with a chorriz & sausage arroz (Spanish rice) with a bewitching bite of whole black pepper. And then the dish that wowed us. Gambas pil pil. Prawns served in frothy, garlic infused olive oil, seasoned with rock salt and white wine. A dish that is warm, invigorating, welcoming and nurturing.

We went to Los Damiantes, not the original hole in the wall in Navas though. We went there on a cold night and chose the comfort of the new one at Plaza Neuvo. Great fried seafood free tapas there and then we ordered grilled prawns which were served on a bed of rock salt with a slice of lime on the side. A dish which ensured that nothing came between you and your love for prawns.

Then there was La Moraga, another fantastic reco from Shawn. A more hip place, lovely to sit in. Hell, their free tapas had smoked salmon & goat cheese! The oxtail burger was as addictive as Shawn promised, succumbed gently to each bite, full of flavour, a dish which I would describe in far more carnal terms had it not been for the sub teens and grand moms who read the blog. There was a pringa (stewed pork) croquette that would compete with the Alhambra when it came to fine art and beauty. We got the chef to come back and make us a mollete with red pesto & Iberico pork served with Parsi salli like potato straws. A dish that was haute and how. A dish whose inherent passion can be matched only by a Flamenco in the caves of Granada. Just about.

Our last dinner was in El Mentidora which had a lovely old pub/ tapas bar feel. So sepia an evening.

Fried potatoes, eggs, jamon. A sure shot success. As Spielberg recently said, its all about the story and the plot. The sweetbreads with artichoke was a bit too mushy for our tastes though.

Sightseeing? We took a bus to the Alhambra and got tickets pretty easily as it was off season. The palace was beautiful. An exquisite example of Islamic art that seemed so surreal in the middle of Europe. A history lesson learnt through stone and mosaic. The rather diligent monologues of the audio guide did detract from the experience a bit. Perhaps you are better off without it just taking in the beauty. Or they should make the descriptors more terse.

The person who made Granada come alive for us was the Serbian Zane of Free Walking Tours. they work on the basis of tips. She took us into the old Jewish quarters and then up the slopes passed the gypsy quarters. As walked and worked up an appetite in the fresh mountain air we got to see sights of the beautiful town…a craftsman making handmade guitars, a professorial retreat where you can see the Alhambra in all its glory, two chubby little kids with huge smiles in a cave that double up as a grocery store, an authentic Moroccan restaurant high up in the hills…vignettes of the picturesque town with loads of character that would have stayed hidden to us but for Zane. Unfortunately images all lost with my camera, now etched in my memory forever.

This is the link to Shawn’s notes on Granada

PS: There is more to the gambas pil pil story. While in Spain I did a story on ‘dude food’ or easy to cook dishes with Man’s World or MW magazine here. Fantastic folks to work with and very patient. Once we came back. I cooked and they shot the food. Gambas pil pil was right up there and they even very kindly Finely Chopped amongst their favourite Indian food blog!!!!!! Thank you guys

Do scroll down if you would like to know more and grab the issue of Man’s World for loads of great food stuff.

IceRocket Tags: granada,spain,gambas pil pil,seville,shawn hennessey,la moraga,alhambra,free walks,gamboa,man's world,dude food,las damiantes

Navroz …when food is at its most festive. Feat: Katy’s Kitchen, Zinobia Schroff, Le 15 Patisserie Bandra

2013-03-22T03:08:00.001+05:30

On the one hand I tell folks that I am not a very ‘festive’ person, on the other hand I love festivals.

No, not the trappings, customs, rituals, decibels and camaraderie of festivals. I don’t relate to most of that. Festival food though, I love and there are very few that compare with the Parsis when it comes to festive food.

Yesterday, 21st March was Navroz, the spring festival of the middle east and I am still reeling, happily, from all the food.

What could be lovelier than a gift of a special Navroz Bhonu sent by Rhea and Kurush Dalal who are carrying on the great work done by the late Katy Dalal. An amazing lady who can’t be better described than she is by her daughter in law, Rhea’s, loving words in this blog post.

We sat down for lunch and I could feel the love in every bite we took. Katy Maai up there would be so proud of what her son and daughter in law were up to.

The prawn pattice full of juicy bites of shrimp enveloped in a well flavoured, soft as a baby’s cheek, masala potato mash. The fish fillet juicy and pairing well with the tartare sauce. The day before Kurush gleefully told me about the fish fillets he had got from the market. I got an inkling of what this means to Parsis when I described the bhonu to my mom in law who squealed in excitement, ‘there were two seafood dishes!!!!!!”

Then there was pissela badam ni gosht or succulent mutton cooked in a very majestic almond sauce. Parsis love dry fruits. The remains of their Persian DNA I guess. I remember having loads of pistas when we used to live in Iran. K’s Mamma was fond of dry fruits and used to have them even while clinging on to her last tooth. Don’t ask me how. I think they used to soak the dry fruits in milk and give them to her. On the other hand, if I give dry fruits to Didu, my Bengali grandmother, she stores it for times she would make payesh. Talking of the ladies in my life, K just loved the fried slices of potatoes in the curry. “Only Parsis add this” she exclaimed gleefully. Well, as Kurush told me later, this is his mother’s recipe.

Then there was mutton pulao and masala daal. Time for me to show off my knowledge acquired by marrying into the community.

One, Navroz is NOT the Parsi new year. It is the Irani new year. the Parsi new year falls in the latter half of the Roman calendar.

Two, you will never get dhaansaak in any auspicious occasion be it a new year, navroz, a lagan (wedding) or a Navjot (Parsi coming of age ceremony). That’s because dhansaak is associated with the post funeral rituals. The only ‘happy’ occasion on which dhansaak is served is any Sunday afternoon. Usually with chilled beer and followed with a nap.

I loved the flavours of the pulao that Kurush had sent, the firm grained rice and the masala kissed meat and of course the boiled egg.

The thick masala daal, similar to the daal of dhansaak but sans meat, was robust, had a great body and within its thickness was the sharp interplay of intense flavours of methi and a residual kick of the heat chillies, Quite operatic. K mopped the daal up while I passed my erudite comments on the daal.

Then there was laganu custard but to know how that was, let’s cut to the evening.

The in laws had come over. A boisterous, festive meal done there was a happy well fed silence around the room. I suddenly remembered that I had saved some of the custard for my in laws and took the laganu custards out.

“This laganu custard, I like, this is real custard” said my father in law, a man of few words, normally happy solving his sudoku puzzles in a corner, till he comes across ice creams or laganu custard.

“You are carrying Katy Aunty’s tradition forward Kurush”, my mother in law told him when I phoned the big man to thank him at the end of what must have been a gruelling day for him.

He later told me that the entire community used to refer to the Late Dr Dalal as Katie Auntie.

My mom in law had got us a bhonu (Parsi for ‘feast”) which she had ordered from Zinobia Schroff of Dadar Parsi Colony.

This Bhonu had exquisite bheja or goat brain cutlets which floated in your mouth thanks to their ethereal texture. Very intensely flavoured mutton kebabs. A home styled sali mutton with mutton that was very tender and a gravy which was thin, home styled and had the right. balance of sweet and salt. Wish the sali was given separately though and not in the gravy when packed as it got soggy.

There was also a raisin enrobed pulao and a thinner version of masala daal (each house has its own version) and a very home styled caramel custard meets creme brulee textured custard which I quite liked.

MIL found out about Zinobia from the Sassy Fork. She in turn found out about Zinobia from young Roxanne, whose blog post gives the very interesting story of Zinobia Schroff.

K and I gave each other got our gifts of new clothes and then we received another very special gift.

Pooja Dhingra of Le 15 Patisserie opened her first full fledged store. That too in Bandra. I often used to tell Pooja that she should open a store in Bandra.

She said she would and she did. She opened her store on Navroz in Bandra’s Ambedkar road, opposite Sweet Bengal & Brownie Point. K and I happily went to welcome her to the hood and had some hazelnut macarons and Oreo cookies. I finished the last macaron so you know whom to blame if you went and didn’t get any macarons.

We also bumped into Kajal, my neighbour from the Times Life spread from what seems like another life time.

Great to see Pooja grow over the years and she deserves every bit of of what she has achieved. Here’s wishing all the best to the young Macaron Queen of Mumbai.

Yes, I love festivals.

PS I bought a second hand lens for the the good old Sony Nex. These pics are largely from that. Kurush’s bhonu was a gift to us, I can vouch for the descriptions though. This is Kurush’s no is you ever want to order from him…9820136511. My MIl gave me Zinobia’s number. It is 9869914472

The second Finely Chopped Food Walk…The Fort Tasting Walk

2013-03-18T03:43:00.001+05:30

“Hi, so hope you are all set for the walk. Here’s the plan. We meet at Bombay Stores tomorrow (16th March) at Fort’s DN Road in the Citibank lane after Mocambo and Vodafone. Quite easy to find.

We meet at 11 am and will assemble in the seating area inside Bombay Store. The Bombay Store has kindly allowed us to wait inside till we start out. We start off by 11.15 am. The ice breakers & intro happen before that. We would be walking around close by and there’s a lot to cover.

Here’s a Fort secret. The Bombay Stores has loos on the first floor which you can quietly amble into. They have a good stock of stuff though in the Store and I must admit I rarely come out without buying anything. While on the topic, places like Apoorva, Mahesh and Mocambo which have AC sections have washrooms. We won’t eat in any of the AC sections. Not because I am stingy but because one rarely went there while working in Fort. In fact the AC sections are often pretty musty.

Why the obsession with loos? Because no one lives at Fort nowadays and we have folks coming in from Kharghar, Pune (that was amazing - KK), Thane, Andheri and Bandra to start with for the walk.

Here’s what to expect. It is not a Fort heritage walk. Nor is it a ‘best of Fort Walk’. It’s basically a walk around places I used to go to eat in everyday when I worked here for 4 months and places I head back to when I go there nowadays. We can’t cover everything. As I have realised that there’s only that much one can eat. We will miss out some stuff but I will try to tell you what we have missed and you could come back for.
The group is slightly larger than what I had planned. About 12-14 odd of us. Could be a bit chaotic I agree but if we all work as a team then we should have a great time. The group includes at least 4 to 6 food bloggers, a lawyer, an expat who have eaten across the streets of India, the director of trade for Catalonia in India who is a trained gourmet, a social media expert, an online grocer.

This means two things. One, I can’t pull any fast ones, “Nehru and Lady Mountbatten would often meet at Yazdani over khari biscuits and chai” types. It also means that there is a wealth of knowledge to tap into from those around you.

We could also have two little ladies with us, 7 & 9 years old, whom we have to impress that upon that the heritage of South Mumbai can be as exciting as the Swedish House Mafia.

There will be two restaurant halts. Hopefully most of us will get tables but it won’t be one joined table. Apart from that there will be an Irani cafe where, if we are lucky, we could see the oven. If you know Iranis and how temperamental they can be, that is a big ‘if’. I must warn you though the oven could be shut at around 11 as they take a break but we could go in and see it or come back later. Apart from the 2 restaurants there would be some places where we would duck in for a bite but some of us might have to stand while others get a seat. I have a menu planned but as those who went to Bohri Mohalla would know that we did try out some stuff on the spot beyond the schedule. Logistics might require us to take in a dessert in between meals. We will cover about 5,6 lanes during the walk and no, no Mocambo, No Mahesh, No Britannia, no Starbucks...
Wear comfy shoes, cottons, charge your camera batteries if you get them...the place is a veritable photographer’s delight of some great architecture, a riot of colours, faces with loads of characters and big smiles, and food that is real and beautiful.

See you tomorrow,

Kalyan

This is the mail which landed in the mailbox of the participants of the second Finely Chopped Walk. The Fort Tasting Walk.

Luckily K and I managed to wake up early and reached Fort by 10. Everything was shut then…Bombay Store, Apoorva…it was too early but Yazdani was open, as was Ideal Corner and of course Vidya Dairy where we spotted our chubby driver who had already started his walk it seemed over chai and jalebi.

Folks started coming in by 11 am at The Bombay Store who very kindly offered their premises to be used as a lounge for folks when they came in with tea and coffee on the house. That’s the big heartedness of Fort.

A rather longish warm up by me, I forgot I was doing a walk and not a focus group (sorry guys), and then off we went.

We started with a bit of history, a reminder of Tilak and his Swaraj Movement against the British for which he set up the Bombay Store and then crossing the road to Laxmi building to see an obscure plaque commemorating the laying down of its foundation stone in 1938 by a fellow Bengali named Subhash Chandra Bose. This is where I worked for four months when I was in Fort.

Next Stop Yazdani with the warm aromas of freshly baked bread welcoming us in. It seemed as if Yazdani was waiting for us as it suddenly had become empty, a rare sight. Our posse sat down with brun pau, bun maska and chair with ginger snaps on the side being laid out with the youngest member in our group pointedly saying “I Iove butter, I want more butter”.

Good old Tirandaz was sitting in a corner reading his newspaper and kindly allowed us to go into the bakery. Folks trooped in oohing and aahing as they saw the sacks of flour lying around, the huge dough mixers, baking trays and then the deep wood fired oven with a sea of little paos baking inside. Suprio, the Director of Trade in India for the Government of Catalonia, observed that the brun was exactly like a bread he had see in Chile.

You can read Rhea’s account of Yazdani on her blog here.

We then moved on walked past Horniman Circle (opens at 4 pm on Saturdays), past Starbucks and the cheerful red Bombay Samachar building to Apoorva for some sol kadi, prawn gassi, neer dosa, red rice and curry. Chandra, one of the owners of Apoorva who is there most of time, made sure that we were served properly but shied away when I introduced him to folks.

Yes, as everyone observed, the food in Apoorva is pretty ‘honest and personal’.

We next headed down one of the many Khao Gulleys, after a coffee buying stop at Philips Tea & Coffee and then made an impromptu stop at Pradeep Gomantak. Saee of My Jhola explained to that there is a nuanced difference between the Hindu Goan Gomantak cuisine and Malvani Coastal Maharashtrian cuisine. When I wondered why there weren’t any Mahrashtrian restaurants in Fort. Saee pointed out that the 1950s and 60s when Fort was the CBD of Mumbai was the time when the Maharashtrian middle class was engaged in the Mills in Central Mumbai which is why those are the parts of the city that is more likely have Maharashtrian restaurants.

A lesson in urban history from Saee that we got over some crisp fried bombil standing by a table in the front of the tiny honest eatery. The fish fresh, fried to perfection, crunchy inside, with no rava as Anchal pointed out and soft inside.

Check the picture of the Bombil fry that Jyotika took

Then off we went to Ideal Corner where the very dignified and hospitable garage owner turned restaurateur, Parvez Irani of Ideal Corner, pointed us the mezzanine floor where people got an taste of the rather quaint Parsi love for Raspberry soda followed by moist and spicy akooris or scrambled eggs, juicy mutton lacy cutlets with fall of the bone mutton pulao daal with custards…laganu and caramel followed.

This is a pic Jyotika took of the raspberry at ideal Corner which would make my physio sit up in alarm at my posture

And then we went to Vidya Dairy for jalebis and Ustaad was there with his shiny new glasses, posing as he loves to when he sees the camera and at the same time making jalebis which almost met the high standards of self proclaimed ‘jalebi snob, Jyotika, former Chandigarhi Anchal and Sue who had three plates of them.

IceRocket Tags: Fort,south mumbai,food walks,finely chopped walks,yazdani bakery,apoorva,ideal corner,swagath,pradeep gomantak

The quiet owner of Vidya Dairy always gives me a plate of jalebis the moment he sees me and refuses to let me pay. This time he refused to take money for any of the jalebis even though K and I both tried to reason with him. Feel honoured to be a part of his adopted family.

Check out the rather Rolling Stone’ish pic that Jyotika took of Ustaad

In fact that’s one thing that struck me about all the folks at Fort. Tirandaz of the Irani Cafe Yazdani, Chandra of the Mangalorean Apoorva, the daughter of the owner of Pradeep Gomantak, Parvez at the Ideal Corner, the Irani Cafe, the kind hearted mithaiwallah at Vidya Dairy, the folks at Swagath udipi…they all ensured that we were fed well but stayed away from the ‘limelight’ and didn’t come and cosy up to those in the walk. Such a refreshing change to the frenetic pushiness of restaurants today who are so hungry for media plugs. These guys in Fort are secure in what they do and this shows in the honesty and purity of what they serve.

Last stop Swagath for some filter coffee, sugar on the side. We stood on the footpath under the shade of the trees, taking in the day, chatting about where all we went, discussing our plans for the days and exchanging twitter handles and phone numbers and sent facebook friend requests and then Amita headed to catch a train back to Pune and we all dispersed after K distributed out the goody bags of Mava cakes and Khaari biscuits from Yazdani.

We headed to Starbucks for an ice tea for me and cappuccino for K before heading home.

Thanks Anchal, Geetha, Shivakshi, Suprio, Swastik, Suva, Rohit, Saee, Anagha, Rhea, Jyotika, Amita, Sue…you are the reasons why I kept grinning through the day and well into the night and thanks K for dragging yourself out early on a Saturday to manage the walk.

Here are some tweets from those who were in the walk:

16 Mar Saee Khandekar ‏@Saeek : Saw the beautiful wood fired oven at Yazdani finally. Thanks to @Finelychopped Fort Walk. Had such a fun day. :-)

16 Mar Anagha Shirvadkar ‏@anagha567 : I go off to sleep today wth fond memories and a smile plastered on my face, thnx @Finelychopped twas lovely walking with u at fort

16 Mar Rhea ‏@euphoRHEA : Had fun walking around Fort with @Finelychopped. Revisited many old haunts and streets.. so many memories from childhood #missedmydad

17 Mar Suva Ghosh ‏@leelayz : @Finelychopped thanks Kalyan for organising an awesome walk! Absolutely enjoyed it. You should do it more often. #finelychoppedwalk

16 Mar Mohte Chand ‏@Mohtte : Such an exciting day thanks to @Finelychopped ! Hoping there are many more of #finelychoppedwalk s!!

This Rhea’s blog post and her comment on facebook:

Rhea Mitra-Dalal

Saturday near Mumbai

Joined Kalyan on his Fort Walk today. Started off in the building next to my Dad's office building and ended next to the book shop we were often taken to, as kids. P M Road is simply packed with memories. This area is also where Kurush and I have spent some really great times.
Today I made some nice new ones with Saee, Amita and Anagha , and Kainaz. :)

Anagha blogged about the walk here

This the link to some lovely pics that Saee took and posted on Facebook

This is Suva Ghosh’s Vine on the bread slicing in Yazdani

Check out Suva’s lovely pic of Horniman Circle

For those asking how to join the walks, well I announce the details like I did here on the blog and then folks inform me if they plan to join

Yes, James Bong will be back with more Finely Chopped Walks. Plans include the Colaba Meat Trail, the Bandra Food Institutions Walk, the Oshiwara Bengali Bhoj, The Khar fish market shop and cook & the Fort Kerala Crawl.

I also wanted share some very encouraging feedback that one has got.

There is this lovely mail from Anchal: Hi! I had a really good time Kalyan. I absolutely know that, but for this walk, I would have never been to these places, so I am grateful to you for taking such initiatives. I am @mohtte on twitter and have interacted a few times with you. Glad to have met you and Kainaz, you both are even more delightful in person than what it seems from the blog!
Also, I am really glad to have met everyone in the group - I follow Rhea as well and ordered Christmas pie from her last Christmas! And Sue - gave me a ride back to Bandra along with very interesting chat about her experiences here. Saee - such passion for food with so much attention to detail, it seems she has done a PhD in food (I so wish one existed)! Amita, Anagha - such nice people to meet and speak with, I really hope to keep in touch with them. It was great meeting Geetha as well and I have just ordered a delivery of grocery from big basket.
So I am actually grateful to you in many ways than one.
Looking forward to being on the next finelychopped walks!
Anchal

And Rohit: Hi Kalyan, Thanks a lot for the walk. Really enjoyed it esp. Ideal corner. While in Delhi, never had the chance for parsi food, so it was a new thing for me.

And Saee from whom I think I learnt more yesterday than she got out of the walk but then this what she had to say: Yes, I was quite tired, But happy tired. Hadn't had a chance to walk lazily in the area since about 8 years ago, when my grandparents sold their Cooperage home and moved with us to Navi Mumbai. It was evident you'd done your homework, and it was nice to see that you were quite flexible. It helped that we had a nice bunch of people.

She blogged about walk in her bog My Jhola

And Suprio whatsapp’d: “Thanks for the chance to share this experience with all of you. We really had a great time and now we are on our way home with our bellies home”

And Swastik commented: ‘Thanks Kalyan. Had a wonderful time’.

And Geetha mailed: .”I totally enjoyed the walk and looking forward to more walks with you”

And Sue texted: “Excellent walk although I think I am not going to be able to eat anything else today!”

And I just had to add this mail which has come in from Suprio Bose. I am completely overwhelmed:

“To sum it up in a few words would be a total injustice to the real experience. It was an overwhelming experience and It was like one of those rare moments, where good things happen to you one after the other. Before I could get over the delicious delights of the breads at Yazdani, I was presented with the exquisite Sol Kadi (Had never had one like this ever before!) and the awesome Prawn Gassi(Arohi, who is a bit finicky about prawns absolutely loved it!!)…..by the time I could get over the taste of these two stars, my palate was tickled again by the Bombay duck fry of Pradeep Gomantak….my earlier experience of Bombay duck fry was full of rava and the taste of fish was always overpowered by the rava and spices. Here not only the fish was the super star but the batter was perfectly seasoned and very light with a slight kick of spice at the tail end and the fish was absolutely buttery in flavor.

As if this wasn’t enough, you threw another googly by taking us to Ideal where I still can’t get over the taste of fall-off-the-bone mutton and the amazing DaalPulao. Unfortunately, to me, the Akoori and Lacy cutlets were totally overshadowed by this delicacy.

Being someone who grew up in Agra and having enjoyed the true Braj flavors, the jalebis were a bit of a letdown for me (Simply because it didn’t have much suji, and the batter had been sitting in the sun for a while so there was a distinct sour after taste), but that did not dampen at all the spirit and the awesome fun I had during the day. The group was perfect, had some very nice conversations with many of them and the kids totally felt at home with everyone. The joke moment was hilarious!!

Just to put things more into perspective, 4 hours on a sunny Saturday morning/afternoon (when the kids usually prefer to be playing in our pool) - the kids not only completed the walk without any tantrums, (save for the occasional Pizza and Ice-Cream on a stick by Ayana) They came back home SUPER EXCITED and both of them had stories to tell their mother when they reached home. Arohi was in love with the walk and kept on gushing about the Sol Kadi and Gassi and Ice Cream Soda at Idea. You definitely have a new Fan in her!!

True to your words, each dish we tasted shone through with flavors and certainly did not kill the main ingredient with an overload of spices. Even while I write these lines, I am drooling with the thought of the amazing dal pulao we had at Ideal.

To sum it up, it was an awesome experience and I would look forward to your future ones for sure. Keep them coming. I do look forward to some interesting ones in Bandra (which is still an unexplored treasure for me). “

Till the next walk I leave you behind with three pics that Saee took which are probably some of my happiest looking pics…yes I was Fort enchanted once again and with such lovely feedback am over the moon

On Aneesha Baig’s ‘Will Travel For Food’

2013-03-14T22:45:00.001+05:30

One afternoon about a couple of months back I got a dm on twitter, ‘Hi, wanted to speak to you. This is my number….is this a good time” @AneeshaBaig

The name was familiar. This was the lady who night after night would bring in the world of fashion and Bollywood and their many parties into our drab drawing rooms through a show called Night Out on NDTV24X7. Since then she had moved on to a food and travel show on the same channel called Will Travel For Food.

I called up Aneesha and within a few minutes it seemed as if were friends who were catching up on a conversation that we had left unfinished a couple of hours back. Aneesha told me that she was doing a features with bloggers and she had just shot with Shaheen of Purple Foodie and wanted to shoot with me too. The focus of the show would be about how blogger’s have become big source of credible information for people looking for places to eat in or go to while travelling. Dusk became late evening as we chatted on our favourite food spots while deciding on where we could shoot the next day. Funny given that we hadn’t even ever interacted on social media till two hours back, let alone in real life.

We met the next day in front of Imbiss in Bandra. Two strangers greeting each other big grins. We shot there with Bruce and then we moved on to Bong Bong where we shot with Surjopriya. We shot over about three hours that afternoon. During the course of the afternoon I increasingly got the feeling that in the best traditions of Hindi cinema Aneesha and I were twins who had been separated in the Kumbh Mela.

Thankfully we didn’t forget to shoot while we excitedly chatted about topics ranging from how we don’t miss Indian food while travelling abroad as we seek out new experiences, our shared love for Far Eastern food, the extents to which we gone to carry food produce back from our travels, our attempts to diet (I used to once), our realisation that Bengali food is always served lukewarm in houses, our love for the old restaurants of Mumbai and our guilty love for good red meat, specially the kakuni in Kofuku which had first drawn Aneesha’s eyes to Finely Chopped.

In retrospect one realised how good a producer and anchor Aneesha is as she put one completely at ease and one didn’t notice when the camera would come on as we chatted and when it would disappear. It seemed so seamless and natural…and in the middle of all this, Aneesha and her cameraman got some pretty good food shots.

I later precociously told the much seasoned Aneesha that she was so good that she reminded me of the producer of the Tremendous International crew with whom I had shot the Mumbai street food episode for the Travel Channel USA. And they had an army of international and local crew while Aneesha had just one camera man.

With great humility Aneesha asked me when the show aired on NDTV24X& in February this year if I liked it. She seemed genuinely anxious to get my feedback which was amazing that she is obviously a much accomplished, seasoned pro. Something to learn from.

Well, just a couple of hours left for the day to end but HAPPY BIRTHDAY Aneesha and thanks for the wonderful afternoon.

You could click on the link here for the segment that Aneesha and I shot together.

This is the link to the entire episode.

IceRocket Tags: aneesha baig,NDTV 24X7,will travel for food,bandra,bong bong imbiss,kofuku

Madrid. So Real… A City Seen Through Its Food

2013-03-14T02:02:00.001+05:30

When I look back at our trip of Madrid what comes to mind is a melange of pleasant discoveries, images of quaint urban beauty, glimpses of history, very warm people and above all food that stunned one into ecstasy with its dialectic mix of simplicity and finesse.

I am not one of those travellers who plan and do a lot of research before they go to a place. Planning for a trip defeats the purpose of a ‘holiday’ in my book. That’s too much work. K did the hotel research and booked us into good places. I depended on my usual strategy of landing at a place and looking around, asking people for suggestions, posting on social media and wait for facebook and twitter to get back…and let the holiday evolve…and that’s what happened this time too and with a canvas as beautiful as Madrid the trip went off like a song.

Our landing in Madrid was ‘bumpy’ with our missing our connecting flight at Dubai as the Emirates flight at Mumbai took off late due to the chaos here. When we reached Madrid six hours after we were supposed to, our travel agent in India informed us that the car that was supposed to pick us up wouldn’t come since we had come on a latter flight even though they had been informed that we had missed the flight. We were told that it was best that we took a cab. Yes, not the best of landings in a country you were visiting for the first time in your life.

So instead of traipsing into the city in the afternoon as planned we tumbled in to Madrid tired and weary late into the evening wondering if this unpleasant experience would set the norm for Spain. Over the next 15 days we were proved to be delightfully wrong in this country of wonderful people.

Thankfully we got a cab easily from the airport and then soared down the empty highway to reach our hotel, Hotel Catalonia Paza Mayor, one of the four great hotel picks that K did in Spain through tripadvisor.

We went up to our rooms in the hotel and drew the curtains open and gaped. They had upgraded us to a room with a view and one looked out into a sepia tinted, naturally instagrammed, picture postcard road with stone buildings bathed in golden streetlights and a bakery waving cheerfully at us from the lane opposite.

Our angst after the choppy trip was left behind as we looked onto this magical scene. The holiday had begun. We were in Europe. We were in Spain. In Madrid. And it looked every bit as lovely as Robin and Simon, AKA Dos Hermanos, or the Majumdar brothers, had promised us it would be.

We freshened up and went down to the lobby and began our voyage of discoveries.

We met Antonio at the hotel desk at Catalonia Plaza Mayor who enthusiastically, and with a big smile, told us of his favourite places to eat in. While this was a lot of info to process, Antonio’s earnest exhortations set us off to what we later realised was Santa Anna. A place where we had some great dinners through our stay. .

There was Miau on night one where we entered on a hunch after a brisk chilly walk. As it was our first night at Madrid we let the waitress decide and she got us a plate of canapés of her choice and with each bite of goat cheese, fresh salmon, tortilla and ham we began to fall in love with Madrid and Spain. Like a tourist I ordered a sangria (no true blooded Spaniard orders it outside of summer I later fond out) and looked in awe at one of the elderly waiters who was slicing out thin slices of meat from a leg of ham kept on a table. I lost my jamon virginity a day later and with each day was increasingly besotted with the sheer aristocracy of the cured ham from these acorn fed pigs.

Yes, we returned to Santa Ana for many dinners though we never saw Antonio again as he was replaced by some equally cheerful and helpful colleagues of his at the Catalonia Mayor Plaza.

We would walk around the restaurants at Santa Anna and walk into one that would catch our eyes. One day we went into the Cerveria (beer house) Santa Ana where we had a seafood paella jamon and gin and tonic dinner. The figurative Spanish equivalent of a biryani, chicken tikka and Kingfisher dinner. Purists will tell you to have paella only at Valencia and that other restaurants served paellas with colouring and no saffron but then purists don’t lead a very joyous life..

The ice cold crème catalon here though was a blip and the figurative equivalent of lumpy gulab jamuns if you know what I mean.

Then there was Casa Lateral at Santa Anna which looked posh and hip, was packed to the gills and was remarkably not too pricey. The tapas here were mind blowing. Foie gras, sirloin with truffle oil, salmon with brie, baked potato with ham topped with quail egg. New age wizardry at old school prices. I got tempted by the ‘yogurt foam’ which turned out to be a lassi but the meal was still enticing enough for us to come back.

Even though we returned two days later our waiter from the first day seated us with a smile of welcome and looked after us. He didn’t know a word of English but had had an English menu and a big heart and that worked for us. We returned to Lateral for the sirloin with melted Brie, more foie gras & Iberian ham, ham croquette, bull's tail with potato, meat balls. Going back to Lateral for the last dinner in Madrid made so much sense. The food and atmosphere came together so beautifully.

When I told TGS or Robin Majumdar about Lateral thinking that I would tell him of a new place I found out that he already been there and vetted it.

Oh and there was an Arola too but the place was shut every time we would head to Santa Ana for dinner unlike the rest of Spain which stayed up late.

So did we only eat? Didn’t we do any sightseeing? Wasn’t there more to Madrid than Tapas?

Read on…

Atocha

Well there was Atocha, the area near our hotel, with lanes surrounded by brick and stone buildings that were a throwback to the past. Like a lot of Madrid these buildings preserved the charm of the past and yet inside were very modern with high end clothes shops, restaurants and cafes and what every traveller looks for …central heating (in cold climes), clean loos and free wifi (pronounced weefee here).

There was the Cathedral where we stepped into one day and sat spellbound by the hypnotic charm of the Padre’s voice as his madrigas enshrouded the cathedral. The cathedral had a a ceiling that reached the heavens and had beautiful cut glass work sheltering it.

There was the bakery opposite our hotel where we would step in for some pretty cheerful breakfasts. a sign outside the shop said ‘we love the tourists’. The smiling waitresses who spoke no English used sign language and some lovely jamon boccadilos (ham subs), hearty Spanish omelettes or tortillas and orange juice fresh from the Garden of Eden to make to make us feel very loved. They even had little petite fours to make sure I didn’t miss Candies and home too much.

This cafe is where we met Ahmed one day. An Egyptian staying at our hotel. A gentleman with a wry sense of humour who gave us a lot of advise (stick to beer don’t have the wine it will give you a headache, go to El Cortes Ingles for a 10 per cent discount for foreigners) and then gave us his metro ticket which had a ride left as he was leaving Spain that day to go back to Egypt for, in his words, his ‘share of teargas’.

And then there was the memory of one dark wintry Sunday evening where we stumbled into some young street musicians who were belting out some really good English pop and rock numbers. A group of us stood there in the dark swaying to the music, oblivious to the cold. The lead singer bore a slight resemblance to Ranbir Kapoor in Rockstar which suddenly made his singing in Italy in the film not seems so fanciful.

Truly an enchanted evening.

At the end of Atocha is Maestro Churrora, established 1902, where we felt thrilled to have a taste of history with each bite of churros dunked in hot chocolate.

Puerto Del Sol

The Maestro Churrero high lasted till we headed to Puerto Del Sol. A lively, pretty busy square with loads of shops…charming to walk by though folks say that the places to eat there are rather ‘touristy’. Well, in Puerto Del Sol was San Gines which Shamita Ghosh in Facebook pointed us to.

Well if Maestro C was estd in 1902 then San Gines was established in 1894. You stood in a queue to enter the legendary San Gines, entered it, placed your order and sat down amongst loads of people dipping churros freshly fried, by a guy who looked as if he he was wielding the steering wheel of the Battleship Potemkin, into thick dark alluring chocolate…chocolate the way the Aztec and Mayan Gods meant it to be.

I took loads of pictures at San Gines which are all with the guy who stole our camera in Mumbai so just sit back, close your eyes and let the magic of intense, thick dark chocolate take over you.

The white and green tiles and the marble tables in San Gines a throwback more to Istanbul than Madrid. Once again don’t let the vintage look fool you for downstairs you would find some pretty neat washrooms at San Gines. Yes, I keep stressing on this because I was quite impressed by the queen loos across most of the places we visited here.

In Puerta Del Sol is Ferpal a meat shop which the local elders seem to love. Always a good sign.

You step in to Ferpal and are surrounded by huge legs of ham, a veritable meat feast, a cheese counter and a little bar too where we had the most delicious wobbly salami and ham pate sandwiches surrounded by elderly couples who had gone from counter to counter, picked their meats and pates and cheese and were rewarding themselves with a glass of beer on tap before heading home. The sort of elderly couples whom you look at and feel so reassured about what lies ahead in life.

Or you could go to any of the Jamon Museums which are sort of meat and beer places for tourists that dot the city. Makes for some great photographs to start with and beats going to the Golden Arches any day.

The Royal Palace

There was the Royal Palace which we went to one day following the ‘things to see in Madrid’ list. The palace was grand and the paintings on the ceilings, the royal crockery, the mirrors, chandeliers, loads of portraits of Royals looking grimly and so on were brought alive to us by the lady from the palace staff who was the English guide. Completely worth spending the extra Euros on for your experience to be complete. She really brought the Palace alive for us and answered our questions including ‘why the Royals look so grim in the portraits’. “Because they won’t look important enough if they smiled. Common people like us can smile though”.

Close to the Royal Palace is the Mercada San Miguel or the Spanish food court which I had written about earlier here. Tiny sausage bocadillos, barbequed squids, tinned fish tapas, croquettes, paella, freshest of fruit juices, coffee and sherry bars, macarons…this place is a veritable smorgasbord of Spanish food delights and a not to be missed experience and unlike in the Royal Palace you don’t need a guide or a translator here. The food talks directly to your heart.

Plaza Mayor

Then there was the Plaza Mayor itself. A huge square surrounded by ancient buildings that were once the market and today the base for loads of restaurants with waiters in suits calling out to you as if you were in Juhu beach. ‘Touristy’ is how most foodies would dub these places. At the centre of the plaza is the statue of a guy on a horse in a country full of statues of various guys on horses. On the square’s cobbled streets are loads of tourists getting photographed and in the corners there were painters painting and selling their work. I took a lovely picture of a painter painting while his friends admired his canvas and chatted with him. A candid moment, frozen in time, lost in my camera, but lovingly locked in my memory.

Close to Plaza Mayor is Botin. We went there after we bumped into a gentleman called Rick at the Maestro Churrero who offered to take our pictures with our camera. He had come on a holiday from the US and said that after 4 days in Spain he was so happy to have a conversation in English. He is the one who pointed us to Botin.

Botin’s claim to fame is that it was established in 1725 and is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s oldest running restaurant. It was also the priciest restaurant we went to in Madrid but then as we were seated in the cave-like basement and the waiter asked to take our jackets, it did feel rather ‘Real’ or Royal.

We had clams in tomato which were nice but you needed to add in the atmosphere to make it feel ‘special’ and the Catalan Flan was a caramel custard which while nice didn’t really beat aapro Military Cafe in Mumbai.

What took the cake though was the roast suckling pig. Though we ordered one they plated it onto dishes and got it for us with some amazing baked potatoes. The flavours clean, the meat moist, the skin crackling…this was Lady Chatterley stuff.

After lunch we went up to the ground floor to leave which is when I got my real ‘dessert’. An impromptu history lesson on the roast suckling pigs of Botin.

A gentleman at the cash counter asked me if I would like to see how the pork was cooked and led me to a corner. That’s where the oven was. Dedicated just to the roast suckling pigs. The chef was there, young Reuben who was evidently proud of working in Botin and as he put it “the boss is good”.

The oven was apparently the one used from the time the inn was set up which makes it about three hundred years old. While I marvelled at the oven, K’s eyes went up to the tile work much to Reuben’s delight. “A lot of people come to see the oven, but few notice the tiles”. The tiles are comparatively ‘new’. Just a century or so old.

Reuben shared the ‘recipe’ with us. The suckling pigs, he told us, are smeared with salt, pepper, paprika, white wine & bay leaves & roasted with potatoes in a tray with the pig placed on its tummy for one hour & then on its back for forty minutes. When people place an order then Reuben cuts out a portion, finishes it on on the oven and serves a portion of pork with those delicious potatoes.

Cava Baja

If Botin and Plaza Mayor is all about history then there is Cava Baja that Simon Majumdar pointed us to. A lane full of nuevo, dressed down, hip eating places.

On our first visit there we walked into Casa Curro Taberno enticed by its red decor. And yes, Madrid is a place where you can walk to most places.

Our hunch about the places was right. The vibes and food here and the service were all cheerful as the red hues promised. Some great Iberico Jamon and our first sitting on tapas stool eating experience surrounded by loads of folks who were sitting, standing, eating, drinking and chatting. And then a ‘grandma’s recipe’ stew of the softest pig cheeks that gave in to a nudge of the fork cooked in a red wine Syzah sauce.

Yes, grandmas are the best cooks in the world.

We headed back to Cava Baja another evening to one of the places Simon had recommended.

What followed at Lucas were grilled pork loin & blood sausage served with Parsi sali like cheese straws with a free pepperoni tapas with the beer. The hot tapas at Casa Lucas, Cava Baja, Madrid, was heart-warming stuff. But then Simon Majumdar's recos are always spot on. Amazing how he gets under the skin of a city. His choices in Mumbai which resonated with mine were proof enough for me.

We also had a codfish gratin there and got to see how they often gratinate (mash) a dish in front of you serve it. Cod and mashed brinjal can put people off and it didn’t work for K. I found the dish ‘interesting but not worth repeating’.

Prado Museum

Yes we did go to the Prado Museum with loads of Renaissance paintings which I found slightly more exciting than our Zara visits. Ok, a lot more interesting! Thankfully K had figured out through Tripadvisor that if we went after 6.30 pm we didn’t have to pay to enter Prado though I was mortified at the thought of queuing up to enter an art museum. The paintings were impressive but it’s just that for me art is best served on a plate.

And for those interested, there is a nice cafe in the road opposite Prado called Faborit with nice coffee and cookies and free weefee and a loo which needs an access code but is again pretty clean

The Bernabeu Stadium

We took a Madrid city bus one day from Puerto Del Sol and ‘hopped off’ at the Bernabeu Stadium. Home of the Real Madrid FC. That was an amazing experience. Climbing on to the stands, then going to the lovely interactive museum, seeing all the trophies, going down to the turf and sitting at the player’s box on the field after passing through the locker room, going to the press room and sitting down where coaches and players address the press at the end of the match…it was a surreal experience and I could imagine my football crazy friends back home giving their left leg for this. The museum told us that the King of Spain had given the epitaph of ‘Real’ or royal to the club and its achievements showed why.

As we left, hungry from the cold and all that walking, I suddenly remembered that food writer Marryam Reshii had told me about the cafe at the stadium where you could have a ‘nice tapas while looking on to the field’.

Well the steak tartar (our first of the trip), champi y gambi (mushrooms grilled prawns) and the calamari fritter boccadila (sandwich) were all exquisite in the.Puerta 57 Restaurant. You could call the Puerta 57 the Bernabeu Stadium stadium ‘canteen’ but the food was truly operatic. In fact Marryam had probably sat in the posh banquet restaurant which looked on to the square when she went with the press but the place where we sat was quite nifty too. If you ordered tapas, like us, then here as in most of Spain you sit on bar stools. You get the tables if you order raciones or full portions only.

A meal well eaten

I don’t think we had a single bad meal in Madrid. Most meals were glorious. Places we found by instinct or through recommendations discovered by chance. Even the jamon boccadila, orange juice and coffee breakfast in the station on the way to Seville was great.

Lots of pretty things to see in the city too but then as Madrid lover TGS or Robin Majumdar says, ‘sightseeing is something you finish quickly before meals.

IceRocket Tags: madrid,spain,travelogue,where to eat in madrid,hotel catalonia plaza maory,puerta del sol,atocha,plaza mayor,botin,san gines,cava baja,bernabeau stadium,real madrid

Announcing the Finely Chopped Fort Tasting Walk, 16th March 2013

2013-03-09T22:33:00.001+05:30

Please scroll down for details of the walk

A couple of years back I worked out of Laxmi Building in Fort for four months.

Each day at lunch time I would take my camera with me and wander down one of Fort’s many lanes stumbling on to a new place to eat in. Usually one of its many half a century old family run restaurants that I had not even heard of. Each day I would discover new dishes, meet new people as I shared tables with strangers, occasionally speak to the owners and the waiters and revelled in their stories as I ate. Each day I would return from lunch grinning from ear to ear and beyond.

It didn’t matter if it was hot and sunny or if it was raining. For Fort, once the Central Business District of Mumbai, is possibly its most organically developed urban corporate eco-system. There are enough trees at Fort to offer you shade. Its lanes intersect to give natural ventilation. The awnings of each building give you shelter to step out and reach one of Fort’s million places to eat in even if it is raining.

The food available caters to every community from across the country that came together to make Mumbai the commercial capital of India.

Now compare this with the modern CBDs of Lower Parel, Andheri E, Goregaon, BKC and so with their gleaming soul-less glass buildings…no walkways to shelter people from nature. No food apart from what’s available in usually smelly canteens…an environment that hardly allows you to stretch or rejuvenate like Fort does. Nor does it offer all those cheap and honest places that you have in Fort where you can duck in for a dosa and filter coffee, or a piping hot vada pao or chai and bun maaska before you head home from work.

The sad thing is that Fort today is a bit of a ghost town frozen in time. Buildings with grand exteriors that make you doff your hat in respect. Buildings whose interiors are often dark and dank inside.

Yes, Fort is not the CBD of Mumbai today but it is definitely one of the city’s warmest and most big-hearted spots. I keep looking back for opportunities to return to Fort. A place which welcomes me with hot piping jalebis made by the Ustaad at Vidya Dairy where the owner insists that I eat a full plate of jalebi. It’s his treat. I can’t skip a single jalebi. I can’t pay for even one.

Then there’s good old Tirandaz at Yazdani who greets me 'with a big cup of Irani chai. “Eat something eat something” he exhorts as we chat about topics spanning cricket, politics, Anna Hazare, how the British shouldn't have left, the beauty of Iran, a far away land called Bandra & his favourite actor Salman Khan & of how Tirandaz wants to 'buy' an email account but his dad won't allow him.

He has a cell though.

More familiar faces. The owners at Apoorva. Always present. Checking on the food. The difference which makes it my choice for Mangalorean. The cheerful smiles of welcome at Swagath as I sit down for an ulundu dosa and filter coffee as I did every evening before heading home when I worked at Fort. And the very dignified, gentle and soft spoken Parvez Irani who runs Ideal Corner. Your best hope for authentic Parsi food outside of a Parsi home. I am so happy that Parvez decided to close his bike repairing shop and converted it into Ideal Corner, one of my favourite restaurants in Mumbai as I say in The Times Food Guide.

Then there’s the joy of walking down the streets of Fort and remembering the many banana-leaf meals that one has had at the Keralite Deluxe. The joys of discovering Kori Roti at Modern lunch home, beef & porota at Raahmanya, the Goa-Maharashtrian fish curries at Pradeep Gomantak, the thick lassi with malai at Moti Lassi …some chance discoveries and some places which folks on twitter pointed me to.

Yes, I love Fort. Am enchanted by it as I once said. Hence the walk. So here’s the plan for the walk:

The Finely Chopped Fort Food Tasting Walk

We meet at 11 and start off by 11.15. I don’t know about you but I like a late breakfast and when in Fort nothing makes more sense than bun maska, brun pao and Irani chai. I guess you will be as astounded as I was when I first found out that the the crust brun paos are favourites of toothless Parsi grannies who love to soak it in hot tea and have it. Talking of the temperamental Irani cafe owners, if we are lucky we could see a sixty year old wood fired oven which is so deep that you might get a glimpse of Persia at the other end.

We walk around a bit taking in the restaurants around you, getting to know what lies inside and what I would order if we’d go in to eat there. Take a look at the Parsi fire temple and the khao gulley and the sheer variety of street food there from Pao bhaaji to Tamil rice carts to lassi to thela Chinese.

Hungry from the walk and the sights of food around us we head for lunch …some Mangalorean seafood which pairs beautifully with the local favourite drink, sol kadi, a drink that’s an appetiser, a digestive and above all very refreshing. Soak some neer dosa into tangy piquant gassis and see how many spice notes you can identify on your palate.

Then perhaps some Parsi dishes to follow. Lacy cutlets. The pillowy wonders of meat fried in an egg batter. And then, no, not necessarily dhansaak…there’s more to Parsi cuisine than dhansaak. Find out why you should never expect dhansaak on any happy occasion except Sundays. What do we ‘pair’ Parsi food with. Raspberry of course. The favourite drink of Parsis which honestly needs a lot of getting used to but you’ll never know till you try it. Ten years down the line and I am still not sure about my feelings towards the Raspberry drink but I always order it. Won’t be kosher otherwise.

Desserts after that and some hot piping jalebis made by the ustaads from the North of India before we head for some piping hot filter coffee from South India.

All you need to do for this North South switch is to cross the lane and not the country, for in Fort you have it all.

Except Bengali!

Hopefully at the end of these four hours you will be as besotted with Fort as I am. As enchanted by it as I am.

Specs:

Date: 16th March 2013, Saturday

Timing: 11 am to 3 pm

Start Point: Fort, DN Road

Things to get: Camera, phone, hand sanitizer, a big appetite.

Planned food stops: 4 to 5

Inclusions: Stops at some of my favourite restaurants and cafes. Mix of cuisines and communities for that’s what Mumbai is all bout…Irani, Parsi, Mangalorean Coastal, Udipi, UPite. We will space out the food to make sure that you don’t miss out on any dish. Bottled water included. Not soft drinks. Eating will be at the participant’s risk. No responsibilities on the food. The ‘walk’ will cover essentially 3,4 lanes around Bombay Stores.

Cost: Rs 2000 per head (all inclusive)

Write in at k.finelychopped@gmail.com or tweet me at @finelychopped or write to me at the Finely Chopped Facebook page. Given limited seats please don’t change your minds.

So catch you at Fort.

Here’s the link to a post on the earlier Finely Chopped food walk at Bohri Mohalla

And these are my posts on Fort to give you an idea on what’s in store

Do check out this link to an episode of Aneesha Baig’s Will Travel For Food on NDTV 24X7 recently. She and I walk to two of my fav restaurants in Bandra a couple of weeks back in the second half of the episode

IceRocket Tags: Food Walks,Mumbai,Fort,South Mumbai,Heritage,Finely Chopped Walks

Go Barca… a Catalan themed spaghetti

2013-03-06T16:04:00.001+05:30

Sometime back intrigued by a friend’s ‘Go Barca’ updates on facebook I asked him whether it had anything to do with his mother in law’s visit. Yes, this post is not about football.

Seems just like yesterday that we were in Barcelona and in Alejandra’s cooking class in Claudia & Pep’s ‘Espai Boisa’ that Barcelona Turisme had organised for us. One of the things that Alejandra had taught us in the class was a seafood tuna and cod salad in a Romesco sauce. The sauce was primarily ‘’add nuts (almonds, hazelnuts), tomato, garlic in a mortar pestle…pound… put in a mixing bowl with olive oil and rock salt, take a hand blender and go ‘chuk chuk chuk’ “ (the Spanish phrase of choice when they run out of words).

I had picked up some meats and cheese and some pretty expensive organic olive oil on my last day in Barcelona. The priceless and very pricey Iberico jamon of course but also some choriz and salami and of course the butifara sausages. One cheese that I picked up was Manchego and the other some goat cheese. It’s not really easy to buy cheese or quesa as they call it in Barcelona or Spain. Your questions on the origin of the cheese could be met by answers such as ‘mooo’ (cow) or ‘byaaa’ (goat). Chances are that the cheese will be really good though.

The interesting thing about the ‘local’ food in Barcelona is that it was not just about tapas. It also includes a lot of pasta, foie gras, pesto dressings, quiches and waffles from across Italy, France, Portugal and even Belgium and. A quick recap of European history will tell you that a number of these nations kept invading each other and kept getting invaded in turn in the past. Therefore food influences, specially Italian and French, have spread everywhere in the region.

The three unrelated paragraphs above came together on our dinner plate last night when I made a spaghetti with a sort of Romesco sauce with the meats and cheese that I brought back from Barcelona and some veggies that I shopped at Lalu’s at Pali Market.

I was quite happy with the results then I am the biggest fan of my cooking. If this helps, K, who is not fond of tomato based, or non creamy pastas or spaghetti, licked her plate clean. And believe me, if a dish doesn’t work for her she makes it pretty clear.

So here’s the recipe for 2:

Prep:

Boil 100 g spaghetti, drain water and set aside. You could even keep it in the fridge for a day or so and take it out while cooking. Don’t bother adding oil or salt while boiling. It’s not required

Romesco sauce:

Ingredients: 2 tomatoes, quartered, 6-8 peeled garlic cloves, a handful of chopped parsley, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 2,3 tablespoons of almonds or walnuts or both, 1 teaspoon rock salt, 1/2 a coffee mug of extra virgin olive oil

Crush garlic, black pepper & chopped parsley together. Add tomato to this and crush with mortar and pestle. Transfer contents to a mixing bowl (if using a hand blender) or a food processor…add the olive oil and salt and blend. You will get a creamish coloured sauce and not a red one. Don’t pound the walnuts etc too much because you want it adding to the texture. Take out the tomato skins and discard

Cook

Ingredients: Boiled spaghetti, Romesco sauce, 100 g cold cuts (I used choriz and salami) chopped, 3 tablespoons of extra virgin oil, red chilli pepper, 3,4 chopped portabella mushrooms, 7,8 thin shards (slices) of hard salt y cheese like manchego or parmesan

Heat EVOO on a pan. Keep it on a low flame
Add the red chilli peppers and mushroom to the pan once the oil warms and stir for a minute
Add the meat and gently stir for a minute or so. The oil will take in the flavours of the meat, mushroom and chillies
Add the Romesco sauce and stir gently for about 2 minutes
Add in the spaghetti and gently spread the sauce across the pasta.
Let the spaghetti rest in the sauce for about 2,3 minutes. Occasionally shake the contents for evenness
Add the shards of cheese and switch off the burner
Put the spaghetti in on to plates and top with a slight sprinkling of rock salt and some extra virgin olive oil

The result is a very light and satisfying pasta where the you could sense the various flavours and textures of meat, mushrooms, walnuts, fresh tomato, garlic, olive oil, parsley, cheese and above all the piquant chillies individually and then in harmony

The sort of dish that would make you say, ‘spaghetti is a many splendored thing’.

IceRocket Tags: barcelona,pasta,recipes,spaghetti,espai boisa,choriz,salami,manchego,barca,romesco,catalan