Take it Easy

Senior sous chef Inder Dev8217;s spread sounded good and tasted unlike anything I8217;ve had before. There was Zam Zam Pulao, rice embedded with chicken offal, cooked the Dum way; Creamy Tikka, egg-coated chicken flavoured lightly with chillies and batter fried; Jangbari, chicken curry with a cashew paste base, and Ananas ka Halwa, blanched apple and pineapple pureacute;e cooked in desi ghee over a slow flame.

The food, though influenced by Indian Muslim cooking, was mild and yet rich in a subtle way. 8216;8216;Bohra cooking is mild in nature, you8217;ll never find something that makes you reach for a glass of water,8217;8217; said Dev, who feels the cuisine is a reflection of the community, a low-profile, mild-mannered bunch of traders and merchants, who are also known for their love for food.

8216;8216;But did you have the Dal Chaawal Palida?8217;8217; asked Railwaywala, when I told her about my dinner at the hotel. The Dal Chaawal Palida, a pure vegetarian and happy occasion dish, so to speak, is a rice preparation with a boiled dal base, garnished with fried onions. The second part is the Palida, a flour-based curry cooked with dudhi, lauki and drumsticks.

As interesting as their cuisine is the Bohras8217; culinary etiquette. Each and every meal at most households begins and ends with salt. The youngest member offers a pinch of salt to the other diners around the communal thal; the practice, known as chakwanoo, symbolises equality. On festive occasions, after the salt, the meal starts with a sweet, which is chased down with a savoury. The process is repeated once before the main course comes in. The practice, says Dev, helps in breaking the monotony of one kind of taste.

Festivals also see the more religious Bohras8212;Mumbai is home to a large number of the community8212;eat in a large dish called the thal. 8216;8216;The whole family eats together, sharing the food. The thal is placed on a brass ring, the tarakhti, below which comes the tablecloth or safra,8217;8217; says Railwaywala, who makes embroidered safras for Syedna Muhammad Burnahuddin, the Mumbai-based head of the community.

8216;8216;Obviously, there is a lot we borrow from Mughlai, but I suppose there is some kind of Middle Eastern influence too in the way we cook and eat,8217;8217; said Railwaywala, who told me about other delicacies and staples8212;the Malida, a fried sweet made of wheat with jaggery infusions, and the Dabba Gosht, made the Bohra way.

8216;8216;But you can only get most of these at Bohra homes, marriages or the odd caterer. I don8217;t think there are any Bohra restaurants in India, forget Mumbai. Not even the Bohri Mohalla has one.8217;8217;

But I made my way to Bohri Mohalla, in Mumbai8217;s clamouring, sweaty Bhendi Bazaar, a tangle of narrow, grimy lanes, bordered on both sides by ancient-looking buildings and peopled with Bohri men in their distinct topis with a ring of gold and white embroidery and women in their ridas, a cheerful, more reasonable version of the burkha.

On offer in and around the vicinity of the Saifee Masjid, the Bohras8217; main mosque, were kebabs, rotis, biryanis and faloodas, but no Creamy Tikka or even Baida Roti. And even Abde Ali, a well-known Bohra caterer, had no orders that evening. Ultimately, I took refuge in sweets. The Bohri owner of Noor Sweets, while telling me about the stuff he eats at home, plied me with Goondar Pak, Salan Pak and Sutar Pherni8212;edible gum, mava, milk and ghee-based Bohra sweets8212;all mildly sweet in nature. 8216;8216;You have to go to a Bohra home for a true meal,8217;8217; he told me.

Though Railwaywala was a bit taken aback at my abrupt request, the gracious woman, a working mother of two, has asked me to come over with a 8220;little advance notice8221;.

So, I plan to call her up one of these days when thunder and lightning tear the skies open and the appetite starts to build up.