Jamva Chalo Ji!

BEHRAM CONTRACTOR joins other eminent Parsis at a lagan nu bhonu and describes the dinner and service for the benefit of the non-Parsi

A little after dusk, as the sun sets behind Colaba Point in the Bombay Harbour and the Parsi wedding ceremony ends on the little stage at the illuminated Colaba Agiary (fire temple), a man goes around the guests announcing: “Chalo Saheb, jamva chalo ji.” The lagan nu bhonu is about to begin. This piece is to assist those non-Parsis who have never been invited to a lagan nu bhonu and are expecting to be invited soon.

The dinner is served in batches, what are known as panths, around 300 to 400 guests per panth. And normally there are three panths, plus one for the gherwallas, close relations and friends who eat last. Do not feel shy, if you are hungry and you are not a drinker, make a dash for the table, otherwise the more aggressive members of the community will leave you for the next panth, and even there you will have to queue up behind the earlier diner’s chair, while he is still on his Pulao Dal and Parsi Dairy Kulfi.

I am a drinker, so while the first 400 are eating, I am having a chanto pani. Chanto is a drop, and pani is water, the drop is, of course, alcohol, and it is more than a drop. The name, I think, was introduced during Morarji Desai’s prohibition, when alcohol was banned but still drunk. Now you drink in splendid communion with other veteran elbow-benders on the otla (balcony).

There are about 20 or so caterers in our city, but five or six are big names. My favourite is Tanaz Godiwalla, you look at her, you associate her with food, and she marshals her 150 assistants like a well-drilled army...

For full article: CLICK HERE (Archives: January - March 2001)

Curry Walia!

CORY WALIA, India’s amazing make-up guru, is affectionately called “Curry Walia” by his friends and clients because he’s hell in the kitchen... he can make the most outstanding curries. He shows UpperCrust how by cooking five of his best

“I’m called ‘Curry Walia’ by my friends because I’ve always been cooking curries. I must have started when I was nine. And by now I can do about 19 curries without looking at any cookery book. That’s my repertoire. I know these curries by heart. I do them every other day, so they come easy and natural to me. They’re Thai, Malay, Indonesian and Indian curries. I can make most Indian curries. Maharashtrian, Goan, Saraswat, Mangalorean, I just love the curries of these cuisines, they are an expression of the way I feel. And I also create my own curries. It’s easy when you know how, when you understand spices and ingredients, you can sort of visualise, fantasise tastes!

I come from an unique ethnic background. I am a Sardar, a Sikh, my name’s really Karamjit Singh Walia, my paternal grandfather was a survivor of the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre. My father came from Burma and my mother had Maratha and Goan Saraswat blood in her. Her father was a Maratha Rajput. So you can see, this is a heady combination, not just of ethnic backgrounds, but of cuisine cultures as well. 

Perhaps it’s a reflection of my job, which is making people look beautiful, but I tend to look at men and women in terms of food! I can think of a macho man as a steak, isn’t it amazing? And a sexy woman as an exotic créme brulee! Let’s put it this way, the ideal ‘me’ in terms of a dish, would be a full-bodied curry that has been kept for three days. Some curries, especially coconut curries, should not be served fresh. Keep it for some time, that way the flavours develop. In this same context, I see myself as a spicy curry. Quite theekha, because of my sharp tongue, and rich and full-bodied! You know, like a lovely prawn curry to be had with rice on a Sunday afternoon.”

For full article: CLICK HERE (Archives: July - September 2001)

The Southern Breakfast Show

CAPT. KRISHNAN NAIR and wife Leela are bigger foodies than you may imagine. A Sunday breakfast for them is Kerala lamb stew and appams, Malabar fried prawns and idlis, egg stew and idiappams, fish moilee and dosai, and rice pootoo with coconut milk and sugar. Plus, Southern filter coffee and caviar omelette. Yes, caviar omelette! 

Captain Krishnan Nair, chairman of the Leela Group of Hotels, must be the only gourmet in the world to have a caviar omelette for breakfast. This is his big indulgence on mornings when he wants to start the day off with a kick. The omelette is made of the whites of two eggs, stuffed with Black Sea caviar from Russia and some cheese. He was introduced to it by Pierre Cardin in Paris some 14, 15 years ago, then taught his Malayali chef at home how to make the omelette. Now, Capt. Nair happily polishes off a plate every other morning with bread rolls, attacking the food with his hands and making a mish-mash of the omelette like he is always eating it for the first time. If you are lucky to be invited to breakfast with Capt. Nair then be prepared to share his indulgence. But, be warned, have only a tiny portion of the caviar omelette. It takes some getting used to. And Capt. Nair will try his best to also stuff you with Kerala lamb stew and appams, Malabar fried prawns and idlis, egg stew and idiappams, fish moilee and dosai and rice pootoo with coconut milk and sugar after you are through with the caviar omelette.

He is a big foodie. And if it is true that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, then his wife Leela has been going about this the right way for close to five decades. No wonder Capt. Nair has named his empire of luxury hotels and resorts after her. He tells UpperCrust proudly that all the meals he has at home are made according to Leela’s recipes. )

For full article: CLICK HERE (Archives: April - June 2000)

On The Judean Hills, In A Cheese Cave

Shai Seltzer’s little cheese-making commune situated between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, with Zangabi, Nubian and Anglo-Nubian goats happily roaming around, make you feel so peaceful, says Farzana Behram Contractor

It was after a whole lot of twists and turns that I reached Shai Seltzer’s cheese den, hidden deep in the Judean mountains. I doubt I would have found this hideout on my own, but for the fact that my escort and guide happened to be Daniel Zonshine, the present Consul General of Bombay, who knows his way around his country pretty well. It was thanks to him that I heard about this rural Xanadu, and just for that I will forever be grateful to him.

This cheese haven is certainly the mother of all UpperCrust discoveries. Here is Shai Seltzer, the kind of man who doesn’t come along too often, living in comfortable seclusion, happily doing just what he wants to and on his terms. Which is rearing happy and handsome goats on his farm, producing amazing cheese that is cured in a cave, shunning the modern corporate world and seriously championing the concept of the slow food movement.....

For full article: CLICK HERE (Archives: January - March 2007)

‘Wah, Huzoor! Khane Ka Jawab Nahin!’

Over Nalli Nihari and Karari Roti at Noor Mohammedi in Bhendi Bazaar, USTAD ZAKIR HUSSAIN tells MARK MANUEL that next to music... his big passion is food

The muezzin had finished calling the azaan from the minarets of a mosque outside Noor Mohammadi Hotel in Bhendi Bazar, Bombay’s Muslim quarter, and the faithful were settling down to dinner after the evening namaz. Ustad Zakir Hussain and I were doing the same. Only, we hadn’t come in from the mosque. We came from work. I from my office. He from Famous Studios. He was scoring music for an Indian film that was being rushed to Cannes. Dinner was his break. We were going to eat at Noor Mohammadi.

I watched him eat: sleeves rolled up, tablachi fingers delicately wrapping a crisp piece of roti around gravied chicken and popping it into his mouth. He was completely at home. But then he was home. Zakir Hussain is a Bombay boy with Kashmiri blood in him. He was born and brought up here. “On Indian food, a combination of Kashmiri wazwan, like Gushtaba, Kamargah, Rogan Josh and Qahwa, plus North Punjabi Bhindi Gosht and Stuffed Karela, and Gujarati Dal-Dokhli, Kadi, Undhiyu, and things like that,” he explained. Foreign influences, exposure to the melting pot of world cuisines that aroused the gourmet in him, came early in his life. “Ever since I began travelling,” he said, “I’ve been eating all sorts of food.” He’s been travelling and playing the tabla since he was 12, at an average of 15 to 18 days a month, and the Ustad is now 50, so how many times does that make it he has been around the world? He paused in between a mouthful to reply, “Enough to become a food maniac!”

He loves to eat, but has to struggle to keep his weight down. “I keep ping-ponging between 146 and 150 pounds,” he told me regretfully. “I should be at least 8, 9 pounds lighter.” I made a quick calculation. The Ustad was 68 kg. “I eat everything under the sky... but now I’ve learned to watch quantity. A spoon or two at the most. And I do yoga, some walking, no rigorous exercise for me, but it still takes a pound or two off.” 

Even as he was eating he twisted around in his seat to read the Urdu menu out loud: “Kheema, Shammi Kebab, Dal Gosht, Nalli Nihari, Bheja, Shahi Plate, Mutton Chaap... very nice!” All around us, diners were slurping and burping. Zakir Hussain ignored the distraction. Just like he did the garish interiors. And when a stray cat siddled upto him, miaowing for a handout, the Ustad looked like he wanted to slip it something beneath the table. This is the gourmet who wines and dines in all the Michelin-rated restaurants of the world. And who knows most international master chefs by first name. 

In between dinner, he talked about his passion for food. His favourite cuisine was Italian. It was common in Europe. And his wife was an American of Italian descent. Her family made some unsual food that you would not find in any restaurant. Their home was in California, and California was the home of nouvelle cuisine. A state of unusual tastes. It was chic to eat unusual cuisines in the US. Sushi with Californian rolls, a chicken curry salad, things like that. He talked about musician friends, because of them, he had tasted a home-cooked meal of every cuisine in most countries of the world. Now he called for roti. “Beta, ek karari roti lana...” To me, “This is kadak roti, little things like this make a world of difference.” He was at the same time giving me a review of the food. “Wah! This Nalli Nihari is excellent. First you taste the sauce, then the meat, they do take pains in making them taste different. But the Shammi Kebab has not done the trick! I’m not excited by it.  I’ll go for the Chicken Korma...”

For full article: CLICK HERE (Archives: April - June 2001)

Inter Courses Foods That Turn You On

Ever since Marc Antony first fed Cleopatra grapes, sensual foods have been intertwined with romance. FARZANA VERSEY delves into the history of aphrodisiacs and finds that the love-hungry bring these sensual foods to wherever they might be entertaining... the kitchen table, the bed or the living room. The Palate’s Passionplay revolves around traditional aphrodisiacs that are erotic yet elegant, like oysters, wine and asparagus... and lesser-known ones such as chillies, avocado and figs

But take a rest because you’re on fire
Likewise how to lull the friend
That breasts, legs, womb, thighs
Stew and simmer without end?
Dear me, its playmate’s drunken bliss
Gets me up and going when
My meat rises from one kiss
Come on, we’d better start again!

– Paul Verlaine

Each time I slice okra, I feel like Lorena Bobbitt. Err... is this about food or sex? Well, do me a favour. Pick up some bhindi and, if you have an achy-breaky heart, do not plunge a knife into even one, just dunk the lot into a bowl of water. Then run your fingers over them and feel their stickiness. Now you tell me what’s my take here.

Let us not pretend. If you had a choice, you’d want to get laid on the table. But darned society! We are conditioned to be subtle. So while we delicately fork a morsel into our mouth, slick and dripping through our tongue and throat, there is a volcano waiting to erupt. I am not talking performance here, only sensuality. Aphrodisiacs you can get aplenty, from human placenta to rhino’s horn to the local palang-tod paan to Viagra but it’s like saying why bother about a moonlit night when you have electricity.

Food is sexy, often sexier than sex itself, and what you do with it lasts infinitely longer. Which is why passion’s imagery relies so much on what plays on the palate. The ancient texts used fruits and vegetables to describe the body. Marlon Brando in The Last Tango In Paris took a dollop of butter, slapped it on and went licking it and it was not on toast. When Meg Ryan gets this enormous orgasm in an outdoor cafe (When Harry Met Sally), an old woman at the next table asks the waiter rather sweetly, “I’ll have one of those!”

Umm... aah. Yes, that is a low moan, and that is the sound you make when you feel satiated, after breaking bread as well as in bed. Both food and sex make full use of our senses - the smells, the touch, the sight, the taste, the unbearable succulence of being....

For full article: CLICK HERE (Archives: July - September 2000)

Wining & Dining With Anton Mosimann

Master Chef ANTON MOSIMANN cooked his signature dishes for BEHRAM CONTRACTOR and a table full of discerning gourmets at the Chambers of  Taj Mahal Hotel

I can now tell my great-great-grandchildren that one evening at Bombay’s Taj Mahal Hotel, Anton Mosimann, chef extraordinaire and culinary genius, cooked a hand-picked gourmet dinner for me. Actually, it was for me and seven others, courtesy UpperCrust, the magazine you are holding in your two hands at this moment. (Two hands, because it is too heavy for one hand.) The man is Swiss, his culinary gifts are French, his apprenticeship has stretched from Japan to the other end, and he now runs a very successful club in Mayfair, London, named after himself — Mosimann. But I don’t have to tell this to readers of a gourmet magazine.

Shall I tell you of my dining companions or the food first? I think, the food. It comprised a salmon with bits of crab packed into it, scallops in a light and oil-free curry, saddle of lamb with Caesar’s Salad, and the legendary bread and butter pudding, Monsieur Mosimann’s signature dish. And now the guests, on my right sat Shobha De, the best selling author and the lady who launched three magazines and a dozen different columns, on my left Nina Pillai, socialite, writer, God’s gift to the world. Next to her was Dilip De, gentleman horticulturist and the man who exports tulips to Holland, Sharon Prabhakar, classy singer, Asit Chandmal, le grand gourmet, Zeenat Aman, as strikingly beautiful as when she was the uncrowned queen of the Hindi cinema, and Ravi Shastri in a galla-bandh, cricketer and now commentator of equal merit. Introductions over, we come to the main event — the dinner. It was set up at the Chambers at a civilised hour of 7.30 p.m., and before we moved in for the food, we met in the lounge. Mosimann was introduced to everybody, some old acquainances, some new, though I don’t think he remembered anybody. This is his second visit to India and this time he spent most of it at Kumarakom, the Taj’s palm-crowned resort off Cochin. A little social chit-chat, and Mosimann had disappeared into the kitchen, from where he only emerged post-dessert and with the coffee. That’s how all great chefs are, they spend their time at their stations of work, not doing PR exercises with the guests. He had earlier told me that that is his principle in his restaurant (club) also. “I meet the guests at the bar, find out what they would like to eat, then retire to the kitchen to cook for them.” Bravo! The photographer, who had earlier taken some pictures in the kitchen, told me that he was very fast and very definite in his work.

For full article: CLICK HERE (Archives: April - June 2001)

Eggstraordinary!

MANI COOPER, an ‘eggsceptionally’ talented lady, handcrafts and decorates Faberge-style eggs, discovers UpperCrust

There’s never a dull moment in Mani Cooper’s life. A lady of rare and extraordinary talent, when she’s not dabbling in egg-craft, she paints on silk, specialises in Pergamano which is parchment craft, does quilling and sculpts. But her greatest love remains egg-craft.

Egg-craft is an art she picked up as recently as 1997 and in a short span of eight years, she has mastered the skill to perfection. She works quietly and single-handedly from her Kemp’s Corner residence in Bombay, a flat on the 20th floor overlooking the Arabian Sea.

Quite simply, egg-craft means decorating egg shells in the Faberge style. Though, Faberge mainly used metal as his medium and moulded it to resemble an egg. “I and my late husband Khatu were extremely fond of cruises and on many of the liners hobby classes for the passengers were conducted. On one trip there were classes for egg-craft which I attended. It was very rudimentary, nothing fancy, just basic decoration techniques,” she said. 

Recently, Mani held her first exhibition where she displayed 100 beautiful Faberge creations at her residence. Sadly, none of the pieces were for sale, she never intended to sell them. Once the exhibition was over, she carefully returned them to the display cabinet in her living room.

“I started working on these pieces in 1997. While chicken eggs (obtained locally) are used, Mani sources goose, ostrich, duck, guinea fowl, rhea, turkey, emu and even tiny sparrow eggs from the United Kingdom. “Decorating an egg is a long and tedious process,” she explained. “It requires concentration and patience. And if the eggs break, which happens often, you have to start all over again.”

The procedure is not so simple. The egg is first blown by drilling a hole to remove the contents. Then, the egg is sanded to smoothen the shell and to give it a natural gloss. Thereafter the design is drawn or engraved and the egg is cut with an electric or an air compress drill. A compress drill is only used for small delicate eggs to prevent them from cracking. The decoration then begins —painting, varnishing, glazing, fixing the hinges, filigrees, rhinestones, ribbon and other trimmings. A final glaze is put on to protect and seal the egg which is then mounted on an appropriate base or stand.

For full article: CLICK HERE (Archives: April - June 2004)

The Biryani King!

Delhi Darbar’s JAFFERBHAI MANSURI makes the best Biryani in Mumbai. He is one restaurateur who can cook every item of food on the menus of his popular Mughlai eateries. “You must know and love food to be able to serve food,” he tells UpperCrust, recounting his story of success

Decades ago, Busybee christened Jafferbhai Mansuri  as the Biryani King of Bombay. “No restaurateur serves better biryani than him. But don’t take my word for it. Go to his Delhi Darbar and see for yourself,” he had said.

You may eat at any of his restaurants, the biryani will taste the same,  you may take our word for that. That’s because Jafferbhai has trained all the cooks himself. They are not professionals who have passed out of catering colleges but men whose families have been in his employ for years. He takes them into his service, trains them in the art of Mughlai cooking, then gives them his secret “formula” to make biryani. However, the formula works only in a Delhi Darbar restaurant. Cooks who have left and tried to repeat his success outside have failed miserably, Jafferbhai told UpperCrust somewhat gleefully. He talks little. And he has made it his life’s mission to entertain and feed the citizens of Bombay, all his friends, with good food. “Only when you can be generous and large-hearted enough towards others with food will you really enjoy eating yourself,” he says, smiling.

Jafferbhai explains the USP of Delhi Darbar, his success story so to say. “If the quality, quantity and price are correct, the service is perfect, and all these four things are in your control, then your customers will go home satisfied with their dining experience.”

Jafferbhai is a bit of a wizard at the purchasing of ingredients as well. He can identify good and bad produce. He can look at a goat and tell how much meat it will yield when it is cut and cooked. And he orders only the best chicken, mutton, rice and oil for his business. He has fixed suppliers, all of them have become multi-millionaires just by supplying to Jafferbhai, and he is happy with them. 

For full article: CLICK HERE (Archives: October - December 2002)