Naaz And Remu Javeri - Alibaug

The True Blue Foodies

Naaz and Remu are like best friends; enjoying their lives, eating, drinking, travelling the world. Here is a couple who are out every night and yet live happily in their own private world, says FARZANA BEHRAM CONTRACTOR, who enjoyed their wonderful company at their home in Awas, Alibaug

They may be on the wrong side of 50 but can you tell? No way. Here is an eternally in love and a very evergreen couple, sharing each moment of life like happy teenagers, living it up to the hilt. Naaz and Remu Javeri are among the least complicated and most happy-go-lucky people I know. It isn’t any wonder then that they are among the most popular ones at Bombay soriees.

Their unpretentious stone beach house in Alibaug in Awas reflect their personality. Practical, solid, open and breezy. With no safety grills nowhere. Each area seamlessly flowing into another, vertically and horizontally, for though a small house it is interestingly built over three levels, connected with an unusual wrought iron spiral stairway. There is an outdoor sit-out, a stainless steel well-in-use kitchen, three bedrooms and a large terrace which turns into a massive al fresco bedroom when hordes of relatives and friends decide to descend upon them for a weekend. They are good hosts and have mattresses and mosquito nets kept handy for such occasions.

Naaz and Remu are always smiling, even when they are disagreeing with one another – which I notice is often enough, but always in a sporting manner. Like, for example, even after eight years they have not arrived at a common consensus regarding the name for this house. Naaz wants to call it Seascape and Remu, Oceans 12. “And the quarrel is still on,” says Naaz with a broad smile.

We had arrived in Alibaug on their tiny speedboat which is mischievously named Up Oars, (that was a unanimous decision, I am informed gleefully). No sooner had we entered the house in the late afternoon, we were served baraf ka gola. Shaven ice candy, with rose syrup poured generously over it. The mood was set. This was going to be fun. At tea time we ate batata wadas in local pav with the gunpowder chutney complete. And dinner later was to be fabulous, all cooked by their very talented Maharashtrian cook, Susheela. In spite of lobster and fish and prawns on the table, I could not stop eating the drumsticks. Exotic masala. The recipes are in the back pages.

The best thing about Naaz and Remu is the fact that they are genuine foodies and great travellers. In fact they go around the world in pursuit of good food. Even unusual food. In the warm balmy summer night breeze as we three sat sipping wine, snug in the Jacuzzi on the terrace, I let them recount stories about their gourmet travels and travails. I have to admit this was the first time I was doing a ‘Jacuzzi interview and shoot’ and it was crazy. We even had a floating table!

Remu credits Naaz for making their weekend home so charming. “A man builds the house, but it’s the woman who makes it a home, gives it a character. I am fortunate I have a partner who is so enthusiastic. It is she who picks up all these little, little things – floating table from the States, ice shaver from Lohar Chawl... things which bring a smile to my face.” And Naaz is all praise for Remu. “He is very adept at putting things together,” she says. “He put this house together with help from Dean D’Cruz the Goan architect. He would go to Chor Bazaar and keep picking up all sorts of furniture, saving it in a 2000 square foot godown! He succeeded in building a practical house which would not need great maintenance once we finished building it.”

Well, the two certainly enjoy the house as well as the surrounding ambience. Going for moonlit walks on the beach which is just across, putting a table and chairs outside their house on the shore amidst the Suru trees and having a candle light dinner for two! They find they are most relaxed at Alibaug, the holiday mood beginning right in the boat.

But for all her talents, Naaz who very efficiently runs Touch of Joy the beauty salon of the rich and the famous, cannot cook. But Remu does, says Naaz, “He puts together fantastic meals. We discovered it ages ago. We were in this beautiful villa in the Rockies along with a nephew, when Remu decided he would cook for us. The fully equipped kitchen is what turned him on. My nephew and I looked at each other and slipped out and returned with loads of goodies from a Deli, as a back up. We did not fancy sleeping on an empty stomach. But as it turned out all the gourmet goodies we bought went to waste, Remu cooked so well we were stunned!”

“Once he even cooked a rabbit for me....”, (“Hare,” interrupted Remu. “No, rabbit! ” retorted Naaz) and continued, “it was in Paris, at a cousin’s house, where he cooked this delicious rabbit and in the bargain almost burnt down the house!” As it happened, Remu threw in some ingredients – butter, herbs, some spices and dunked the rabbit in the oven, then decided he wanted to flambé it. That’s when the kitchen caught fire. Naaz went on to enlighten, “It was the alcohol which spilled and caught fire. But all was well and the rabbit roast was unscathed and a huge success.”

“Yeah, yeah, I enjoy all this,” says Remu. “Another time, when we staying at this lovely place right at the foot of the Rock of Gibraltar, with had a great kitchen attached along which its own private beach, I was inspired to go to the local supermarket and bring back stuff to cook." Naaz continues, “He came back with a super bottle of wine, and cooked. We started at 6 in the evening and finished at 11. It was wonderful, but we ended up spending four times what we would have in a restaurant!” Remu smiles at the memory, “Food is my passion. I like to go to local markets too, especially when we go to remote places like say, Africa or South America and check out everything minutely. What kind of meats they have, what kind of cuts, what’s the seafood like... Once we were in Chile... “You’re going to tell her about the bugs you ate? That was not Chile, that was Argentina!” piped in Naaz gleefully. (Remember, I told you about how spirited the two are about holding their own...) “That was in Chile,” responded Remu, calmly. “No, it was Bariloche in Argentina!” said Naaz confidently and adamantly. Remu gave in after chiding her for being too specific, saying, “Yes it was Argentina, though not Bariloche, (“Bariloche,” whispered Naaz, to me), where we marched as usual to the local market. The seafood was most unusual, not the kind we see generally. The locals were watching us, intrigued and amused by us, when I noticed a lady with a one year old infant in her arms. She was feeding him, popping something in his mouth. On closer inspection we were aghast to see they were live sea beetles. Black, about an inch or so. She then offered the bowl to me. My curiosity got the better of me. I figured if a one year old child could eat it, so could I! I took one of the crawling beetles and put it in my mouth. Squish it went, as I bit into it, pucht, you know? It tasted salty, but it was unique."

“Want to hear about our snake blood experience?” I was asked. “Snake blood, you drank it?” I asked in return, dumb founded. “That was in Taiwan, decades ago. There was another friend with us. We three were wandering around when we discovered a snake alley. There were all kinds of snakes kept in cages in these small roadside joints with just a couple of tables and few chairs. What they would do was, hit the snake on the head with wooden mallet and stun it. Then they would hang it on a hook, head down, cut the vein and allow the blood to drip in a glass. Then they would cut the bile bag and put a dash of that poison – a deep green liquid, into the blood and offer it to the customer. We watched it all but could not summon enough courage to try it. Just then a group of American girls came along and one of them tried it. She turned around and said, ‘It’s okay, tastes like wine.’ That got me to try it. It was about half a glass, warm, not hot, not sticky and I promise you, it did taste like wine.”

The Javeris have many more food and travel stories from Turkey, Sweden, Alaska, New Zealand, Africa... ask them to invite you over for a Jacuzzi and champagne night and regale you with them.