Régale Parsienne...

Oh the joys of Parsi food!!!!

My memories of "patra ni machchi" go back to the trips to Mahabaleshwar when in school to devour inhuman quantities of delicious Parsi food at "Belmont Park" - a lovely Parsi hotel on the out-skirts of the hill-station. Those were the days towards the end of that lovely time after which an invasion of our lovely bawa-infested hill station by droves of people from a particular state to the north-west of Maharashtra demanding "undhiyo" and "theplas" happened.

Sigh...Mutton-chops, patra-ni-machchi, sali-boti, sali-chicken .... and end it with a double or triple helping of coffee ice-cream and then laze around on the hammock reading comic-books all afternoon. The only motivation to get out of this slumber was to go for a walk in the evening to build up an appetite for the dinner.

During my days in Karad, Mahabaleshwar being a 2 hour bike ride away did help the cause. The Prospect hotel in Panchgani, the oldest hotel there proved to provide some delicious fare, with the typical all-you-can-eat lodging and boarding arrangements making life even more beautiful. The Grape-vine in the Mahabaleshwar Market - a teeny bit off the super-crowded-on-most-weekends tourist route, is a quaint place with lovely portions of Parsi food and a nicely decorated bar with teak and rosewood furniture. And fortunately for me, I had company of friends who loved the bawa-fare as much as me if not more to make the ride to Mahabaleshwar a pleasurable one too.

Trips to Bombay (would be too unfair to say Mumbai here) were aplenty. Aneesa and I tried every bawa restaurant within access while seeing to it that we were being fair to the other cuisines on offer. Jimmy boy at Horniman Circle, Paradise at Colaba Causeway and Britannia at Ballard Estate were the best of the bawa experiences. It would be unfair to leave out the kulfi at Parsi Dairy Farm at Hindu Colony, Dadar and on Princess Street and ice-cream sandwiches at Rustom's at Churchgate.




And what luck after that, a year and more to spend in Poona (note the anglicised version), in great company. George restaurant on East Street with its tempting rotisserie is a fantastic memory for more reasons than one. The Cheese Sandwich (with the thickest slice of cheddar in a sandwich I have seen in my life) at Vohuman Cafe next to Jehangir Hospital with the Cheese Omlette and Irani Chai can come close to being an excellent breakfast. The take-away biryani at Dorabjee stores on Moledina road with Mutton and Chicken cutlets have been the lunch during many-an-outing.

The climax to all this lies in a lovely place, which I unfortunately discovered towards the end of my days there. Destined to catch some great Parsi food for Navroze, Sheetal and I decided to hunt down what we could. On Dastur Meher Road in Camp, just off Main Street is a tiny place called Dorabjee & Sons (Restaurant). Riding on that street was like a time warp into what Parsi life in Poona must have been at the beginning of the century.

Photo credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecookscottage/

Walking into the place, it was what you would expect from a Parsi restaurant - basic, clean and efficient. Plastic chairs and tables were the norm and the menu was a sheet with a basic list and was plastic coated.


The right side of the menu was the second-best part, after the food list. We ordered quantities that would suit two twp people who had first sighted civilization after a month long walk in the desert. Farcha, patra-ni-machchi, dhansak, sali-boti and then biryani. We washed it down with Fram's Raspberry soda. Dessert consisted of Caramel Custard (although more common and typical in Irani restaurants) AND Falooda. After all this food, bill-for-two did not cross Rs. 300 !!!!

What a way for the affair with Parsi food to come to a standstill. I spend my days in this country longing for it more than most other things... Sigh!!!