Saturday, January 28, 2006

My Mumbai cooking adventure




Ai Dil Hai Mushkil, Jeena Yahaan….(a beginning of an old famous film song describing difficulty of life in Bombay)

The best part of my recent visits to Mumbai is seeing family and friends and having delicious meals in their company, but my attachment to the place had been slowly eroding. This time things were different; my visit partly overlapped with the Mumbai Festival – a festival cooked up to promote tourism where at least some of the events are sponsored and coordinated by Bombay Times. Just as I was beginning to think how I was going to spend my remaining week in Mumbai I read in Bombay Times that famous chefs in the city will be doing free cooking demonstrations of their specialty dishes all through the week. I could fit in two: one in my neighborhood on Goan/Konkani/Karnataka food by Goa Portuguesa/Culture Curry’s Chef Deepa Awchat and another on “Indian” Chinese cum oriental food in Andheri by Chef Walter Chen and his staff — in Bobby Deoul’s (actor Dharmendra’s son) Some Place Else. It took a few persistent phone calls to make reservations at both the places (and of course nobody called back to confirm as they said they would in fifteen minutes).

Deepa and Suhas’ (her psychiatrist husband) “show” began with a few hitches with the sound system, which were soon overcome by Deepa’s staff upon her instructions in a pleasant but do-I-need-to-be-bothered-with-this tone. At the entrance, we were handed a packet with recipés – one recipé per page with ingredients and proportions nicely organized and preparation summarized step-by-step. The demonstration began with a red pumpkin soup, tackled papads stuffed with shrimp (and its vegetarian version) and Chicken Chettinad and finished with a “portuguese” dessert Serradura. It was indeed a well-orchestrated performance with Suhas adding funny tidbits here and there along with some measured advertising of their various ventures: ranging from his drug rehab place in Pune, Muktangan, to which part of the restaurant profits go to, to their upcoming cooking shows and cooking classes. The hosts were indeed vivacious as the Times had billed. Part of the way through the show, a guest appearance by Milind Soman, who I found out later was a model and is truly a “dish”, certainly increased the “showi”ness without distracting too much from the demonstrations. Later, another guest, film actress Sonali (Kulkarni, and apparently a good actress I am told) showed up — a lot of filmy oohs and aahs and stories of her just returning from shooting an Italian movie. I liked the papad stuffed with prawns quite a bit and was impressed with the concept because I had not imagined that one would be able to fold papads so easily. The Serraguda was heavy, but quite tasty – its portuguese version has gelatin which was lacking in this one (gelatin may make the dish lighter) and even the Portuguese version uses Marie biscuits it seems. The pumpkin soup could be improved substantially by more thoroughly puréeing the pumpkin like the French and using a spice sac — this one had the consistency and texture of dal and too many whole spices interefered with the eating pleasure. Overall, the performance, quality and the showmanship of the cooking demonstration was quite outstanding; lagniappes and questions/answers made sure that there was never a dull moment. The restaurant has a .com website by its name, which has a couple of recipés and Deepa promised to give out a few to the interested people. (Needless to say, I requested some eggplant ones….). Clearly, the chef, her husband, and their staff are experienced at pleasing the audience and their palates.

Chef Chen of Some Place Else is originally from Xi’an (of Terracota warriors fame — and incidentally looks like a smaller version of one also) and, yum, the mutton soup of Xi’an “Yang Rou Pau Mo” is my most favorite dish in the world (haven’t I told you the story of how we had to break up and collect the bread pieces in a bowl for 45 minures?) What I didn’t realize is he has spent much of his life in Kolkata and I was not to expect much Xi’an flavor. The menu was Coriander Dumplings, Mongolian Bishtul Soup, Chicken Wrapped Prawns, Red Cooked (?) Chicken with Chestnuts and Spicy Black Noodles. Mind you, we had coriander leaves in many dishes in Hainan last week, but this was indeed “Indian” Chinese food with Chinese “garam masala”/Chinese five (or six or seven) spice (ground roasted star anise, cinnamon, cloves, green cardamom, fennel, Sichuan peppercorn – which is actually a flower and has strong flavor that I can’t describe but can be found in Sichuan dishes like 100 chilly chicken or pork – I can recommend a restaurant on Nathan Road in HongKong but you need a big group to finish this). What makes the food Indian Chinese, I realised, is the liberal use of tomato purée, Chinese “garam masala” and “sweet” soy sauce (Indonesian variety called Ketjap Masi). (Incidentally, in China nobody seems to know soy sauce as soy sauce – you must ask for it as “Jiang (with the stress on first syllable and falling tone) Yóu”, otherwise you are out of luck), Here, I had to do a lot of work in writing the recipés because only ingredients – no steps, not even amounts – were listed. This wouldn't have worked in a normal cooking class, but of course this was Mumbai and there were rapid fire questions from all around filling in every detail (I didn’t have to utter a word). Some were annoyed, but the Times staff countered, “we have to be in the spirit of Mumbai” (whatever the new, unknown to me, face of the city is). What we lacked in recipés and perhaps showmanship, however, Chef Chen and his staff made up for with their smiling faces and zen composure (certainly not a Mumbai quality). They patiently explained everything and demonstrated crucial parts and brought out food that looked, smelled, and tasted appetizing – so what if it was not “real” chinese food (and what would that be really?). Next time, I am sure the Times staff will work toward getting ready ahead of time correctly written, standardized recipés for all their shows so participants won’t have to work as hard.

Maybe it is just I who didn’t notice before all the interesting things that are happening here; the daily events columns in the newspapers are full with shows, concerts, lectures, exhibitions — many free or at reasonable prices — much more than even a vacationer can fit in their schedule. I must say that I am experiencing a different Mumbai this time, one that could lead to an ending, “Ai Dil Hai Aasaan Jeena Yahaan, Jara Hatke Jara Bachke Ye Hai Bombay Meri Jaan” — It is easy to live here if you can bear it a bit. Afterall, it is indeed my love.