Chronicles Of The Sassy Fork

       It was the search for our community masala that led my cousin Archana and me to Lalbaug.We belong to the Twashta Kasar community,whose people lived mainly in Girgaum,Mahim,Alibaug and some parts of Konkan.Earlier we got our masala from a lady in Pune but she moved away.Asmita Kadu, who belongs to my community and to the well known Facebook group Angat Pangat, kindly gave me her receipt  from RB Khamkar Masale at Lalbaug with all ingredients and quantities mentioned. These sun dried spice mixtures are made from December to mid June..Lalbaug was an area where millworkers lived ...Girangaon.Many people still come from the Konkan and Kolhapur to get their masalas ground here.         There are many shops with the"Khamkar" name and one called "Chavan" which is equally well known.The Khamkars here are all related.This is the third generation selling masalas.         The main ingredient of most spice mixes appears ...

It's been a really long time since I blogged.There wasn't any exciting enough to write about.One day,Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal told me about her Taste and Talk series and I jumped at the idea! Today was the first event on Kathiawadi cuisine at one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants in the city....Soam,which is at Babulnath.I have spent a few years of my early childhood in Gujarat and while I can speak Gujarati, my only food memory is that of Chicken Jalfrezi at a small joint,the taste of which I haven't been able to find anywhere else.My mother tells me of my fondness for Chinese food,even way back then.I suppose there weren't many Gujarati restaurants at that time as everyone ate at home.Blogger Vegetarian Bhukkad (Sucheta) who has Kathiawadi roots,explained that they now eat traditional food only once a week.With the times,habits have changed and eating out now includes food that was once had only at home. The owner Pinky Chandan Dixit pointed out th...

Our group met again,this time for Parsi cuisine.In April,I had attended a Parsi food walk, organized by SodaWaterBottleOpenerWalla,a  hip restaurant that specializes in the same cuisine,along with food blogger Kalyan Karmakar.The decor of the restaurant brings a smile to all those that enter.A blackboard with instructions typical of the Irani restaurants that occupied building corners of old Mumbai and the Parsi family tree invariably connected to the Queen :D Our walk was great fun.From SBOW,we headed to a Parsi bakery and then Kyani restaurant Parsis and Iranis both came to India from Iran but Parsis came during the 8th  to 10th Century A.D in order to preserve their religion Zoroastrianism as Iran was invaded by Muslim rulers.(Iranis came during the period between 19th and 20th century).They landed up in Gujarat and convinced the king of a principality Jadav Rana that they would mix into the people like sugar does in a glass of milk but impart sweetness to it.That they...