Hello. I am back here again.
Somehow all my recent posts seem to begin with my saying this!
The last year has been one where I have explored various new content creating mediums such as lives, podcasts, videos, zoom chats and have enjoyed them too. The blog remains the anchor and I have been more prolific here than I had been in the immediate past, though not much as I am in my social media channels.
Which is why winning the best general food blog award at the #IFBA 2021 awards felt special. I have won in each of the previous editions too but this year was different. The blog has been my life saver during the pandemic and I was glad to see my efforts recognised. Thank you so much for your support and big thanks to FBAI and the judges for the award.
I do not know if you follow me on Instagram, but I have recently started something new there. It was inspired by ad legend Freddy Birdy’s page where he often writes and puts the copy in the picture windows and not just the text box. I found it easier to read. As do his millions of followers.
One hardly gets much engagement on blogs now. People often write long copy in the Instagram text section but I doubt if folks read that. I do not. The format is not user friendly.
What Birdy has shown is that you might need to go where your audience is if you have a story tell, rather than wait for them to come to you.
Over the past few days I have written a few picture based posts and the engagement has been most gratifying. The copy is shorter on Instagram of course. More focused. I thought I will combine a few of them to make a blog post. A bit like modern days movies where 3,4 short movies are presented as one.
Here’s the first of them. The one I wrote on sandwiches and which made many crave for the sandwiches of their childhood once again.
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| Parsi da dhaba chicken sandwich |
5th May 2021
‘There are two things that you should know about my late father in law.
That he loved sandwiches. And that he never lost his cool.
He was immersed in the ham & cheese sandwich that I got him the first time we met. The only thing grilled in that ‘meet the parents’ evening at JATC, Churchgate, was the sandwich. To perfection.
Our late Jamshed uncle would pack and send my father in law sandwiches from RBYC made with club ham and with the house special mustard added on the side.
I guess the two fine Parsi gents are sharing sandwiches and smiling at us from a rainbow somewhere.
My late father in law loved mutton sandwiches in particular. My wife would often buy him mutton sandwiches from the American Express Bakery outlet at Kemp’s Corner when she worked in an ad agency next door.The sandwiches were old school. Soft white bread, tender mutton. Butter slathered.
My pa in law would dig into them with a smile when we would go to visit my in laws. Thankfully there was no wefast then. Lockdowns or social distancing.
My late father in law’s love for sandwiches got passed on to his daughter. When we got married, she said she could make a meal of them. I was very clear in my head though, sandwiches are for breakfast and tea. Hot meals for dinner!
Our sandwich courtship ritual in the early 2000s was to have the chicken sandwich at the RTI counter when we went to watch the late night ‘creme de la creme’ show at Sterling. We would buy them at the start as the counter would shut before interval in those innocent single screen times.
The Parsi mamma made chicken sandwiches of the RTI counters reminded me of the ones my mum would make me when we moved into Kolkata from Iran in the early 80s and when I was a fussy single born still.
Soft bread. Butter. Boiled chicken. Salt and pepper.
The crust cut off. Her son was born in England after all!
Nah, the whole of Kolkata did that. It was once the second city of the Empire you see.
This morning I had the remaining chicken and mutton sandwiches that Urvaksh from Parsi Da Dhaba had sent yesterday. The bread was slightly chilled as I had kept the sandwiches in the fridge.
Firm, yet soft. Hugged many times, by salted butter.
The chicken was boiled, shredded and bejewelled with salt and pepper, as they were in my mother’s kitchen.
The roast in the mutton sandwich, majestic in flavour, cuddly in texture. The way my pa in law loved his mutton sandwiches to be.
I was irritated this morning by some silliness I had come across.
Breakfast made me realise the secret to my father in law’s unruffled demeanour.
And why sandwiches were my mum’s way to calm a huffing and puffing baby Raja.’
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| Parsi da dhaba mutton sandwich |
I cannot sign off without sharing a few more sandwich memories.
Of the time my didu (maternal grandmother) made me a potato bhaaji stuffed grilled sandwich in the hand-held toaster she had brought to Kolkata from Delhi after dadu had retired. This was in 1981 when I had gone to spend a weekend with my grandparents.
She made me one a few years back when I had flown to Kolkata to stay with her as she was all by herself with even her night attendant going on leave. Dadu was no more.
I met the Mumbai cousin of those grilled sandwiches in front of the Eros theatre in 1996 when I had come to hand out MBA placement brochures. Mumbai became my ‘forever home’ a couple of years later and my love affair with the Mumbai grilled veg toast sandwich is still going strong!
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| Candies chicken sandwich |
And let us not forget the #softestchickensandwichesintheworld from Candies. Here’s something on that from Instagram.
6th May 2021
I miss waking up on Sundays and heading sleepily to Candies.
I miss doing a Kramer on seeing the manic queue at the food counter, waiting for Sylvia to rescue us by saying, ‘3 chicken sandwiches, 2 cappuccinos in takeaway, one single, one double, Kalyani (sic) sir?’
I miss our splitting forces with one scrambling to find a table, the other to pay the soft spoken aunty with kind eyes at the cash counter.
I miss going to Sylvia with puppy eyes once our order is ready, asking for chips and her then taking out some from her secret stash. Or her saying, ‘I’ll get you some baba,’ like she would to the kids from the nursery next door.
I miss carrying our tray and walking back to our table. K waiting patiently while I click and post.
I miss stuffing the butter chips in to the #softestchickensandwiches in the world and then breaking into a smile after my first bite. Finishing my #firstcappuccinooftheday before we head back.
K’s and my Banda Sunday ritual for years.
This morning I called in for chicken sandwiches from Candies. K’s treat to me on Mother’s Day. Or Sunday! They reached just as I finished my shower. The timing was immaculate. You can depend on Minal, who takes the orders, for that.
We called for some for our young friend down the stairs and sent some to our friend down the lane. And called for a mutton puff for tea.
Had breakfast with K giving me company and then the
#KittyKarmakars as I wrote this.
Count your blessings, as they taught us in school.
Not calories!
Call 8591149713 to order from Candies in Bandra.
Call 9167861630 to order from Urvaksh Hoyvoy’s Parsi Da Dhaba. They deliver across Mumbai.
