The Indian menu was replaced by a continental pasta (average price of Rs 250/ USD 6.1), steak and sandwich menu. I saw some of the food which people ordered and it looked pretty good.
Tucked in a corner was a table stand which listed a few Irani/ Parsi dishes. My colleagues wanted to try that out. So what followed was a smorgasbord of good Parsi food. I did the ordering of course. And i am sure my choice of dishes would have done my Parsi in laws proud.
We started with ‘bheja cutlet’ (brain cutlet). The brain of goats is a delicacy in the Parsi and Muslim cuisines of Mumbai. The most popular form is ‘bheja fry’ where the brain is smashed, deap fried with onions, tomatoes, chillies and garam masala. I chose the cutlet as the rest of our dishes were gravy and masala based.
One of our two lunch mates, R, had fish for the first time in her life in a recent office lunch . Today was the first day she tried brain or bheja. She loved it! I felt like one of those people in college who would lead one ‘astray’ by introducing one to forbidden pleasures
Well, the brain cutlet was very nice. It consisted of brain mashed (the white bits in the cross section in the photo) with a bit of potato, seasoned with garam masala and fried in an egg coating. The garam masala sharpened the taste of the white, wobbly meat.
We then had a sali kheema. This was a minced meat dish made with spices and had peas in it. You had this along with ‘sali‘ or potato straws. The kheema was nice and spicy and tasted good. We had this along with the local Bombay bread, pao. Kheema and pao is a classic combination.
We followed this with the legendary Parsi dish – dhansak. This is a brown coloured gravy with mixed pulses, meat and mashed vegetables. As you can see it doesn’t photograph well but is very tasty. You have this with brown rice which is seasoned with caramelised onons. At Mocambo they gave a couple of little kebabs with the rice. The dhansak at Mocambo was quite good and I am sure Kainaz’s folks would have approved of it.
By the way do not expect to get dhansak in any auspicious occasion for Parsis. it is traditionally served at funerals. Dhansak and beer followed by a good siesta on a Sunday is the idea of heaven for many Parsis.
Well our meal of 3 ice tea, 2 bheja cutlets, one sali kheema and 2 mutton dhansaks cost us Rs 650 (16 USD) which was quite given the quality of the food and the nice ambiance. A better bargain than Britannia I would say though not as quirky
PS. Mocambo is not to be confused with the Continental restaurant of the same name in Calcutta