Mumbai’s iconic dish of prawn (or fish) koliwadi is rather Punjabi at heart.

The thali that I made with the food from Hazara

How is this for a happy coincidence? Yesterday I wrote about how I fell in love with thalis in recent years. I was referring in this case to the stainless steel plate and bowl set which is the favoured dinnerware of many across India. 

Today (6th November) Ismat Tahseen’s excellent article featuring thalis (meal combinations) from across the country came out in the Bombay Times from the Times of India. She had interviewed me for the piece and was kind enough to give space me to share my thoughts on thalis and this is what I had to say in the article:

‘A thali is a representation of food memories’
Kalyan Karmakar, food expert, states, “the thali put together by anyone is a representation of their food memories. A homemade thali would thus have different aspects of a person’s life captured in it. For example, in my thali, as a Bengali who has lived in Mumbai for the last 20 years, there would be an amalgamation of Maharashtrian and Bengali dishes. A recent thali of mine at home starred jowar-bhakri, tendli cooked with coconut and peanuts from Maharashtra, as well as a very Bengali chholar dal. A representation of who I am, my food memories and culinary adventures. I would like to think that this would be typical of any thali. There is of course a lot of variance when it comes to thalis. Each state would have their own version and within the state too, you will find huge variances. What a thali does is capture the fact that an Indian meal at heart, is an accumulation of different components – proteins, grains, legumes and vegetables, flavours and tastes too – unlike in the West where you would not necessarily see such variety. A thali is similar to the Japanese kaiseki meal in philosophy as both are anchored on seasonal and local produce; and a balance of courses. What are some of the most memorable flavours he has eaten? He shares, “for me, a typical Indian thali is all about the contrast of flavours. Growing up in a Bangal family (originated from the eastern part of undivided Bengal), the more prominent flavours were savouriness (salt), heat (chilli) and a bit of acidity (sourness), there were no sweet element in our food.”

Ismat Tahseen on thalis in the Bombay Times

I am in a thali sort of mood these days as my recent Instagram feed would attest. Which explains why I plated the food that had come in from the Hazara restaurant this afternoon, as a thali. The Hazara Restaurant is located in Sion Koliwada in Mumbai. It was established in 1947 by a gentleman named Hukumchand Singh Julka after he moved into the city from the Khyber region of Punjabi in what became Pakistan after the Partition. The late Hukumchand Singh started what was a small eatery back then in memory of the food and the home (a town called Hazara) that he had left behind. His son Harbans Singh took on the reins of the business after his father and, as is typical of the Punjabi Indian restaurants we have grown up on, introduced Chinese food (the term ‘Indo Chinese was not known then) and food from other parts of India…Hyderabadi fare and from Maharashtra, Malvani and Kolhapuri in this case, making the melange in its menu as ‘Mumbaiya’ as it gets. 

The business is run today by the Mrs Urmila Julka, Harbans ji’s wife, after the latter passed away a decade back. All of which I got to know through Akanksha Maker, her granddaughter and the great granddaughter of Hukumchandji.

I had gone to Sion a couple of years back to check out the restaurants there and I have shared those stories with you here. Hazara was recommended to me by Dr Pradeep Rao that day as the place which had invented the prawns koliwada. I was alone that afternoon and unfortunately stuffed by the time I reached Hazara so I had to skip going there. I have been meaning to go back since then but that has not happened and we have stopped travelling ever since the pandemic began and hence my Hazara visit will have to wait.

Clockwise: prawn koliwada, Malvani chicken, mutton masala, salad, butters roti, garlic naan, fish koliwada

Which is why I happily took up on Akanksha’s offer to send me a sample of their food when she reached out to me a on Instagram sometime back. “Small portions and for one person only. I do not want to waste foos,” I told her and she largely stuck to her promise. I took out my meal in the thali format as I feel that this helps one exercise some portion control. It is another matter that I took a few more of the prawn koliwadas than you see in the picture as they were so nice and juice, not too spicy and the batter was minimal. It was all about the prawn! Akanksha had offered to send me marinated ones for me to fry but I was lazy and asked her to send readymade ones which I refreshed in the airfryer and it worked just well. Oh, and I took the other half of the garlic naan beyond what you see in the pic. Transparency first and yes, the meal was compliments of the restaurant.

Prawn koliwada is something I first had in Punjabi run places such as the Jai Jawan stall at Bandra’s Linking Road and at Khane Khas during my early days in Mumbai. Along with the vada pav, one could say that the prawn koliwada is one of the most iconic dishes of Mumbai. K says that my in laws used to drive to Juhu Koliwada from Dadar once upon a time to have these!

I later got to know of the kolis, who are fisher folks and said to be the original inhabitants of Mumbai and associated the dish with them then, but turns out that Mumbai’s prawn koliwada is very much a Mumbai Punjabi dish! A cousin of the famous machhi Amritsari one could say.

The late Hukumchand Singh who introduced prawn and fish (usually rawas/ Indian salmon cubes as it was in the food they sent today) koliwada, called these masala kissed batter fried bar snacks ‘Koliwada’, after Sion ‘Koliwada’ where the had set up his humble eatery. A place so named because of the Kolis who live there. 

All of which I learnt today from Akanksha who is rightfully proud of her family’s legacy.

Apart from the fish and prawn koliwada, roti and butter garlic naan (which I re-heated in a tava) that they had sent today, was a Malvani chicken curry and a mutton masala.

The meat in both was tender and all cuts of meats were used in the curries just as it was in our homes when we were kids. The Malvani curry had a strong coconut flavour in deference of the coastal region of Mahrashtra from which it takes its name. The gravy in the mutton masala was thinner in consistency, a bit oily and the dominant flavours were a medley of onion and garlic. Both dishes were lip-smacking, though too spicy for me but then I do not have high tolerance level for chilli heat. I could imagine my late father in law digging into this with gusto as he loved his spice!

Well, here’s the thing. The food at Hazara seems to be honest, no holds barred stuff meant to be had with a drink and was cooked for the hardworking folks who lived in the neighbourhood.  I am told that cabbies in particular would go there after a hard day’s labour to seek some joy in life. It is another matter that the food was lapped up by more ‘genteel’ folks too, but the dishes that I had today made it very clear that the Julka family has not seen any reason to shift from the spirit of the founder of Hazara, Hukumchand ji, and thank God for that. Some gems do not need to be polished!

#loveyourleftovers We combined the curries, added a bit of water ans potatoes and sent it to my mom in law as this is the sort of food she loves. This was her response: Munching on curry rice🥰 mazzaa aa gayaaa 🤠🤠

PS:

Dad’s lockdown birthday