The Chorizo Chronicles, MW June 2015

The June edition of the MW (Men’s World) magazine has my story on the trend of ‘mainstream’, non-Goan, restaurants in India introducing chorizo and Goan sausages in their menus.

You can read it at the link here.

This is the original text:

We had
almost reached the end of a pretty interesting meal at Gurgaon’s Farzi Café
when I spotted the chorizo pulao on the menu and decided to try it out.

The dish
turned out to be quite a delight with subtly flavoured rice enlivened by bursts
of the chorizo. The rice was like a typical ghee flavoured Indian pulao which
seemed to offer the perfect canvas for the piquant meat.

I asked chef
Saurabh of Farzi Café about the inspiration for his dish. He replied saying “Farzi cafe is all about food, the way never served
before, the pairing of ingredients never seen before. Pork and rice is a
classic concept seen in many regional cuisines like Cuban, Spanish, Tex-Mex,
Chinese and many more, but not often in Indian cuisine. Chorizo is peppery,
smoky and intense, which makes it appropriate for Indian palate. Mixed in ghee
pulao with caramelized onions and chillis makes a complete meal in
itself. “

What he said made a lot of sense because the Spanish and Portuguese origined,
red chilli flecked pork meat, chorizo, is likely to appeal to Indian palates
with its tangy and sharp tastes and flavours.

In fact sometime back, Imbiss, the meat focused restaurant from Mumbai
became pretty popular for its chorizo rice served with quail eggs.

Then Smoke House Deli in Mumbai introduced chorizo picante, chorizo
tossed with cubed potatoes and caramelised onions. We always order it when we
go to Smokehouse and it is a hit with whoever is with us when we go there.

One afternoon, the folks at Smoke House told us that they had run out
of imported chorizo and wanted to know if they could use local chorizo instead.
Turned out that they meant Goan sausages. The dish tasted even nicer than
normal. Goan sausages have an inherent heaty spiciness to them thanks to the
masalas and vinegar used which made the dish even more appealing to us.

Interestingly, while Goan sausages were available in small Goan
restaurants such as the Mangolorean owned New Martin Hotel and Snow Flake in South
Mumbai, they were rarely seen in newer restaurants and cafes in the city or
outside of it.

There was the odd example such as the Goan sausage bagel which was
available in Mumbai’s Bagel Shop but that’s about it.

Owner, Anil Kably, got the idea when he had gone to Goa for a music
festival. He had bought sausages from a local market. A friend of his, Michael
Anderson, scoffed at these sausages and took Anil to Anton’s. Anton took him to
a small smoke house, where he  gave Anila
some sausages that were being smoked on a spit to try. Anil apparently was so
impressed that he decided to introduce these in his café. He tempered the Goan
sausage with cream cheese to make it more acceptable for the foreigner
clientelle that he has in his café.

Ironically it was a Bangalore based chef who brought Goan sausages into
the mainstrean modern restaurant landscape before folks in Mumbai did so. Chef
Manu Chandra introduced Goan sausage pav and Goan sausage pulao at Monkey Bar
in Bangalore. Elements of the menu which he then took to Delhi and recently to
Mumbai when he expanded his gastro pub chain.

Chef Chandra says that his menu at Monkey Bar is a tribute to his
childhood memories, travels and history of culture of India and celebrates the
regional cuisine of India. He finds Goan Chorizo, a remnant of the Portuguese
rule of Goa, to be the perfect ingredient to liven any dish.

Which is probably what got Chef Irfan Pabaney to introduce a Goan
Choriz mac and cheese in his Sassy Spoon chain of restaurants in Mumbai. A dish
that oozes culinary decadence and marries two contrasting tastes.

Smoke House Deli, which first experimented with replacing choriz Goan
sausages in its choriz picante then introduced a Goan sausage based dish too.
This is the devillishly delicious Goan sausage (the menu describes it as chorizo
though) and potato sandwich. Ironically you can have the very sinful fatty Goan
sausages here with prim and proper multi grain breads.

Chef Glyston Gracias of Smoke House Deli talks about
trying to marry childhood memories in a modern café format and says “The chorizo at Smoke House Deli caters to the
Indian palate and is smoked to perfection. It works well with our causal dining
ambiance and has the right balance of fat, meat and spice that tends to take me
back to my grandmother’s choris pav that I used to gorge on during my summer
vacations in Goa.”

Villa Vandre, the recently launched tiny café in
Mumbai’s Bandra, has its own take on choriz. Chef Aloysious, an East Indian
(one of the original communities to settle in Mumbai) makes  East Indian sausages which he says is less spicy
and fatty than the Goan version. He makes a tantalising dish with sausage
topped with a fried egg and placed on mash.

Aloysious’s method of making his own sausages takes
care of the consistency and supply issues which chefs have with Goan sausage
especially outside of Goa and pockets of Mumbai. Manu Candra talks about how
the quality of sausage needs to be checked even in Goa where he sources it
from. Anil Kably of Bagel Shop talks of the extra cooking done to ensure
quality. Chef Saurabh of Farzi Café frets at being unable to get a regular
supply of Goan sausage in Delhi.

Given the
popularity of Goan sausages and Indian choriz wherever it has been introduced I
am quite sure that it is going to catch the fancy of meat lovers across the
country.

Hopefully
the supply issue will be sorted out soon.