Now hear me out before you get all woke on me and accuse me of gender stereotyping! Well, you would not be entirely wrong to do so. I am stereotyping here, perhaps in not so bad a way.
Let me tell you about a few of my recent meals to explain why I made this seemingly outrageous statement.
As you might know, K has been travelling since last Wednesday. She has gone for the Cannes Lions Festival. I am joining her for a holiday in Paris, followed by Berlin. Our (now evening) cook and house help, Banu, went on leave the day after K left. Our morning cook was AWOL on Saturday and Sunday is an off day for the her and our house-help.
You could say that the house was a bachelor pad with just Baby Loaf, Little Nimki (our two cat sons) and me. I was also suffering from the lingering impact of my fall and was in pain through most of the period (am better now, thank you). Which meant that I ordered food in pretty often.
There’s nothing remarkable about this but for the fact that I was detected with diabetes this March post Covid 19. I have eaten very carefully since then, guided by my dietician Dr Ria Ankola. A part of what I call my #eatbetter journey, has been about maximising home food over food from outside. Yet here I was, suddenly having to order in from quite a bit. So let’s see which are the places that I called in from.
I was craving for a snack on Friday evening and not the jhal muri I usually make at home. When Banu is there she makes me pohe with peanuts. I did not want to order pohe hence. Or a dosa. I get to eat hot and fresh dosa thanks to #kayteecooks in the mornings. Why settle for something cold and brittle from a restaurant?
I suddenly thought of The Village Shop, scanned their menu on Swiggy, and ordered avocado and tomato salsa with pomegranate on ragi discs. It was excellent. You got reassuring bites of avocado, whose fattiness was cut by the tang of the salsa. The ragi crackers were as crisp as a nice khari biscuit. Butter yes, but no other flours went into this, I was told. Very #eatbetter stuff. The Village Shop is run by Jennifer Malik and her husband Javed.
On Saturday afternoon came a tasting sample of Mexican fare from a new cloud kitchen named KikiAndPastor. The chef is a friend’s friend, and the said friend organised the tasting. When asked if I have any allergies or restrictions, I said ‘no sugar or refined flour, some vegetables are a must.’
I was really enamoured by the packaging which the food came in. Eco friendly boxes which were so easy to open. The food looked beautiful in it.
Not only am I fed up of opening endless cling wrapped plastic boxes, so is Mother Nature I am told. The packaging here made life easy at a time when I was multi-tasking way more than I do when K is home. The food – seafood aguachile (poached snapper cured in salsa), pork carnitas taco with pulled pork and chicken al pastor burrito bowl were perfect for a hot afternoon. The food tasted and looked vibrant. It was light, flavour packed and oozing with comfort. The taco was made with refined flour so I took out the pork and made excellent grilled rye sourdough sandwiches. I was really impressed by the food and have been recommending it to many since then. I sent some food from KikiAndPastor for our friend Dr Manisha yesterday and she was very impressed too.
The chef here is chef Kartikeya Ratan, an IHM Mumbai graduate Mumbai who worked at the Zodiac Grill and then abroad (Eleven Madison Park for eg). She misses the experience of table service but says that the cloud kitchen model has allowed young chefs like her to chase their dreams even in super expensive Mumbai
I had a near meltdown layer that evening at the thought of all the work piling up and could not even dream of making my own dinner. I ordered in from Izumi, Bandra. Tried a yaki seafood ramen for the first time. Ramen without the broth. Which makes it a stir fried noodles. I chose the moong bean noodles option, as that is gluten free. With pepper garlic sauce. The result was something that made me smile at the end of what seemed like a horrid day. The taste of the sauce took me back to the Singapore hawker markets.
The head chef and partner of Izumi is Nooresha Kably who made a series of study trips to Japan, after she hit her 40s, to learn the Japanese art of cooking in both hot and cold kitchens.
I was supposed to go out for a dinner on Saturday night but stayed home at the end. Our friend and my diabetologist, Dr Manisha Talim, offered to send dinner on Sunday as she felt I should not step out of home and should rest instead.
She sent us food from Yakana. Taiwan chicken rice, unripe mango salad and black fried rick. Our neighbours, Erika and Gia, dropped in to wish me Happy Father’s Day on behalf of Loaf and Nimki. I wanted to call for something nice for dinner for them. So I added a gochujang chiken and HongKong noodle to the order from Yakana.
The food was sent in easy to open and serve (from) packs and was a great hit overall. The chicken was tender. The black rice and barley fried rice won a collegian’s approval and that’s saying a lot when it comes to health food. She liked the potatoes too. The noodles and salad were a hit. Bit on the sweet side.
Perhaps I should have told them to avoid that from a diabetic’s pov.
My biggest worry with eating Chinese and Asian food in Mumbai these days is that the excess MSG and soda used leaves me bloated. No such problem here. I slept well. Woke up happy.
YAKANA was a concept that came out of a trip to Singapore that made us want to get the food found at their street food stalls, to Mumbai, said IHM Mumbai grads Anuja Shitut and Aviva Ashtamkar, whose pandemic baby it is.
I had to order in tonight (22 June) too before leaving for the airport as #bunkinkaytee didn’t come to work.
I didn’t think beyond our friend Sherry, who runs Kanak by Sherry, for this. A cloud kitchen and catering outfit run by this very talented and big hearted home cook who is now one of the most sought after names in the Mumbai food scene (and wherever else she takes her craft).
She had the Ludhiana special safed butter chicken on offer and after having it tonight, I can safely say that it’s going to be white over red when it comes to butter chicken for me from now. With that came lovely kali dal, veg biryani and her signature cottage cheese and cranberry kofta which had GeeGee and her Granny P (Gia and my mother in law) smitten. Gia and I had soft aata roti too.
Now what does all of this have to do with my seemingly chauvinist comment at the start that we need more women in the kitchen?
Well a few years back I had written in my Times Kitchen Tales column in the Times Of India that the office canteens of corporate Mumbai were likely to offer way better food than what they do if women were running them.
Women in food have shown that they can definitely run smart businesses AND ensure that the food served is from the heart and is as honest as it gets. It comes from a place of care, sincerity and meticulousness.
What’s common to all the places I mentioned here is that they are run by women. Solo or in partnership.
Just as some of my other favourite restaurants, cloud kitchens and home chef enterprises in Mumbai are.
For example, and in no particular order, Soam, Seefah, Hungry Cat Kitchen, Mahrukh’s Kitchen, Oottupura, Odia Bhoji, Karrylicious Kitchen, Katy’s Kitchen, Namak Swad Anusar, Flavours of Malvan, Chaitanya Restaurant, Mag St, Le 15, Eighth by Anurita, La Follie … I am sure I have missed some…
Yes, we need more women in the kitchen. Running them!
And, since I am headed to France as I type this, let me add… equality, liberty, quality … that’s what we diners can hope for with more women being in charge of kitchens.
Commercial kitchens, to qualify my statement.
Oh, and in closing, how can I not tell you about the organic Alphonsos we ordered from Denise DSilva Sankhe and her husband’s farm after she advertised them on the gram?
I ordered two dozen for friends and family. So good, that I ordered another dozen and thanks to that had the most delicious mangoes, one a day as allowed to me, for three consecutive days before I left. As Absolut Mumbai as sends off go, you could say!
Ps/ My #foodocracyforher podcast featuring women in the food industry has been on a break but I hope to resume it after the break. You can catch earlier episodes here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMnMN6haGGSi_mlkcuD8WE7S3eAH-aWt1
