It was splendid to walk with a passionate group of food and heritage enthusiasts led by @beyond_heritage and @raunak_ramteke through the by lanes of Fort, known for it’s Parsi cafes in corner plots, not inauspiciously located to the eye of the trading community. The Parsis known for their entrepreneurial zeal have given the micro minority a stature beyond it’s mere numbers. As Prof Leilah of SOAS has written in her book on Parsi trusts and the politics of burial, the Parsis are all over from Hong Kong to Toronto, with the Bombay Parsi Panchayat, the most influential.
We started at Cafe Excelsior with the chicken pattice, perfectly done with bun maska and chai, with the hundred year old space adding to the conversation as an invisible character. The long shadow of the Indian Ocean Tarikh is a character framing the inherent cosmopolitanism of the city. The pav, chilli and potato of the famed vada pav is Portuguese, with Estado de India, aka Goa next door.
We crossed the road, passing the Sterling Book Store, a memory of my teens via Camera Gully over to Ideal corner to savour mutton kheema, cutlet and more chai to wash down the fare.
The next stop was the iconic Yazdani Bakery with its old school bread and mawa cake. The serendipity of the fortune cookie was fun.
We then strolled to our final stop, Cafe Military with ice cream soda and laganu custard to round off the tour for the evening. Cafe Military is tucked in the streets of Fort where lawyers and accountsnts jostle for space in the heart of Bombay Capitalism, the Stock Exchange. Not much has really changed since the Opium Wars.
Wonderfully curated tour, filled with banter and reflection over great food, where food is more than what it is on the surface; a living analytic for history and Bombay culture.
The important questions are what will ultimately remain after a decade, in a city of redevelopment and what is prized as heritage within the UNESCO framework and the zoning laws of the city, where land is capital.
Many thanks to my Mumbaikar friend TC @tanayachakrabarti for the heads up for such a history soaked evening.
Change Thinker 