Burhani Grain Stores in Null Bazar.
In this second column on community food stores are the stories of four more multigenerational, family-owned businesses with no branches. They’re each repositories of flavours mainly familiar to the communities to which the owners belong.
Burhani Grain Stores
Making birista, the crisp, sweet, smoky fried onions that top biryani, is painstaking, requiring a keen eye on time and temperature and some skill in the kitchen. Stir the onions too early and they don’t caramelise or dehydrate evenly. Leave them too long, and they risk burning and going bitter. There is an easier way to get birista: going to Burhani Grain Stores in Null Bazaar where you can pick up kilos of the stuff that you can store in airtight jars and use as required.
In a neighbourhood dotted with restaurants known for their tasty Muslim food – it’s right next to Noorani Sweets and halfway between Noor Mohammadi and Sarvi – Burhani is the 40-year-old shop where members of the Bohri community come to get their stock of masala. Mustafa Sakharwala and his brother Juzer, who run the shop started by their grandfather Adamali, said that all the masalas are blended and ground according to their family recipes, at workshops nearby.
Of these the most famous perhaps is the kaari masala, which goes into a white poppy seed and coconut-rich chicken curry, a dish that’s a favourite of pretty much the whole community. Equally popular is sarki masala, used to make either a tuvar dal-based soup served cold with fresh veggies or hot with groundnut and coconut. Only 50 kilos of any masala are made at a time so that it sells out in eight to ten days, ensuring that the batch is always fresh and purchased at its aromatic prime.
Aside from masalas for traditional Bohri dishes such as dabba gosht, dal gosht, green chicken curry, chicken or fish broast, white mutton, chicken angara, biryani masala, sweet and sour foil chicken with sauce and khichda, there are also masalas for dishes that Bohris love enough to have made their own like chicken “chillie”, “sathay” chicken, chicken 65 and butter chicken. Every masala comes with a recipe leaflet, so even the curious inexperienced cook can give it a shot.
In addition, you can find at Burhani a bunch of food mixes found mainly in Bohri homes: khichda gehu, a mix of beaten wheat and pulses; and sheer kurma mix with vermicelli, dried fruit and sugar and rose petals measured out in suitable proportions. Available here is something so intrinsic to the community, it’s only found in shops in this neighbourhood: kaliyo or shredded sun-dried gosht (mutton), which is almost like a loose jerky in texture. Sakharwala told me that it’s used when meat is not easily available and is rehydrated in curries. I suspect that seasoned and spiced and perhaps slightly sauteed, it will make a great snack or work well in a sandwich.
Burhani Grain Stores 129, Saigar Building, opposite Qutbi Masjid, Saifee Jubilee Street, Kumbharwada, Null Bazar. Tel: 022 2346 5620 / 98202 01714. Open daily, from 8am to 9pm. Kaari masala Rs280 a kilo, kaliyo Rs800 a kilo.
Sindhi Provision Stores
“We cater to the NRI Sindhi,” said Akash Taurani, the fourth-generation owner of Sindhi Provision Stores who runs the shop with his father Roopkumar. For the casual passerby and non-Sindhi, SPS is your standard general merchant. The shelves and counters are spilling over with all manner of branded processed food products such as Kraft cream cheese and Kurkure. Only those in the know ask for the good stuff, like their thandai mix. The plastic pouch contains whole dhania seeds, rose petals, saunf, poppy seeds and whole black peppercorns among other ingredients. Take it home and blend it in a mixie with chilled whole milk, add home-ground almond paste if you like (as you should) and strain it if you must. It tastes nothing like the thandai at my mom’s place (we use slightly different ingredients and proportions), but like with Sindhi kadhi, each family has their own recipe.
SPS’s Sindhi garam masala is also a proprietary blend, though what sets all Sindhi garam masala apart from the regular kind are ingredients like shah jeera (black cumin), jaiphal (nutmeg), mace, black cardamom and regular cardamom. It’s the magic ingredient for both teevan (mutton) curry and Sindhi biryani. However, SPS’s is pricey at Rs800 per kilo. The Tauranis said this is because of the quality and quantity they use of expensive spices. Here’s what else will make its way out of the store’s drawers if you ask the right questions: Sindhi pickle masala heavy on kalonji (Nigella sativa, often called onion seeds, even though they aren’t); spicy Amritsari wadis preferred by many Sindhis over the regular mung dal Sindhi wadis (also available); mithi kathi (licorice tree twigs and root); an extra tikho (spicy) mirchi blend containing three types of chillies.
There are also ready-to-cook sun-dried Sindhi snacks like spiced rice crisps called khicha, lotus stem slices, tendli and salted green chillies. To counter the effects of all this spice (in rich Sindhi food), SPS stocks a number of ayurvedic preparations. According to SPS, indigestion and acidity can be beaten with the digestive arga (made with the concentrated essence of mint, fennel and bittering spices) and Ulhasnagar-based B. Vaidya Nathuram Ayurvedic Pharmacy’s “pipermint” (similar to Pudin Hara). Constipation is cured with senna leaves, and congestion with kadha mix (a whole spice-tisane blend). These, it appears, are absolute NRI Sindhi essentials.
Sindhi Provision Stores Shop No.5, Strand House, opposite Strand Cinema, Colaba Market, Colaba. Open Monday to Saturday, from 9.30am to 9pm; Sunday, closed. Pickle masala Rs65 for 100 grams, thandai masala Rs130 for 100 grams.
U. B. Rao & Sons and Kanara Stores
In 1942, Udupi Babu Rao started a shop for agarbattis. Every day from the store, their fragrance travels all around the block, overpowering the smell of the three masalas that U. B. Rao has also always sold: rasam, sambar and idli chutney powder. U. B.’s son Radhakrishna Babu Rao, who now mans the shop with his staff, said that regular customers ensure that at least 1,000 kilos of these masalas are sold every month. All the masalas are Udupi-style: the sambar has no garam masala, the rasam has little or no black pepper and the chutney podi contains kulthi or horse gram. However, the masalas are somewhat adapted to suit most palates as they’re devoid of coconut oil and strong spices. Each pack has a recipe printed on the back.
Around the corner is the better-known Kanara Stores, popular for its kori roti and its ayurvedic ingredients and preparations. Infrequent visitors don’t notice Nayak‘s Mangalorean Saraswat Brahmin masalas tucked inside a glass-fronted shelf. They include charmuri (puffed rice, also known as kurmura) masala, poha masala, sambar powder, rasam powder, chutney powders and garam masala.
The charmuri and poha, for people who haven’t tried them yet, are revelatory. Both are roasted in peanut oil. Nayak’s poha masala (which also contains ground pulses) is supposed to be mixed with grated coconut, jaggery and tempered mustard and curry leaves, before dry (un-soaked) poha is stirred into the vessel. The dish‘s texture is something between a dry chiwda and the moistened breakfast poha of Maharashtra and it’s fragrant with coriander, chilli, fenugreek, pepper, cumin and asafoetida. The charmuri masala is a similar mix in different proportions. It’s tossed into puffed rice with coconut oil, peanuts, shredded unripe mango and carrots, as well as chopped onions, tomatoes, chillies and coriander. I’ve had this bhel-like preparation from street vendors during the school summer vacations I spent in Bangalore and it’s the stuff of permanent cravings. It’s the first thing I have after I land in the city.
U. B. Rao & Sons Shop No.1, Kutchi House, corner of Bhandarkar Road and Laxmi Narayan Lane, Matunga (East). Tel: 022 2414 5033. Open Tuesday to Sunday, from 9am to 8.30pm; Monday, closed. All three masalas Rs42 for 100 grams.
Kanara Stores Shop No.4/352, Shriji Sadan, Bhandarkar Road, Matunga (East). Tel: 022 2410 2415. Open Tuesday to Sunday, from 9am to 9pm; Monday, closed. Charmuri masala Rs44 for 100 grams, poha masala Rs44 for 100 grams.
Read about Farm Products, Jai Maharashtra Masale, Kalyani Lonchi and M. Motilal Masalawala here.