Fruit cake by Mavs Cakes and Bakes.
There are few places in the city as festive as Bandra during Christmas time. Shops and roadside stalls are decorated in red and green; carolers can be heard through the streets; and there are plenty of treats to be made and bought. Food stores and bakeries such as Venus, American Express and Hearsch are popular haunts but if you’re looking for something different this year, then save the numbers of these lesser-known caterers and shops from the suburb who specialise in Goan and East Indian delicacies.
Fiona Fernandes
A Goan or East Indian-style Christmas meal can be spiced up further with Fiona Fernandes’s range of pickles and masalas. Brinjal pickle (Rs150 for 300 grams), green tendli pickle (Rs150 for 300 grams), purish or kujit masala (Rs250 for a small bottle and Rs500 for a big bottle) and bottle masala are just a few of her excellent offerings.
Fernley House, 60 Perry Road, next to D’Monte Park, Bandra (West). Tel: 98205 56571.
Franz
You can make a simple yet adventurous Christmas meal out of the salted cured tongue (prices start at Rs400 for 600grams) prepared by Francesca Menezes who runs catering service Franz. Menezes marinates the buff tongue for seven days with lemon, spices and salt, and then pressure cooks it to render it supremely tender. She recommends using thinly cut slivers with some butter and mustard in a sandwich. Wedding pickle (Rs400 per kg), a traditional East Indian specialty, is one of her best-selling items. The water and vinegar-based preserve has carrots, dry dates, chilli, papaya and mustard seeds. A fixture at weddings and festive occasions such as Christmas, it can also elevate a tongue sandwich.
Franz, Sebastian House, Flat No.4, Second Floor, 42 Rebello Road, Bandra (West). Tel: 98199 70532.
Mavs Cakes and Bakes
This shop focuses on traditional English sweets such as rum balls and fruit cake. Here the rich rum balls (Rs50 per piece) are made out of wafer biscuits (and not cake crumbs, which is typically the case) and plenty of walnuts and cocoa butter. They’re then drizzled with dark rum and left aside for 15 days for the booze soak in. The aromatic fruit cake (Rs950 for half kg) is another traditional English dessert that Mava sells in shapes such as stars and circles. Other standout offerings here include the mulled wine jelly sweets (Rs1,200 per kg) and baked pears with walnut cream (peeled pears are baked as opposed to poached in wine and served with whipped mascarpone and walnuts, Rs400 per portion). Both make for the perfect ending to a Christmas roast. If a roast is what you’re planning for your festive meal, then complete your order with jars of their cranberry chilli jam and spiced plum chutney, which they’ll take orders for even after Christmas.
Mavs Cakes and Bakes, 89 Waroda Road, next to St. Jude Bakery, Ranwar Village, Bandra (West). Tel: 98198 73959.
Melting Moments
In addition to the usual guava cheese (or perad as it’s known in Portuguese), marzipan, kul kuls and plum cake, Valentina Henriques and her home-based sweets catering service Melting Moments is known for its chocolates (prices start at Rs750 per kg). Get the Maddy Mellow, a marshmallow (made in-house) with chocolate; Milky Cream, a chocolate with a milk cream centre; and special Christmas chocolates stuffed with marzipan. Her mixed box makes for an ideal gift for the season.
Melting Moments, 302, Anclare Abode, St. Andrews Road, Bandra (West). Tel: 98338 08105.
Taash
Leslie Fernandes who runs Taash, a food catering service in Goa, specialises in doce (Rs400 per kg), bebinca (Rs400 per kg), dodol (Rs400 per kg), bolina (Rs350 per kg), baath (Rs400 per kg) and the ever-popular Goa sausages (Rs500 for 100 beads or rosary sausages). His sausages stand apart as they’re smoked the old-fashioned way over a wood fire. Besides adding flavour, this process of smoking over bamboo sticks helps preserve the meat. The high demand for his sausages gets him to Bandra from Goa every week to supply to clients here (he also delivers from Goa against a minimum order of Rs1,000).
Taash, Dramapur, Margao, Goa. Tel: 088059 99463.
Kumud Dadlani has gained a Masters in Food Studies from the University of Gastronomic Sciences, Italy. She conducts research for a hospitality brand.