The beginning of my camaraderie with ‘Sodabottleopenerwala’ was humdrum.
Hardly had I taken my seat inside the differently decorated SBOW on upstart Lovelle Road on my maiden visit than a heart-warming voice asked ‘Khaben Ki?’! A Bengali in Irani Cafe? Lovely! The conversation snowballed:
- ‘Ekhane bhalo ja aache niye aashun…kintu aaste’ [Bring all that is good here…but, don’t rush].
- ‘Lunch Khaben to? Tahole soja main course jaan.’ [Hope you’re here to have lunch. Then hit the main-course straight]
- ‘Tai hok’ [So be it].
I love to get surprised and eateries love surprising the curious.
‘Chicken Baida Roti’ caught me off-guard calling up memories of Calcutta’s ‘Mughlai Parota’ – being a ‘Streetsmart’ paratha stuffed with delicious chicken keema carefully spiked with ginger, garlic, chilli, finely chopped onion and spicy scrambled eggs – simple, fat, unusually filling, fantastically tasty and surprisingly nongreasy. The shapely food spoke volumes about the honesty and fun that had gone into it leaving each mouthful craving for more. I marched on!
‘Salli Boti’ with ‘Jaloo’s Famous Malai Ka Parata’, when spelt in one breath, sounded more like a magical muttering right from the pages of Harry Potter doubling my wonder. Like the feted Dhansak or Akuri, Salli Boti is a versatile Parsi side-dish – though tastes equally delicious, teeming with succulent mutton chunks, when served solo with Salli (crispy matchstick potato). The first morsel made me pause pointing at an intriguing duel between Jaggery and Garam-masala with Vinegar playing the balancing arbiter – I smilingly reached out for more. Having found the Malai Paratha too heavy as an accompaniment, I wisely ordered some modest Pavs [i.e Bun/ Bread or Dinner roll]. It was, as they say, finger lickin’ good!
- ‘Kemon laaglo?’ [How was it?].
- ‘Darun’[Fantastic].
- ‘Caramel Castard khaben na?’ [Won’t you try our Caramel Custard?]
- What?
I hopelessly yielded!
The jiggling dessert was silky, deliciously sensual – placed somewhere between a Flan and a Brûlée with the caramel top a tad harder than usual, and lovingly served in a delicate ramekin.
It took me a while to lift the last spoonful to my mouth and almost a lifetime to get over the lingering taste!
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