For Chef Rishi Anand Khatri, our newest café special is in fact an old family favourite. His earliest memory of eating Bhatti Chicken is aged 7 or 8, and he recalls his father – the late Khatri Saab – cooking it regularly, thanks to the tandoor on their Delhi terrace. (Bhatti refers to the scorching flame that the chicken is roasted over, until succulent).
Bedecked in their annual finery of baubles, tinsel and lights, our cafés are ready to receive you for your Christmas celebration. So too are our chefs, who have assembled a most excellent array of festive fare for your table.
Stop by any Bombay tapri (street stall), café, or home, and you will likely find yourself with a gently steaming glass of chai in hand. Before the invention of chai, Bombayites drank kadha, an ayurvedic remedy for coughs and colds made of boiled water and spices like cardamom, cloves and nutmeg. Eventually locals started adding tea leaves, milk, honey and sugar to their ‘kadha’. Chai was born.
The Lamb Raan Bun is back in our select cafés for a limited time only and we can't promise that it will make a return visit. The story goes that the dish can be traced to Alexander the Great. So make haste and join us, lest you miss out on its legendary juicy deliciousness.
The trees are going up – topper included, strings of sparkly lights are being strung and festive tunes are starting to gently waft around amidst busy kitchen clattering. In our cafés, Christmas is almost here and with it, copious amounts of cheer. Behind the scenes, our Chef-wallas are busy introducing a hint of Bombay to this year’s festive delights, including the never-seen-before Bacon, Brie and Cranberry Naan Roll!
Chef Naved’s Haleem has made a number of appearances on the Dishoom menu over the years and we are delighted to share Chef’s much-cherished Haleem recipe.
Its not often you get the chance to make 1 + 1 = 3, but if you ever do - you should grab it with both hands. Because these are the moments you will remember, the ones you will cherish, the ones that makes it all worthwhile.
Not long ago, a team of enterprising and energetic Dishoom chef-wallas sauntered into the kitchen and put their heads together. They were musing over how to make breakfast bigger, better, more exciting, more delicious for all.
That the Bombay Prohibition Act of 1949 has never been repealed is a lovely Bombay peculiarity. This piece of legislation states that officials must issue permits for alcohol, and even then only in emergency cases.
Naved has even kindly shared his own recipe for the Chilli Garlic Crab, so – if you can’t make it to in to see us – at least you can share in our celebrations at home!
There are some things in life so perfectly matched – such winning combinations – that you wonder quite what anyone did before they came along...
Chilli. Mexican. Or maybe Tex-Mex. Not really Bombay, or indeed Indian, at all.
Last week, millions of Muslims around the world embarked on the month-long cycle of fasting, prayer and reflection that is Ramadan – the holiest month of the Islamic calendar.
Brian (still daydreaming of his recent, inaugural visit to Bombay): “You know what we need to really crack a Bombay Breakfast? Akuri. Oh man, that scrambled egg stuff made my stomach sit up and sing.
Wow. Thums Up. It’s kind of a Bombay institution, isn’t it? It’s one of those glorious things that never fails to sweep us back in time and conjure up treasured childhood memories of the homeland.
Christmas Turkey. Now be honest. Does the thought of it fill you with excitement? Does it make your taste buds stand to attention?
Cold, rainy morning, not very long ago in a comfortable booth at Dishoom on St Martin’s Lane.
Every Bombayite knows Bademiya