Over the years K has collected many students. He started teaching at the K.C. College at Churchgate and, after a few stints here and there as visiting faculty, has been teaching various aspects of Archaeology at the CEMS, Mumbai University. He's an excellent teacher and is not your usual sombre fuddy duddy teacher - quite the opposite actually! One of the best things that have resulted from his teaching career is the Archaeologists' Dinner Soiree that one of his ex-students, Andre, organises every year.
Andre's beautiful home in Khotachi Wadi is the venue and this year we opted for an East Indian feast complete with meat, pork and chicken with nary a vegetable in sight!
As usual there was a beautifully set table - this time with rustic leaf plates and a centrepiece of a grinding stone, spices and a stone tool - an ode to the archaeologists gathered at the table!
We started off with Kimad - a warm potion of country liquor and tea, spiced up and served hot in little glasses called chavnis.
Once we'd all warmed up with a shot or two of Kimad it was time for the food to arrive.
First up was the pork - there was Vindaloo and there was Sorpotel. The vindaloo was classic bright red, spicy and sour and downright delicious.
Andre's family makes a fabulous sorpotel. I'm not much of a fan of sorpotel but this version totally won me over. Lightly spiced and not the usual fiery red in colour, it was the dish of the day for me. They make this toned down version so you don't get tortured by acid reflux after indulging in more sorpotel than you should!
Along with them came fugias - little balls of fermented spongy bread that are deep fried.
The chicken made its grand entrance I had to stop myself from taking just a little more sorpotel again. A seemingly simple roast chicken with potatoes, this was another fabulous dish. Oh those potatoes...!
Somewhere in the middle of all this a colourful salad was passed around. I don't know if anyone actually ate any of it. No, I didn't take a photograph.
Then the mutton made its appearance accompanied by the rice. Glasses of solkadhi were passed around along with some of the sweet home made East Indian currant wine.
Here's the green mutton curry followed by the wedding rice garnished with boiled eggs and caramelised onions.
There was no way I could eat any more... but we still had dessert to look forward to.
Dessert was our contribution to the evening. A classic caramel custard that the Parsis and East Indians have adopted as their own quite happily.
Andre and his family went all out to give us a fabulous dinner. His mom, Maria Baptista, and his aunts, Ms. Teresa Viegas and Ms. M. Saldanha helped Andre to put this fabulous feast together along with Ms Fatima D'souza.
You will have noticed the earthenware vessels and the wooden spoons that were used. These are all traditional vessels and utensils and have been in Andre's family for a couple of generations at least. What a treat it was to see them all still in use.
What can be better than an evening filled with fun, laughter, good food and good friends? I can think of nothing right now :-)
Disclaimer: Some of the photographs have a golden hue because I forgot to change some settings on the camera. With so much good food around you can easily understand how that must have happened!
15 December
Marathon Bloggers
Andre's beautiful home in Khotachi Wadi is the venue and this year we opted for an East Indian feast complete with meat, pork and chicken with nary a vegetable in sight!
As usual there was a beautifully set table - this time with rustic leaf plates and a centrepiece of a grinding stone, spices and a stone tool - an ode to the archaeologists gathered at the table!
We started off with Kimad - a warm potion of country liquor and tea, spiced up and served hot in little glasses called chavnis.
Once we'd all warmed up with a shot or two of Kimad it was time for the food to arrive.
First up was the pork - there was Vindaloo and there was Sorpotel. The vindaloo was classic bright red, spicy and sour and downright delicious.
Andre's family makes a fabulous sorpotel. I'm not much of a fan of sorpotel but this version totally won me over. Lightly spiced and not the usual fiery red in colour, it was the dish of the day for me. They make this toned down version so you don't get tortured by acid reflux after indulging in more sorpotel than you should!
Along with them came fugias - little balls of fermented spongy bread that are deep fried.
The chicken made its grand entrance I had to stop myself from taking just a little more sorpotel again. A seemingly simple roast chicken with potatoes, this was another fabulous dish. Oh those potatoes...!
Somewhere in the middle of all this a colourful salad was passed around. I don't know if anyone actually ate any of it. No, I didn't take a photograph.
Then the mutton made its appearance accompanied by the rice. Glasses of solkadhi were passed around along with some of the sweet home made East Indian currant wine.
Here's the green mutton curry followed by the wedding rice garnished with boiled eggs and caramelised onions.
There was no way I could eat any more... but we still had dessert to look forward to.
Dessert was our contribution to the evening. A classic caramel custard that the Parsis and East Indians have adopted as their own quite happily.
Andre and his family went all out to give us a fabulous dinner. His mom, Maria Baptista, and his aunts, Ms. Teresa Viegas and Ms. M. Saldanha helped Andre to put this fabulous feast together along with Ms Fatima D'souza.
You will have noticed the earthenware vessels and the wooden spoons that were used. These are all traditional vessels and utensils and have been in Andre's family for a couple of generations at least. What a treat it was to see them all still in use.
What can be better than an evening filled with fun, laughter, good food and good friends? I can think of nothing right now :-)
Disclaimer: Some of the photographs have a golden hue because I forgot to change some settings on the camera. With so much good food around you can easily understand how that must have happened!
15 December
Marathon Bloggers
1 comment:
Just fabulous!! Loved this post!
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