04 December,2020 11:30 AM IST | Mumbai | Shunashir Sen
Kheema na pattice
There is a park in the nether regions of Versova that the locals call 'Coconut Garden'. The place gets swamped with joggers and evening walkers just before sunset every day, with families out for a stroll often stopping by for pani-puri at a stall just outside the garden. The man who sells them shares the spot with a couple of vegetable vendors, who now have a new neighbour - a food truck called Tooq Tooq that sells a range of Parsi street snacks.
It's a strategic location. The truck occupies one corner of a four-way junction that comes to life soon after the joggers put their running shoes on, and aunties and uncles decide to spend quality time outdoors with their children. The owner launched it last Saturday, and the place caught our eye when we were walking to a friend's home that is right next to Coconut Garden. But they had run out of stock on that first day, so we made a mental note of returning there to sample the menu, our interest having been piqued.
Marghi na cutlace
In the meantime, we started getting rave reviews from fellow Versova residents. One person told us the food is "very good" while another said that it's "superb". This raised our interest levels even higher, so we returned around 7 pm earlier this week, since the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The menu has 10 items, of which we picked kheema na pattice ('150), marghi na farcha ('170), Parsi kavab roll ('170), chilli bun ('150) and marghi na cutlace ('150).
Owner Rushad Cyrus Balaporia (left) and Chef Brandon Pinheiro
The owner asked us whether we would like to take a walk and return in about 15 minutes, and offered us a complimentary cup of tea while we wait. We decided to stay put there itself, our secret intention being to gauge the sort of response this new venture is getting.
The spot where Tooq Tooq is located. Pics/Bipin Kokate
Within minutes, a couple of girls dropped by and then an elderly gentleman. They were followed by a family of four, who stopped at the truck more out of curiosity than anything else, before deciding to move on after realising that there isn't a single vegetarian dish on offer yet. If location is everything, Tooq Tooq has hit the nail on the head. What also helps is that the owner, who introduced himself to us as Rushad, has a pleasant personality that is inviting without being in your face.
Rushad told us that his philosophy is to promote Parsi street food - the stuff that his mother makes at home -in a city that's as flooded with sev puri and vada pao sellers as Delhi is with chhole-kulche stalls or Kolkata is with shops selling sandesh. The man is clearly passionate about his community's cuisine because when we said that we want the "fur-cha" while placing the order, he corrected us saying that the actual pronunciation is "faar-cha" instead. Refreshingly, he also told us that he shunned food-aggregating apps since he wants to build a sense of community in the area, with people stepping out of their homes in the evenings to get a quick bite with their family or friends.
But since we were on our own, we decided to get the grub packed and take it back home, which is a hop, skip and jump away. The moment of reckoning had arrived. Would the food live up to its hype? Was it indeed "superb" or at least "very good"? One bite of the cutlace confirmed that our friends hadn't been kidding. The subtly flavoured minced chicken ensconced in slightly greasy batter brought out an instant "mmmm" from us in approval.
The pattice followed a similarly satisfactory flavour profile, though the meat in it is mutton and the outer coating consists of creamy potatoes fried in batter. The chilli bun was the only aberration in our order, in the sense that its description said that the filling is made of Kolkata-style chilli chicken, which made it the sole non-Parsi item we tried. And the good news is that the pieces of meat in it did remind us of what you'd get in Tangra, the Chinese grub hub in the West Bengal capital, without setting our mouth on fire.
Next, we returned to the venture's core competency with the meaty Parsi kavab roll, which puts a regular frankie to shame as much as a man who loses his trunks in a swimming pool would feel. But it's the "faar-cha" that emerged as the stand-out dish, the hunky chicken thigh having been marinated to such perfection that we felt as if we had been deprived of this classic delicacy all our lives. It means that we had such a fabulous experience overall that despite having the disposition of a couch potato, we, too, might take up jogging at Coconut Garden just so that we have an added excuse to try the fare at Tooq Tooq.
Time: 5 pm to 9 pm (all week)
At: Close to Coconut Garden and Leaping Windows in Versova, Andheri West.
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