Duck tales

Bawmra Jap makes the trip from Goa to Colaba's Miss T. On the menu? A challenge to appease a crowd that wants veg bahn mi

Goa's famed chef Bawmra Jap was in town last week to spruce up the menu at Colaba's Miss T. If he had been perturbed by allegations made in November that his Goa outpost Bomra's was serving dog meat — Mariketty Grana's Thalassa also shut down — he showed no signs of it. "I don't know the impact [of the allegations]," he says when we ask, "But there's an inside joke around this because this season, we did better than last year!"

Jap, then, seems the epitome of what we understand as a "no-nonsense guy". "I should have dressed better," he quips, garbed in a comfy T-shirt and shorts. He is here to ascertain the menu's future, fine-tune dishes and conjure new ones to keep SoBo's fine-dining crowd engaged.

"I am trying to absorb what the last three months have been like in terms of feedback and response from our customers," says Jap, a consulting chef at the eatery. "We might want to add or take away some dishes from the menu to ensure that it remains seasonal," he adds, elaborating on the mission he and in-house executive chef Nikhil Abhyankar have embarked on, which includes serving patrons unique fare from the Golden Triangle — northern Burma, Hunan and Laos.

Bawmra Jap's Bomra's has quite the Hollywood clientele with even a visit from Jude Law. Pic/Bipin Kokate

And though his signature dishes, such as the pickled tea leaf salad, have made its way into the fine-dining's offerings, keeping the vegetarian crowd, predominant in this part of Mumbai, remains a challenge. Is his approach towards food then, different in the two cities? "In Goa, there is more demand for seafood and meat, whereas with South Mumbai, we have to try and accommodate customers from the Jain community as well," Jap explains, adding that since a large portion of his customers at Bomra's are on vacation, they are likely to experiment, as opposed to Mumbai regulars looking for familiar food.

Known for his chops in Burmese cuisine, Jap remains focused on putting it together in a modern and eclectic way such that "people get to experience the ethnicity of the food but at the same time try newer ingredients and cooking techniques". What's different at Miss T, he adds, is that it's a combination of this food along with delicacies from Vietnam and northern Thailand. "Eating habits in that region and in India are quite different but we are trying to accommodate the palate here without compromising on quintessential flavours," he says.

Jap's visit to the city this time will involve fine-tuning the menu in a way such that at least 45 per cent of it can cater to non-meat lovers. And though satisfying the needs of a diverse range of patrons is important to the chef, he is reluctant to do so at the cost of authenticity. For example, bahn mi, a Vietnamese sandwich that typically consists of duck or other meat (and which became wildly popular after Anthony Bourdain familiarised foodies across the world during his travels in Hoi An) features on the menu here. Often, guests have requested a vegetarian version of the delicacy, but doing so would mean compromising its integrity.

At the same time, a reassessment of the meat and seafood dishes will also be on the cards. The team at Miss T, along with Jap, will attempt at introducing patrons to Chilean sea bass and lamb chops. Back in Goa, his 15-year-old Candolim restaurant that sees rolling crowds and stays operational for six months only is looking for a new home, but the exact location hasn't been decided yet.

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