Back in the ’80s when chef Niyati Rao’s father had one too many at Calcutta Gymkhana, he and his friends would often make a beeline for a small little shop in the city’s Tangra neighbourhood for their hangover cure. At 3am, a lady of Chinese descent doled out pork wontons with thin, slimy skins doused in a pounded sesame and chilli oil paste, served with a thimble of a stinky tofu sauce. A balance of spice, nuttiness and a slight tang from the fermented tofu, it was just the booze sponge they needed. An iteration of this dish, named Tangra Hangover, finds a spot on the menu of the chef’s new bar, Bombay Daak in Bandra’s reclamation area.
Thumbing through Bombay Daak’s menu unfurls a book of such nostalgic nuggets—the kind that would be revealed a few drinks down. Each dish is a leaf from a boomer’s good ol’ drinking days, at a grungy bar and of course, with a side of crunchy snacks. A “daaru-chakna” spot, Bombay Daak is a hat-tip to India’s drinking culture and traditions, right from Manipur to Maharashtra.
Prologue
The tellers of the story behind India’s dive bars are partners Niyati Rao and Sagar Neve, also the folks behind Mumbai’s Ekaa—#37 on CNT India’s Top Restaurant Awards list. The two who often drink at dive bars post work have been fascinated by the sheer diversity and vastness of India’s drinking culture. “The Spanish speak very highly about their tapas and the Italians about their antipasti, but no one waxes eloquent about India’s bar snacks, when there’s so much to showcase from across India. Our daaru-chakna has some of the best flavour and textures.” says chef Rao. “We also wanted to create a safe space to showcase the food at India’s grimy bars, which otherwise women and visitors to the city wouldn’t get a taste of.”
When Rao and Neve began their research, there was very little literature to refer to, so the two turned to secondary sources through their network of family, friends and staff across India. Over a year and a half, the duo has interviewed 112 people from different communities and regions, and visited bars in different parts of India, to craft the menu of 42 small plates and cocktails.
Contents
Luncheon Meat at Bombay Daak
Bombay Daak’s menu is inspired by some of India’s most famous dive bars, from Chhota Bristol, one of Kolkata’s oldest dating back to the 1800s, and even Mumbai’s hole-in-the-walls Janta and Gokul, with their fun iterations of peanut chakna and chakri. But beyond bars, the menu digs deep into India’s communities and their unique drinking traditions and ancestral recipes handed down through generations. An interview with chef Rao’s friend, Pawan Choudhary, galvanised her to create one of the most exciting dishes on the menu—Shikaar ka Achaar. “Choudharys hail from the farmer families of Bhatinda, and would often hunt down rabbits who’d ruin their crops. Originally from Rajasthan, this Punjabi community would turn many foods into pickles, including rabbits. This pickle was enjoyed by Pawan’s ancestors along with their whisky pegs,” says the chef. At Bombay Daak, a rich, piquant pickled gravy made of three different types of chillis with a grainy rabbit mince is best mopped up with pillowy bread. The eponymous Chivda Kapse is Chef Satish Kapse’s favourite chakna alongside a drink—bhujing. An iconic dish from Virar’s bars, bhujing is poha made with roasted chicken. Rao’s rendition is fried poha on a bed of corn kernels, pomegranate and lemon aioli crowned with roasted chicken—a fun play on flavours and textures. Luncheon Meat tells the boozy stories of people from the Parsi community—soft, chunky slices of pork luxuriating in a mix of honey and chillis. “With drinks, Parsis often opened a can of Spam pork meat, imported by some meat shops in South Mumbai. It wasn’t on the menu at Bombay Gymkhana, and not many know, but if you requested it with your drink, you’d be offered a thick chunk of the briny canned meat,” chef Rao says.
Bombay Daak’s menu spans the often-overlooked Northeast India. From Shillong comes smoked pork, a must-have with drinks, and Rao takes great trouble to source the best quality bred by a local family. The proof lies in the pig—soft as marshmallow pork with a spicy kick from fermented soybean and chilli, served on a bed of velvety potatoes and herbs. From Nagaland comes a version of anishi (Nushi), a black tablet-like bundle of yam leaves that lends a smoky, umami flavour to curries; chef Rao sources these from the town of Mokokchung, and cooks with goat bheja which beautifully soaks in the flavours. There’s also Wai Wai on the menu, a favourite with drinks in Manipur; the chef’s spin is a plate full of crisp broken noodles made with a mix of 15 ingredients, from bamboo shoots to Manipuri chives.
A few dishes also dig into owner Sagar Neve’s Maharashtrian roots. A sweet-and-sour eggplant pickle in tamarind chutney, made just the way his family enjoys it with a peg. And of course, there’s fried Bombil, the fish that inspired the name—Bombay Daak was the iconic train that transported the fish from Mumbai to Kolkata. The name was anglicised to duck, which then stuck.
The food is generously spicy and greasy, as chakna should be, so you will find yourself reaching out for a glass more than usual. Luckily, the bar programme headed by mixologist Yathish Bangera is just as diverse as the food. Bombay Daak creates its version of the Kesar Kasturi, a Rajasthani heritage liquor not found outside the state. Fat-washed with ghee, the whisky rendition laced with saffron and dry fruits has a silky, toffee mouthfeel and is perfect to quiet the spice. Finding Feni is aam papad in a drink; it draws inspiration from the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin community’s sweet and tangy mango curry. Santra Season, a breezy cocktail, gets a kick from Malvan masalas, thetcha and karvanda pickle. Parangi Malu is an ode to Bangera’s Coorgi friend; the gin-based cocktail has smoky flavours of coffee and chekké kuru pajji (Coorgi jackfruit chutney). And the cheese-cherry-pineapple combination on a stick many folks so dearly enjoy with a tipple is a dessert here—a light and airy sorbet crowned with Luxardo cherries.
A gin-based cocktail with rasam powder at Bombay Daak
Acknowledgements
Bombay Daak’s interiors mirror the concept. A cosy space that seats 30, it’s tucked away in a bylane of Bandra and doesn’t boast the grandiose of Ekaa. Instead, it’s done up with simple wooden tables and chairs and has a tiny area with a skylight where you’d want to grab a table before dawn. Several nooks evoke nostalgia, with a shelf lined up with Gold Spot bottles, and another with matchboxes from Neve’s father’s collection, and century-old vintage lights that the old shop owner claimed belonged to a British bar in South Mumbai. On the way out, perhaps humming to ’80s music like Asha Bhosle’s ‘Raat Baaki Baat Baaki’, you will notice a Donor’s Board just like in a gymkhana. These are the people to thank for their invaluable recipes and stories that have now found a home at Bombay Daak, in chef Rao’s able hands.
Cheese Cherry Pineapple at Bombay Daak
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