A very quick report today on what has been one of my favourite meals so far in Bombay: a feast at an East Indian home in Uttan, in the north of the city. This was part of another of the food outings curated for my program by my friend, Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal. The morning saw us make an early start by bust in the direction of Malad. There we took a very short ferry ride across the water to Dharavi Island (not the same as the more famous Dharavi, adjacent to Mahim), and then a longer, rattling auto-rickshaw ride to the East Indian village of Uttan (I squeezed onto the driver’s seat of the auto our family was in, and it was fun for about the first five minutes—I hadn’t realized it was going to be a near-20 minute ride). On arrival in Uttan we were met by our host Mogan Rodrigues at his family’s home. There Mogan introduced us to the history and present of the East Indian community and then we ate the massive meal they had prepared for us.

In case you’re wondering, East Indian refers to the community that was among the very first converts to Christianity in the early 16th century. This conversion was done by the Portuguese, who were then the European trading and political power on the Konkan coast (remember that it was Vasco da Game who made the voyage around the Cape of Good Hope and landed on the west coast of India in 1498). These early converts usually took on the name of whoever conducted the conversion. At any rate they have maintained Portuguese names and cultural influence ever since. This is manifest in, among other things, religion and food. As in the more famously Portuguese Goa, the flavour of Christianity is Catholicism, and the food too is marked by the use of pork, vinegar etc. Vindaloo, for example, is claimed by both East Indians and Goan Catholics.

So why did the community come to be known as East Indians? When Bombay passed from Portuguese to British control, many other Christian communities, including Goan Christians, began to move to Bombay for work. To distinguish themselves from later arrivals the earlier community of Konkani Christians officially changed their name to East Indian. As with Goan Catholics, the community speaks both their own language (in this case a dialect of Marathi-Konkani) and English.

What of the food? This was my first time eating East Indian food and so I cannot tell you very much about it or, indeed, even how representative this meal was. This was cooked in one home—I’m sure there must be variations in the preparation of many of these dishes. The meal ranged from vegetables and lentils to prawns, pork, chicken and fish. There wasn’t a single dish I did not like very much and so it’s hard to single out favourites. But if I had to I’d probably point to the small prawns fried with whole green chillies, tomato and East Indian bottle masala; the masoor dal cooked with drumstick, green masala and coconut (a completely new form of masoor dal for me), and the mixed veg foogath or steamed and sauteed mixed veg with coconut. Also very good were the rice bhakris and fugias (deep-fried balloon breads) that we mopped most of the meal up with (in addition to rice). But, again, everything was very good.

For a look at what we ate, launch the slideshow below. If you have any questions about the food, ask, and I’ll try to answer the best I can. I’ve also added in the slideshow a couple of pics from the local church, which we visited as part of a small walk around Uttan after lunch, and also a couple of random pics. Scroll down to see what’s coming next on the Bombay food front.

As with my other program meal reports (see also Soam, Shri Datta Boarding and the Lagan na Bhonu at RTI), I cannot tell you how much the meal itself cost as it was part of a larger package. I can tell you that you can get in touch with Mogan Rodrigues via Instagram if you’re interested in inquiring into a visit of your own.

Alright, what’s next on the Bombay food front? Another seafood-centered meal. That’ll probably be posted tomorrow.