Crawl into the heart of a culture

The Sindhi Food Crawl is all one needs on the weekend to get a low-down on the Sindhi community — their history and food habits

With a keen eye and a curious palate, one would be amazed to know how food habits pave the way to the heart of a culture. No one knows this better than the enterprising duo Rahul Patil and Vinod Sarma, who founded Wandering Foodie, “to promote regional Indian cuisines and help each region create a distinct food identity.” The Sindhi food trail, organised by them, might be the best way to learn more about the cutlure’s gastronomy, today.

The Sindhi Food Crawl will be hosted by Jatin Khanna. A Sindhi, born and brought up in Chembur, Jatin is a “hardcore foodie” and a hotel management graduate who runs his own company in the city.

“Sindhis get their name from Sindh region in Pakistan. Roughly about 1,000 years ago, they were mostly fisher folks. Like most of coastal India, their staple food would be fish and rice. But they would use a lot of ghee. They would also use a lot of tomato, which you still will find among the Sindhis — a lot of tomato-based curry. Onion, for example was an acquired taste, an influence from the Arabs. In fact, before the Arabs had invaded, the food would be essentially quite bland — only boiled — but Arabs influenced the use of various masalas,” explains Jatin.

The mass exodus post-partition, brought them to the city, where they were made to live in several pockets, which were turned into refugee camps. One such camp was in Chembur, where Jatin is from. “Sindhis were naturally inclined to make their own living; they didn’t prefer working under others. So even though they were provided with jobs at various industries around the area, they started opening up their own businesses — mostly related to food, and transport,” he further adds.

To know more about the story, he insists, one must join him for the food trail. However, he reveals the food joints that he is planning to take the enthusiasts. “Most of these places are extremely old and the recipes are handed down over generations,” he says.

“We will try some chola pattice at Vig Refreshment, a quintessential Sindhi food that one must try. Then we will go to Sindh Pani Puri House and try the special Sindhi influenced chutneys that you wouldn’t find in other pani puri joints. The third place we will go to is Gopal Mutton and Chicken shop to try the keema pattice. Interestingly, unlike other places, they serve the keema and the patice separately. And finally, we would go to the famous Jhama Sweets,” he says. According to him, Sindhi desserts aren’t too sweet. “We will try the sev burfi, which is a mixture of sukha sev, butter and sugar. While the sev makes the burfi less sweet, the mawa gives it the texture,” he adds.

“However, there are several variations to these foods, depending on where the food originated. For example, a Sindhi from Shikarpur would mix meethi boondi with Sindhi kadhi and rice. Elsewhere, they put jaggery in the kadhi, and so on.

“We are planning to look at different communities who have settled in the city and have been extremely influential. Earlier, we had done a similar food walk on Parsi food,” says Vinod.

Join Jatin today for a Sindhi gastronomic adventure, 5 pm onwards, opposite Golf Club Main Gate, Chembur (E). Tickets: Rs 1,000