Here is a wonderful video of Yazdani Bakery, one of the last few bakeries of its kind left in Bombay
Archive for the ‘Food and Drink’ Category
25
Jun
Yazdani Bakery
8
Jun
Parsi Kolah No Sarko
Among Indian vinegars the most interesting by far is the dark and complex tasting barrel matured sugar-cane vinegar made by E.F.Kolah & Sons of Navsari since 1885. Parsis are the other Indian community to use vinegar in their cooking, perhaps a link to the many sour flavours of Persian cooking, and Kolah’s is their vinegar of choice.
Outside Navsari it is sold in sachets with an appealing old fashioned label and I often take sachets as a gift for foodie friends outside Mumbai.
Fabindia has two coconut water vinegars in its range of organic foods. The distilled white vinegar has a nice sweetish taste, while the brewed brown vinegar is more medicinal tasting.
For an extended article on Indian Vinegars…continue here.
Cities are complex entities. They provide shelter for different communities who, over the years, generate their own sub-cultures, shops, markets and restaurants.
This collection of sub-cultures can be termed ‘villages’. London and New York, to those who know them well, are in truth a collection of villages interacting with each other under the umbrella of an urban government, and Mumbai is no less.
You see this more in South Mumbai than anywhere else. At a particular cross roads is the demarcation between the predominantly Maharashtrian Girgaum and the once predominantly Parsi Princess Street and Dhobi Talao areas.
This area around the Metro Cinema boasts some extraordinary buildings, including the imposing Jer Mahal and around it exist several fire temples, the Parsi Dairy Farm, and a number of Irani restaurants. Kayani’s still goes strong with its Shrewsbury biscuits, chicken patties, cherry custard, and bun maska pao.
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The route from Churchgate to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is sprinkled with memorials to sentinels of Mumbai history. Only, nobody cares
Sipping my masala chai one morning, I suddenly realized that the Khada Parsi statue, literally the Standing Parsi standing not far from where I live, had a name: Shet Cursetjee Manockjee, whose statue had been erected in his memory in the 1860s.
A newspaper report said a group of Parsis were hoping to have the iconic statue, after a thorough scrub-down and a restoration, to a new location—Parsi Colony, Five Gardens. Wedged at the point where the Byculla flyover splits to go in two directions, the statue was one among several public monuments to historical figures who feature prominently in the city’s history, the report said.
That’s where my dusty journey began, to find the other sentinels of our streets, and to see if they were faring better than my Khada Parsi.
“We tend to hurry up erecting statues in the memory of great personalities but end up demeaning them by our negligence,” says writer and city historian Sharada Dwivedi, also a member of the heritage committee.
Bhicoo Manekshaw, elegant with her short, elegantly set silver hair, finger nails neatly manicured is 85 years and proud to be so. One of the best-known names in the world of gastronomical delights, she arrives before 11 every morning at her son-in-lawrestaurant Basil and Thyme at the Santushti complex. She oversees the menu for the day and makes the soups, sauces and desserts for the day.
“It’s food `85.cooking that keeps me going,” she says. She has one of the largest collections of cook books and loves to read them as much as she enjoys cooking gourmet meals. “I don’t fiddle around with classics, be it roast beef or fish meuniere but otherwise experiment happily with my cooking.”
Coming from a traditional Parsi background, Bhicoo recalls that it was the excellent Parsi and continental food served at her parents’ home that enthused her about cooking. The cook was a Goan who had specialised in both cuisines. In school, Bhicoo was not interested in neither science nor French. She could not imagine how these subjects would help her in life. She opted for domestic science because it would help her to become a good housewife and she excelled in continental cuisine.
To understand the implications of these changes, I sit down to discuss the situation over a very hot lamb vindaloo with Cyrus Todiwala, late one afternoon at Cafe Spice Namaste, his Indian restaurant in east London.
I chose to meet Todiwala for several reasons. At 51, he is slightly older than his London contemporaries and widely respected, not just by the capital’s other chefs but also by the large hospitality companies, whose chefs attend his masterclass events, which are also run for the public.
He has given a great deal back to the UK, his home of 17 years, principally via training organisations such as Springboard UK and Investors in People, for which he was awarded an MBE in 2000.
What’s the one thing that Parsis love to talk about? Food of course! The occasion was right for celebrating food on Monday evening as Jeroo Mehta spoke about her book consisting Parsi recipes.
The evening was peppered with anecdotes and vignettes about Parsi food and people by the speakers consisting of Jeroo herself, food critic Rashmi Uday Singh who flew in from the US specially for the occasion and conducted the evening in her inimitable style; Vinod Advani who has been a privileged guest at Jeroo’s table for many occasions, historian Sharada Dwivedi and actress Perizaad Zorabian.
Jeroo opened the discussion reminiscing about how she couldn’t cook to save her life till the time she became well-versed enough to pen her experiences.
It’s unlikely cuisine – Parsi – in an unexpected place – Ajax. Its owners boast that Copper Chimney likely offers the only Parsi cuisine in North America.
Owner Meharnosh Daruwala and executive chef Zubin Aria, both Parsi, opened the kitchen in April, 2007, borrowing the name of a successful fine-dining chain in India. They spend upwards of four hours daily concocting the curries and gravies of Parsi cuisine, described as a subtle mix of Gujarati and Iranian.
“Indian food is not something you just do in a jiff,” says Aria, who brings more than 20 years’ experience and recipes adapted from his mother and grandmother. “It’s very ethnic, authentic and personal.”
In the dining room, deep blue walls stamped with a parade of gleaming elephants create a serene setting. The restaurant also offers a back-set bar and buffet offering a 25-plus item lunch for $9.99 ($12.99 on weekends).
Lagan Nu Bhonu at a Parsi wedding or navjote is something that one and all look forward to. Here are some pictures of the entire lagan nu bhonu at one such wedding at Jeejebhoy Dadabhoy Agiary in February 2008.
24
Mar
The Navroze table
Parsis have a reputation for being major food lovers, as anyone attending a Parsi celebration will confirm. And that’s a reputation likely to be upheld on March 21, when Parsis the world over mark Navroze.
While this festival is regarded as the New Year by just one of the three main sects of Parsis, the Faslis, all Parsis celebrate the event. The devout visit the fire temple in the morning and dine with family and friends that evening.
The cliché is that Parsis like to eat, drink and be merry, so it’s no surprise that food plays a large part in their lives. And this festival is a carnivore’s delight. Chicken, lamb and eggs are staples, with fried vegetables and seafood delights thrown in for good measure.
Traditionally, Parsi feasts took place outdoors, with the dinner tables laid out in long rows covered with white linen. The seating arrangement is unusual in that chairs are placed only on one side of the table. The tide of guests usually peaks at around 8 p.m., when the first call of “Jamva chaloji” (Let’s eat) is heard.
Two banana leaves and a white cotton napkin folded into a glass are laid out in front of every guest, along with a fork and spoon. The servers bring out the seven- to nine-course meal in carefully timed intervals, and almost every item on the menu has some significance.
21
Feb
Adaptable cooks
Indian Parsis, originally from Persia, absorbed various cultures’ cuisines and made them their own
On a cool, gray San Francisco morning, Niloufer Ichaporia King, the author of My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking, was driving to the Alemany Farmers’ Market, an outdoor venue offering an incredible selection of moderately priced fruits and vegetables grown on small farms in the area.
“Did you get a chance to look through my cookbook and decide what you wanted me to cook?” she asked Pat Reed, who was sitting in the passenger seat.
“Well,” Pat responded, “maybe something made with chicken. But I admit I found the potato chips and eggs dish in the book rather intriguing.”
“My husband mentioned a few days ago that it had been a long time since we’d had eggs and potato chips,” Niloufer said. “I’ll make them for breakfast this morning after we get home.”
Eggs and potato chips?
Niloufer King is a Parsi — born in Bombay, as Mumbai was once called, and raised in India — who has lived in the United States for the past 45 years, ever since she “rebelliously” married a Baltimore reporter when she was 19. That marriage ended years ago, and she has made her home for the past 25 years in the San Francisco Bay area.
Along the way, she picked up a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and most years on March 21, she oversees the preparation of a Parsi New Year’s dinner at Alice Waters’ restaurant, Chez Panisse.
19
Feb
Nauheed Cyrusi Actor
My taste buds are truly blessed for having inherited both, Iranian and Parsi blood. I get to eat the usual Parsi fare every day, and also get the opportunity to devour the not-so-common Iranian delicacies at home.
Dhansak and Prawn kebabs are my favourite. Chelo Kebab (a combination of kebabs and rice) and Berry Pulao are the Iranian exports that I relish. Since my mother is a fabulous cook, I don’t feel the need to venture out.
I too try my hand in the kitchen sometimes, but, I can’t pull off an entire meal without her help. Britania at Fort, is a great place to sample the best of these two cuisines.
Original article here
18
Feb
Bombay central
by Haseena Jethmalani in the Indian Express.
Come December and I await invitations from our Parsi friends with bated breath. For me, it’s more about the food, though the bhonu is to die for and the badam pak better than any tiramisu in Italy.
I find the Colaba Agiary simply charming and have some beautiful memories, as a child, attending my friends’ navjotes and weddings. As we eat off banana leaves and sip, rather slurp, the Mangola, it’s the ultimate dining experience for me. Way past their bedtime, children are running around like holy terrors, boys with their jackets thrown and girls with their salli-chicken hands wiped over their tulle dresses, as they poke fun at the band crooning Killing me softly, nothing can be quite so heartwarming.
Coupled with this is extreme hospitality and warmth as every guest is greeted as they enter and leave.
This year was a bonanza for us. At Lata and Vispy Patel’s daughter’s navjote, red roses beautifully brought out a sense of mysticism. It was a pleasure to the Vispy’s school and family friends of over four decades just as much part of their lives as before.
The Legacy of France in Indian Regional Cuisine
The creation of the famous La Porte des Indes restaurants that sprinkle Europe is as much a love story as it is anything else.
In 1986, Mehernosh Mody hired a young chef, Sherin, as his assistant. They soon were inseparable, and their mutual love for one another and French-Indian cuisine bore the very first La Porte des Indes in London.
After a 2.5 million pound, two-year transformation, this quiet, humble restaurant soon became one of the most respected eateries in all of Britain — winning the praise of Pat Chapman, founder of The Curry Club.
He awarded it Best UK Restaurant twice, a difficult achievement considering Britain is home to 8,500 Indian restaurants. Today, the Modys and their small team of chefs prepare at least 300 meals a day.
The restaurant’s history and recipes are showcased in Mehernosh and Sherin Mody’s book, La Porte des Indes Cookbook: The Legacy of France in Indian Regional Cuisine.
Looking back
Before their success, however, Mehernosh and Sherin researched France’s presence in India. It is a history they share with readers early on in their book. In 1670, the French arrived on India’s southeastern coast. And for 300 years, a Creole community of people of French extraction and of Franco-Indians lived there.
14
Jan
Parsi Food in Delhi
Parsi food in Delhi? Well, you need not go to Mumbai or some place in Gujarat where a majority of the Parsis stay, but here is a place where you get to relish authentic Parsi food, known for its unique flavour.
The Bagli Kitchen serving out of the Delhi Parsi Anjuman premises on the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg is the place to be if you want to savour dhansak, sali murghi or patra ni machchi. Manager of the Delhi Parsi Anjuman’s guest house, Dhun Bagli — the force behind the Bagli Kitchen — has been running the service for more than five decades now. But mind you, this is not a restaurant where you can enjoy food at any given time.
This is a catering service and the orders have to be placed before hand. “We have been catering for Parsi weddings for many years. But last year, a non-Parsi gentleman attended one reception here by chance and almost fell in love with the cuisine. Inquiries followed and he ended up ordering for a party at his place soon,” says Bagli.
5
Jan
Britannia Restaurant
Berry berry good
The eatery still maintains its worth with a menu card right out of Iran.
You’ll never know what the fuss is about until you actually eat here. This 83-year-old Parsi-Irani eatery is worth its wait in barberry berries. Why them? Because they are the imported ingredients that go into making what Britannia is most revered for… its zesty Persian berry pulav (Zereshk polow).
Most people come to Britannia to consume one of three things — the mutton Sali boti, the dhansak and the berry pulav.
“The menu is courtesy my late wife Bachan who on her travels to Iran (courtesy being legal advisor to Iran Airways) mastered these recipes, says 85-year-old Boman Kohinoor, the second-generation owner, and to regulars, the eatery’s greatest appeal.
Britannia is one of the dying breed of the city’s Irani cafes that is bravely sticking out through hard times. It once served “bland” European fare to the unadventurous palates of the British before being turned into a military office during World War II for a brief period.
For consumer knowledge expert, Vispy Doctor, cooking is destressing. “He wooed me with this dish that you’ll taste today,” says his wife. The dish is akuri, essentially a Parsi breakfast dish made with eggs.
“If one really want to get offensive — to Parsi sensibilities — call it scrambled egg or bhurjee,” Doctor tells us. With nearly 300 gigabytes of cookery programmes stored on his laptop, and his new mobile phone, Doctor admits that he rarely gets the time to whip up delicacies in the kitchen.
For someone whose job is to build brands, Doctor stresses that a good brand-building — or re-building — exercise should focus on the right ingredients. “Our job is to study consumers and understand what they want. In that sense communication with the consumer and the brand is the key,” he says, while he readies himself in the kitchen. His professional parlance finds a place in the kitchen too where a simple egg dish gets its flavours from the exact ingredients added to it.
12
Oct
Bawas of Bambai rejoice!
The objective of the event was to bring the youth together, put the community resources to use and give the young blood a platform to a world of opportunities.
Architect Jimmy Mistry’s NGO Parsi Resource Group organised an event for the youth of the Zoroastrian community the other evening, and the bawas of the city donned their evening best and came out to celebrate the achievers of the community.
The objective of the event was to bring the youth together, put the community resources to use and give the young blood a platform to a world of opportunities. And all that and more took place, amidst khaana-peena and loads of majaa !
Besides an art and dance competition where the youngsters showcased their talents, a dance workshop was conducted by dance professionals Sandip Soparrkar and Hormuzd Khambatta. The participants were judged by a panel of professionals in the field of art and dance.
Among the bawa celebrities present were a pregnant and glowing Parizad Kolah Marshall, fitness guru Mickey Mehta and Parvez and Roshni Damania who made it a family affair with their children. Vasant Bhandari was also spotted enjoying the festivities.
20
Aug
Parsi Food Hub In Bandra
With a municipal vegetable market (Pali Market) nearby and lined with grocery stores, this road is also rather active during the day. After a hard day’s shopping for groceries, people often like to stop by for a bite. And that’s where cozy eating places like Ashmick’s Snack shack comes in. Serving delightful Parsi meals like dhansak-brown rice and mutton cutlets for a reasonable price, it is quite a favourite of many Bandra residents.
Original article here
The minute you told someone you were Parsi, they’d crib about how they never got invited to Bawa weddings, their only chance at nirvana after downing Patra ni Machchi. The load on our conscience is off now with restaurants serving traditional Parsi food. On the occasion of Navroze, we tell you where you can eat like a true blue Bawa
On your menu today Kashmiri Pulao Dal
The good ol’ Sassanian, an Irani café as old as the hills, may have been given a makeover, when it was turned into a boulangerie, serving puffs, pizzas and sandwiches, but the Mawa and Madeira cakes are still to kill for.
For lunch, try their fragrant Kashmiri Pulao Dal and Sali ma Chicken. You can’t call it a day without digging into the Lagan nu Custard (sinful bread and milk baked custard served at Parsi weddings.)
How to get there
Sassanian Boulangerie, opposite Liberty theatre lane, Dhobitalao. Call 22006198
20
Aug
Saal Mubarak
!! Saal Mubarak !!
August 20th is the first day of the Parsi New Year. A time of happiness and rejoicing for all members of the small Parsi community, of which Shirrin and I are a part.
This is one of my favorite days of the years. Memories of this day right through childhood included visits to the fire temple, wearing “new†clothes, receiving monetary gifts from grandparents, eating great food and going to parsi plays or “nataks†in the evening and to dinner thereafter.
Living in a Parsi colony meant that everyone did the same and it was a “jalsaâ€. It was one day where you would see the whole Parsi community out in full force, in every theater or playhouse in town. Every restaurant would have entire families of Parsis chattering away, drinking, eating, and greeting all and sundry around even if they did not know them.
It did not matter that there would be rain or shine, we would be out in force.
Over the last few years, being in NYC, away from family, on this particular day, sucks. There is something beautiful and inherent in celebrating festivals with family, that can never be substituted. There is a Zoroastrian Association here in NYC and they do hold a function in the evening, but its not the same.
On this occasion of the New Year we wish all our readers a very Happy New Year….one filled with peace, prosperity, harmony and love.
BY Rakshande Italia
If I cherished one special day during the year, besides my birthday, it was the New Year - not Jan. 1, but a day in August when members of my tiny Zoroastrian community in Mumbai, India, celebrated the beginning of their calendar year.
Colloquially referred as Parsi New Year, the day was extra-special as community members, the Parsis, party all day long. One prime reason that this day was special is that unlike the scores of Hindu festivals, which are an all-year-round affair, our community celebrates only two others in the year. Navroze, a celebration of spring equinox, and Khodadsal, the birthday of our prophet Zarathusthtra.
You see, our forefathers landed in India in the eighth century after fleeing the Arab invasion in Persia, refusing to leave their Zoroastrian religion, which is said to be one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions, founded around 1200 B.C.
Today, there are only 150,000 Zoroastrians left worldwide. While India houses the largest population - 65,000 - the Greater Toronto Area comes in second with 6,000. Toronto is unique because Zoroastrians from India, Pakistan and Iran come together here, sharing the same religion even as they have different customs, cultures and languages.
On Aug. 20, Toronto’s Zoroastrians will celebrate the new year, congregating in two community centres in the GTA - one at Bayview and Steeles avenues and another in Oakville. The evening starts with a Jashan, a prayer ceremony, ending late but only after a sumptuous meal and loads of entertainment.
In India, the community doesn’t congregate together as it does here, but there’s a set pattern to the celebration.
An almost 150-year-old brewery in Pakistan is preparing to bring the Muslim world’s first 20-year-old single malt whisky to the market. Murree Brewery, however, can only sell to non-Muslims, who comprise 3 percent of Pakistan’s population.
The heart of the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi is dotted with paradoxes.
Amidst the foliage of the Jinnah National Park, an expansive garden that houses the prison where former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Bhutto was hanged in 1979, the giant “M” of an American fast food chain rises like a monolith.
Behind it runs the National Park Road, a leafy, residential avenue replete with road blocks and bearded men carrying submachine guns. Hanging over it all is the distinct and unmistakable smell of fermenting alcohol.
What, in Allah’s name, is going on here?
The 150-year-old Murree Brewery is teeming with activity. One of the Islamic world’s most successful breweries will soon launch a rare, one-off product of its distillery: a 20-year-old single malt whisky that is the first of its kind in the Muslim world.
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A few entrepreneurs, then the government as well, set up dairy operations in the area that made and sent butter to Bombay, but the real growth was to come from a dynamic young Parsi named Pestonji Edulji Dalal who in 1888, aged just 13, started a small shop to roast and grind coffee. According to Ruth Heredia’s The Amul India Story, Dalal’s nickname was Polly, which he adapted into the British sounding Polson’s for this brand name.
Polson’s coffee soon got regular customers among the British and by 1910 Pestonji was well established and looking for new opportunities. So when a customer in the Supply Corps told him of the problems the army still had getting butter, he decided to jump in. Pestonji set up a dairy in Kaira and used his army and railways contacts to ensure that Polson’s was so widely supplied that it became synonymous with butter.
By 1930 Polson’s had opened the most advanced dairy plant in India and dominated the butter business. But as Heredia’s book points out, it was this dominance that caused Polson’s downfall, since it provoked a Gandhian called Tribhuvandas Patel to organise the co-operative that would ultimately become Amul.
Read entire story here
The nearly century-old bakery, set amid crowded streets lined by massive stone Victorian-era buildings near the city’s Stock Exchange, looks like a gingerbread house and stands out in sharp contrast to the other shops, which mainly sell electronics goods.
Irani mans a drawer filled with soiled rupee notes and dispenses quick change and chatter with old-time customers who sit on wooden benches with a cup of tea and a pastry or bread roll.
A wood-fired stove in the back bakes pastries, loaves of bread and a special pav, or bread roll, which costs one rupee (0.02 cents) and is the emblem of the store’s “your daily bread†motto. The bakery, an image for urban historians of what remains of old Bombay.
But Irani, a descendant of Zoroastrian Persian immigrants to India who puts himself at “over 65 and still fighting fitâ€, is one of the last of Bombay’s small bakers and fears people like him are a vanishing breed in the “new Indiaâ€.
16
Nov
Postcard from Penang
One of the most picturesque places in Malaysia, this island is also it’s food capital since you get the finest Malay, Korean, Singaporean, Vietnamese, Chinese and Indian food for a price which won’t make holes in your wallet…
One of the most picturesque places in Malaysia, this island is also it’s food capital since you get the finest Malay, Korean, Singaporean, Vietnamese, Chinese and Indian food for a price which won’t make holes in your wallet. Besides food, there’s so much to do and see in Penang like the nocturnal joy-rides in neon-lit cycle-rickshaws very much like Singapore’s “trishaws”.
The rickshaws take you to the Batu Ferringhi which has Penang’s most breathtaking beaches. The balmy, scenic surroundings make this place a world-class resort with it’s rows of shops and restaurants. As the sun sets, the miles long sidewalk street bazaar opens up its’ makeshift stalls (like in Pattaya) offering tourists a variety of cheap merchandise bearing designer names in clothes, shoes, handbags, watches, goggles, CD’s, VD’s, and computer-games but you need to haggle for your Y.S.L., Gucci, Guess, Nike and Dior imitations. More interesting than these are the local handicrafts, souvenir shops and international cuisine stalls.
3
Nov
Flavours of fusion
Parsis too, ever since they adopted India as their own land, have, as a community, constantly and quite consciously enriched their food through a process of deliberate fusion.
Their recipes are truly eclectic–a veritable cultural confluence-Hindu, Islamic, Iranian and European. Others too have been flirting with fusion off and on. Denizens of Old Delhi–notorious for their resistance to change–seem to have no problems with ishtew borrowed and soon transformed beyond recognition from the Firangee.
Entire article here
At Half Moon Bay Restaurant and Function Centre, new owners Faranak and Sohrab Irani have brought their own special touch to this lovely venue overlooking the water. Retaining a predominantly modern Kiwi menu with just a hint of Indian cuisine, the restaurant rests in good hands — Faranak is a well known guest chef on Triangle Television and some people may be familiar with her special knowledge of Parsi cooking which has its roots in Persia. The restaurant has been open for dinner Thursday to Sunday only but from November 7, opens Tuesday to Sunday nights.
Original article here
With distinctive ambience and mouth-watering fare, Irani cafes enthrall Mumbaikars.
Largely frequented by the working class, these cafes are a big draw because they are reasonably priced and hygienic.
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OLD FAVOURITE: Sassanian Bakery, since 1931. - Shashi Ashiwal |
Bollywood, BSE, vada pav, dabbawallas… these are some of the more talked about elements of Mumbai. However, this melting pot is also home to many sub-cultures such as the quaint and charming Irani cafes that dot the city. Churning out mouth-watering fare for almost a century now, die-hard customers continue to drop in for the crisp butter kharis, layered salted biscuits, and the Irani cha, a thick overly milky, sweetened tea delicately flavoured with cardamom.
The classic format of these cafes is basic with a subtle colonial touch; high ceilings with black, bent wooden chairs (now cane in some cafes), wooden tables with marble tops and glass jars that allow a peek into the goodies they hold. With huge glass mirrors on the walls to create a feeling of space, visitors are greeted with eagerness and a whiff of baking. The speed of operations is impressive and service quite hassle-free.
The Sassanian Bakery and Boulangerie at Dhobi Talao in Mumbai has been whisking delicious omelettes-maska pav (Rs 25) and akuri (a scrambled egg preparation perked up with spices) since 1913. Sharook K., one of the partners, explains that the bakery got its name from the Sassanian dynasty of Iran. At one time these Irani cafes were popular hangouts for the affluent set, upcoming writers and even film stars. Sassanian was a favourite with the derby participants, jockeys and racecourse dealers.
Two of India`s top business houses owned by Parsis, the Tatas and the Godrej group are eyeing some of the strongest regional tea brands to gain a decisive edge over each other in the Rs 45 billion branded tea market, reports Financial Express.
Tata Tea, with a market share of 20%, and Godrej Beverages & Foods (GBFL), with less than 10% market share were both in talks to buy regional brands such as the Rs 1 billion Wagh Bakri in Gujarat, Society (under Rs 1 billion) in Maharashtra, Girnar in Mumbai and PJ Hasmukh Chai in the western region.
Incidentally, Tata Tea acquired southern tea brand Agni almost six years ago. HLL, the market leader with 30% share, is not in the race.
Godrej, which recently restructured its tea business into GBFL, has been eyeing regional brands ever since to improve its market share.
Ahuja, who sells to a predominantly Parsi neighbourhood, says Parsis buy wines for both personal and formal celebrations.
“My sales are good,†he says. “But most of my customers feel that Rs400 is too steep for a bottle of wine.â€
Read entire article here
Parsi Diary Farm employees picketed the company’s head office at Marine Lines in Mumbai on July 10, protesting the late payment of salaries and the non-payment of bonuses for the past two years.
One picket complained: “Our salaries are two or three weeks late.” Workers said that protests would be held daily until the issues were addressed. Parsi Dairy Farm was established in 1916 by Ardeshan Nariman and currently employs over 2,500 people