Parsi Khabar

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. 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, [...]

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 & [...]

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.” 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 [...]

Grocery shopping can get pretty humdrum and meal planning a drag. So when I heard that Whole Foods Markets are putting some interesting ethnic items on their prepared foods menus, I wanted to meet Rashne Desai, the woman behind the meals. We got together at the Plantation store, where I learned Desai grew up in [...]

The Parsi community is known to be extremely food-loving. Unlike a majority of religions in India, the Parsis do not have the concept of fasting. They are known, on every possible occasion, to enjoy a hot meal of Dhansak, Sali Gosh, chicken farcha and the list goes on… But few people outside the community know [...]

Parsi Platter Bhicoo J Manekshaw has been the lone crusader of Parsi cuisine in the country. And at 83, she is still trying to popularise it through her books. She was the first Cordon Bleu chef from India, passing out of the famed Paris-based culinary school in the 1960s. A cookbook writer, she set up [...]

Pickles preserve the historical flavours of communities like the Persian origin of Parsis in the dried fruits of their celebratory lagannu achar, or the Portuguese vinegar in which Goans preserve their prawns and fish, or the bamboo shoot pickle that Coorgs spice only with the pepper that grows wild in their hills, from a time [...]