Barring a mix-up with their delivery, a Sindhi food entrepreneur makes a competent attempt at serving home-style food from the sunshine state
Goan sausage pulao
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Taste Test
A trip to Goa is incomplete without a meal of chicken cafreal with fries on the side for us. So in order to beat FOMO after a look at countless vacation photos on our social media timelines, we decide to rekindle those memories over lunch, while at the office. Our saviour is the Bandra-based Fernandes Aunty, a Goan and Mangalorean takeaway by Hira mulchandani, who also runs Death by BBQ and Vegan Burger Kitchen. Mulchandani tells us he wanted to serve simple home-style food whipped up by Goan women, hence decided to name it from a popular surname that represented both communities.
Without much ado, we call for beef meatball curry ('240), Goan sausage pulao ('250), pork sorpotel ('240), chicken xacuti ('250) and chicken cafreal ('250). We also call for pork vindaloo, which never arrived in our parcel. The complimentary iced teas cool things off a bit, though we would have preferred better packaging in the form of labels on containers that seemed ill-equipped to handle their drippy occupants.
(Clockwise from left) Meatball curry, chicken Xacuti, cafreal and pork sorpolel. Pic/ Pradeep Dhivakar
Once we sort the initial hiccups, the cafreal is our first stop. It is brimming with the freshness of coriander, and the use of boneless chicken chunks gets a thumbs up. The meatball curry is a downer, with just two portions; the meat is overcooked, and its actual flavours seem lost in a spicy overkill. The sorpotel makes amends with its acidic high; the pork is well-cooked, with the right amount of heat to clear our sinuses. It needs to be less runny though, according to our Goan colleague. Being a fan of the choriz sausage, we excitedly move to the pulao, which is a hit across all our resident reviewers — Goan or otherwise. The smoky hint of the choriz envelopes the soft, small grains of rice, while cloves add to the heightened glee in our palate.
Lastly, we try the xacuti, which despite being stingy portion-wise, redeems itself with a coconut curry; our Goans reviewers break into a smile. If you are willing to forego the few hitches in this aunty's kitchen, like we did, this attempt might just be able to bring a little Goan-styled sunshine.
Time 12 pm to 11 pm delivery in Bandra, Santacruz and Malad.
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