Kheema Pav

Kheema Pav.....the once ubiquitous meal served at every Irani restaurant in Mumbai.

Made out of mince meat with some exotic spices, it is identified with the true mumbai flavours of the 60's and the 70's. Now now....i wasnt there then, but have heard plentiful to visualise with ease, the bygone golden era of the Megapolis.

My aai(mom) doesnt like it at all. she has her million reservations about having meat outside.
'You dont know which animal might have been slaughtered'......like i care, aai.

Dad, on the other hand, will religiously describe every aspect of the variety served at 'Olympia', 'Police Canteen', 'Bastani' and the erstwhile 'MayRose'. The fans, the chairs of the British era, the freshly baked bread, the spicy kheema served on the porcelain plates. The pictures are still vivid in his mind, i guess.

How 'Olympia' used to run out of Kheema Pav by 8.30 am in the morning.....!!!!!!!!!!
or how 'Police Canteen' used to be choc-a-bloc during lunchtime....

.........stories are a plentiful , more so on a 'oop-vas' (Day of Fasting), to satiate the growling stomach with thoughts of the desirous tomorrow.

I have no clues about the origins of the word, and i dont care, as long as the Kheema is good.
A lot of people call it 'Keema', but the places i have visited, more stress is laid on the 'h' which is as essential as the spices which go into making it.

They serve it traditionally with 'parathas'(hand rolled flat breads), but then again, the nawabs never had a chance to visit the Irani restaurants. More often than not, the restaurants bake the bread as well, so the Unique flavours are restored for each restaurant.

2 of my favourite haunt are/were:

Ideal - western railway canteen -
outside andheri (w) station.

Bastani - Near Metro..(now closed)

Caution: While having it in the above-mentioned restaurants, one has to be oblivious to the surroundings and stop worrying about the kitchen hygiene. Not recommended for hypochondriacs.

I don’t like fish, which is an anomaly in my family,
but I make up for it by relishing the pabulum for the truly blessed.

The Bread, the Slice of lime, the Kheema....