Tucked away in a nondescript lane in Mumbai’s Santacruz West is Kaka Kaki, a cozy restaurant that serves Bohri cuisine. As one steps into it, a gaggle of own family images redecorating the walls greets the tourist, reminders of the day Hozef and Duraiya Darukhanawala tied the knot in the early ’80s, celebrating the start of their daughter, Zainab, and other own family functions. These framed snapshots lend an intimate vibe to the restaurant, which symbolizes the affection Hozef and Duraiya proportion for classic Bohri delicacies and cooking.
In August closing 12 months, Hozef, sixty-three, and Duraiya, 57, opened the restaurant, which stays open from 4 pm to 10:30 pm, along with their associate and family buddy Sandeep Pai, after catering Bohri food for approximately a year. “We commenced Kaka Kaki with the purpose of sharing our conventional home-made food with customers. Hardly any Mumbai-primarily based eating place served true Bohri meals. We are called kaka and khaki in our network and our 21-12 months-old daughter Zainab got here up with this name for the restaurant,” says Hozef. The catering provider primarily offered normal Mughlai meals such as biryanis and kebabs. The eating place’s menu, however, contains Bohri items together with chicken white sauce pattice, cream tikka (bird or mutton), grilled hen and Raan — leg pieces of lamb, marinated in Indian herbs for hours before being grilled to perfection, smeared with a lip-smacking sauce.
The opening of Kaka Kaki is a dream come actual for Hozef and Duraiya — both bothered with paralytic polio considering the fact that youth. They have shared the passion for food ever for the reason that they got married in 1984. “I suffered from polio when I turned into simply one-and-a-half years old. Duraiya, however, became much less affected than me and walks with a limp,” says Hozef, who desires the aid of crutches to move around.
That, of direction, does no longer prevent him from cooking for hours or supervising the kitchen. They even control their respective parallel careers along with walking the eating place. Earlier, Hozef used to work in banks, Bombay Mercantile Co-Operative for 15 years, then Samata Sahakari, and now runs a finance organization. Duraiya is an artist and holds acrylic portray training at her Santacruz studio.
Kaka Kaki can accommodate 10 customers at a time, and also gives takeaways and shipping services. If ordered earlier, they are able to serve the conventional Bohri Thaal, a tricky seven-path meal, for a big institution (it charges roughly Rs 4,500 for a set of eight). Hozef says, “The trial is the signature Bohri enjoy we offer. Eating as a family could be very essential in our network.”
The Bohri Thaal at Kaka Kaki begins with Gol Paani, a drink made of jaggery water and sabza (basil seeds). What follows the drink, interestingly, is a pinch of salt. Next up: cakes — caramel custard and dudhi ka halwa (bottle gourd halwa). Nestled at the center of the caramel custard is cubes of sparkling chikoo and lychees. This is a recipe that Duraiya aces in. After that starter, which includes a diffusion of samosas (fillings range from minced meat, pulses to mawa) and Tam-Tam Batata (potatoes with tamarind sauce) make their way to the thaal. “Savoury and sweet objects are served alternately, piping hot,” says Hozef. One of the maximum sought-after dishes of the tail is Dabba Gosht — a traditional Bohri delicacy, a hearty casserole dish of mutton, tomatoes, boiled eggs in white sauce, completed with a touch of egg and natural ghee.
