Manu so we've been meaning to come to this restaurant ever since we started dating, right?
They serve incredible Parsi food at this Dharamsala here at a Parsi guest house
And actually this is such hard to find and such rare food because there's so few Parsis left in India
There's only about 50,000 Parsi people left and I think we should explain first before we go in and eat all this incredible food
Who are the Parsi people? Basically the party people came from Iran and landed up in Gujarat and
They were allowed to stay as long as they integrated into Indian society as long as they assimilated themselves
I really liked that na, like when you move to another country you should assimilate into their culture, right?
Yeah, yeah, and not be rigid. You should be flexible
So that's what they did the Parsi people came to India from Iran and they became
Indians and they really helped shape the future of India as well na? So who's a Parsi who inspires you?
There's a lot of them, but my favourite is Dadabhai Naoroji
He was a freedom fighter and he gave this theory called the "Drain of wealth" theory. It exposed the real
intentions of the British behind them governing India KARL: What were their intentions?
So before that
everyone believed that they were here for a good purpose
They were bringing democracy and railways and blah blah blah
but in his theory he explained how they were actually using India's money and wealth for the
development of their own country and taking it back home. KARL: You mean robbing, India?
Yeah, basically and that was a major turning point in the freedom movement. And that's when everyone realized that they had a common enemy
Awesome, and there is one Parsi who a lot of people don't know is Parsi and don't know he's Indian: Freddie Mercury from Queen
MANU: Even I didn't know that! KARL: He studied in Mumbai and he is Parsi as well
Yeah no one knows that. So let's go and try this incredible Parsi food na?
Yeah i can't wait, I'm starving!
and I should say we're at the party Dharamsala here in Delhi right. Now. This is the fire temple
Parsi people follow the Zoroastrian faith and this is the Dharamshala or the
Guest house and inside the guest house is a canteen
where we're going to eat authentic Parsi food and I've been really lucky to have Parsi friends in my life
considering how small a number they are. They have always been so so kind to me
So thank you to Parizad Barucha and Yohan Mistry, we still meet and they still take such good care of me
I'm really really grateful for the party people that I have in my life so
Let's go and try this food na? Where's Manu. I lost her.
Oh there she is. What are you doing?
smelling the flowers
So when you come to a Parsi restaurant, they're more, kind of cafe style actually as you can see like this kind of Kitsch
cafes, they're not fancy. They're very homely and that's the food you're gonna get served as well. Now Manu, what are we gonna order?
We are ordering Sali Boti
Berry Pulao
Mutton Dhansak and Berry Pulao is my favorite..apart from the Falooda.
KARL: Oh yeah Falooda is Parsi. MANU: We're having that for dessert na? I hope they have it here. KARL: Alright babe, the falooda that you have..
it's different to the Iranian Falooda, what you're gonna have here. Yeah, like the Falooda from Haldiram's, it's not real Falooda, okay?
but I've had the real Irani Falooda as well, a couple of times. I love it!
You've gotta have Falooda at a Parsi restaurant only. Anywhere else in India
it is not right maybe in Gujarat, I had a good one in Gujarat
at the milk center in Ahmedabad. That was really really good too. But the Iranian style is the best.
Manu, you're looking very pretty today
Okay, so we changed the order and decided to get a starter as well
And we got this. It's called patra ni machhi, which means fish in a leaf.
it's a perfect blend of sweet and
spicy
You'll know when you try it. KARL: that is one thing I noticed about Parsi food
It's a mixture of sweet spicy and sour as well, though
I wonder if they took that from Gujrati food.
Don't know, no I mean the Iranian food that I've had from my Iranian friends,
there is a lot of sour flavors to it. So maybe the sour came from Iran for sure
You'll see some kind of similar Iranian dishes soon
Sweet coriander
But you have to try it. I know that doesn't sound good but
When you try you'll see na? I would have never ordered this on my own
So thank God that the waiter told us that this is great, woah!
Look at her just sitting there when I'm filming
She just keeps trying to dig in a little..You have your spoon in your hand already
I'm just waiting for you to say "go" so I could just eat like..
KARL: Not yet, not yet
Alright, Manu we have a freaking feast here na? Like look at this! So we've got Berry Pulao,
What this one's name? I forgot this one's name. MANU: I forgot it too.
Mutton balls on rice
Mutton Dhansak, which is basically a Dal, okay
Then this is probably my favorite
Sali Boti and this is
potato sticks on like a sweet and tangy and sour..
chicken curry
And the Berry pulao is really something special. This is
my second favorite you dig in there. MANU: My first favourite!
KARL: Your first? You dig into this and there is curry inside the pulao
You'll see they have these red berries. These are from Iran
These are like Iranian style berries
And I always find these berries in Iranian food when I used to work in IT back in New Zealand,
I worked if two Iranian guys and
every single week, every single Friday, we'd order iranian food, home-cooked iranian food from this food delivery service
So that's how I learnt about Iranian food and learnt about Parsi food from my friends
And now I can see how they're they're connected together
Hey you ate it. You're not supposed to touch the food. KARL: Dig in!
Watch this girl. She's s o hungry.
MANU: Are you done filming?
KARL: I'm done filming
MANU: Do you want this? Or can I take it?
KARL: You can take the ball
KARL: Waah!
All at once, Manu.
Now you might think like potato sticks don't go with curry but
it gives it this like
I don't know crunchiness and saltiness to the curry it goes together and as you can see here this food
Is very different to traditional Indian food, right?
Before you ever tried Parsi food, did you experience these kind of flavours and these kind of
Like the berries in the pulao the potato sticks on the curry the the sourness of some of these these curries?
MANU: Never KARL: Never before? MANU: No
You know, I always wanted to have a Parsi friend just so I could go to his home and eat home coo ked Parsi food
KARL: We've got one
Which one? Oh Parizad? Oh yeah you have a Parsi friend. Lucky you!
You gotta come to Dubai and meet them with me Manu. Every time I go to Dubai she never comes
and one time when I went, I always stay at my Parsi friend's house there, we had a Parsi feast
must have been like 10 or 20 Parsis there and
Parizad cooked this amazing feast of all these Parsi dishes, stuff you can't buy in the store like this, you know
You missed out babe, come to Dubai na MANU: I know
But I was lucky to have muslim friends who would cook..
I would just go to their house and eat home cooked biryani and stuff
That's one of the beautiful things about India na you can have a Parsi friend learn about Parsi culture, Parsi food
You can have a Muslim friend learn about Muslim food Muslim
people and
You get these different flavors with your different friends
People are flavoured
I used to do this. I went to the Sikh friend's house to eat Rajma Chawal. His mum made real good Rajma Chawal, although it's not really Punjabi food.
And the muslim friend's mom would make biryani and haleem and all that.
So I've tried everything and
there's some favorite food from every culture
true
You have to get lucky to find a Parsi friend cuz they're so few MANU: Yeah
This Mutton boti or Sali Boti, this is my favorite here by far and it hops back to Iranian food again like
that's kind of sour and sweet curry that I've had in Iranian food back in New Zealand
Really want to take you to Iran I want to go to Iran as well
I want to go to Iran as well
What do you mean by take you to Iran, you haven't been there
I mean, I want you to come with me to Iran. MANU: "Sending my wife to Pakistan", "Taking my wife to Iran"..
KARL: Yeah. MANU: What else?
If it's my idea then
What did you do?
Just dropped the spoon on my plate
Have you tried the Dhansak? MANU: Yeah
It's like a meaty Indian Dal that's how I describe it like dal but it tastes a red meat
So if you like meat if you're a meat eater and you want to eat a meat dal
This is the one it's like Haleem, you know like Muslim Haleem
They mix dals (lentils), everything down with meat as well, though
It's one of the healthiest things on the table because it has
protein, it has red meat,
Lots of spices
So if you guys want to come and experience Parsi food as well
there's kind of three places that you can eat. There's here at the Delhi Parsi Dharamshala and
to be honest
From trying these dishes I can say I can recommend you better places to go
The two other places that are better are
Britannia in Mumbai. This is the king of Parsi restaurants. All of the Parsi kind of cafes and restaurants in Mumbai have gone
But Britannia is still there and the guy who runs it is like a hundred years old or something
They always come up to you and tell you about it's relationship with the Queen and everything
This is the best place to eat Parsi food Second to that is Soda bottle wala opener.. wait,
Soda bottle opener wala
Soda bottle opener wala and there's a few of these around India, maybe six stores
So go there and order the same thing. I mean to just take these two things to start work Berry Pulao and
Sali Boti and you can't go wrong. This Berry pulao is not upto scratch according to me
But the Dhansak and the Sali Boti here are very very good and the entree we had was great as well
You agree on the Berry Pulao? the curry inside is just not right for me
MANU: I like it. KARL: You like it?
You don't like it because it's less spicy. But I like it when it's not too hot.
Yeah it is less spicy
MANU, so what do we got for dessert? You're the haryanvi. You've got the sweet tooth so
yeah, we eat desserts first and then the food
We have the Irani Falooda
Which has noodles, basil seeds, there's ice cream and rosewater some nuts on top
It's way more complex to the one that you usually take at like Haldiram's or at an Indian Restaurant
That was just Rabri and noodles
And what's the slice you had there? This is Lagan nu Custard
Lagan means wedding. So this is the custard they serve at the weddings
KARL: And what's it made of? MANU: It has some egg white?
there's nuts I can see and some.. what do you think it is, condensed milk? KARL: i think it's condensed milk or something MANU: yeah KARL: looks milky
Alright, let's see how they are
Should I try?
KARL: Not good? MANU: I don't like it KARL: you don't like haha
KARL: You wish you had Malpua or Imarti? MANU: no, no, I like Falooda. This is my favorite Irani dessert
So see you can see the noodles
KARL: Alright show us how you eat this. MANU: Oh no KARL: How are you gonna eat this, it's gonna slip it all over your nice clothes, your Kashmiri clo thes
KARL: Try MANU: Don't film me while I'm eating this
KARL: Oh it's all on the floor, look, all on the table
KARL:This one's always good. Falooda is always good na?
Yeah it's hard to go wrong with this. KARL: Let me see what she's saying about this custard. This is a wedding custard
How can you say a wedding custard is bad
You're banned from all Parsi weddings now babe
Not allowed at Parsi weddings
No it's good, it's nice
It's a custard, it's um
It tastes like kind of like burnt sugar burnt condensed milk
This is kind of is very milky and eggy flavor it is yum
Good, kind of like caramelized. Is that the right word? MANU: Yeah
Love this I love this. Invite me to your Parsi weddings
MANU: I'll be banned
You're banned yeah
MANU: And we have some mango bite
KARL: Happy? MANU: Very happy! I didn't know they still make these
Mango bite, It's like Parle-G, it makes you feel nostalgic KARL: one rupee lolly
Yeah, that's oh maybe it's 50 paise, oh, it could be one rupee now
Manu, so, that food was
average okay. I thought we were gonna get authentic Parsi food. But the thing is the canteen has changed hands now
MANU: Yeah KARL: A business is running it rather than the Parsi woman who used to run it, the Parsi woman still here
But she doesn't run the canteen
There was a shame the best place for Parsi food in India is Britannia in Mumbai, and I've been there so many times
And also soda bottle wala opener
wait, no, soda bottle opener wala. I really liked that place as well. It's basically a clone of
Britannia, okay, but it's available here in Delhi and Gurgoan. So this place is okay. It's not bad. It's just okay, though
He service was very good
Service was good. People were nice interior is good, but the food was lacking, I felt
We're back by the fire temple again
And it's called the fire temple because there's always a light lit in there and they got the saying good words
Good deeds and good thoughts. No good thoughts good words and good deeds and that's how I've always seen my Parsi friends
Behaving just like that na, and is there anything that you would take from the Parsi culture that you really like?
yes, I might get into problem for saying that but I like how they um
How they, you know, give the dead bodies back to nature
KARL: Oh, yeah, tell us about that, that's something unique MANU: So they have this tower
I don't know what it's called, but the dead bodies are put there and the Eagles and the birds can eat it
I think it's more environment friendly than, you know just burning them like we do in Hinduism because it's just you know
Not very environment friendly. KARL: or even burying them in Christianity. Like what's the point of taking a space of the ground?
yeah, so they let the vultures come and
You know take care of the bodies
Yeah
basically
All right let's go. So guys come and experience Parsi food
It is something really really unique hard to find and get it before it's gone. That's what I mean
MANU: Oh no, don't say that. KARL: I hope it lives on honestly. I really hope it does
Yeah, but the way all the restaurants have been closing and everything
Just go and try it now. You guys will love it. Any Manu
three, two, one
MANU: Jai Hind. KARL: Jai Hind