Saturday, August 20, is Navroz ? new year’s day for the Parsis. Seven days ago, members of the community started offering prayers at their fire temple in Metcalfe Street for the souls of the near and dear who have passed on, a tradition followed as the new year approaches and head priest Soli Katwal is a busy man. These prayers begin 10 days before Navroz and then the new year is rung in with good will and good cheer, meeting up with friends and relatives, the laying out of traditional fare at Parsi tables and participation in various community activities.

One such activity is the staging, for an incredible 98th consecutive year, of a play. This year’s play is Bairi Vagarna Behramji, a sitcom written by Dohrab Mehta of Mumbai and directed by my old friend Cyrus Madan. In charge of music is Cyrus Tata whom I grew up with in school and after college played music with for a few years before he went on to join the late Ananda Shankar and then Usha Uthup. Cyrus Madan was a big hit in one of Calcutta’s most successful musicals, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. He played Snoopy the dog and I was part of the live orchestra. We had a great time. The production was directed by Zarin Chaudhuri, also Parsi, who directed another musical called The Fantasticks a couple of years later, in which I acted.

In fact, my very first stage role at the tender age of five when I played the big spider who frightened Miss Muffet away, was in a school production directed by a vivacious and dynamic Parsi lady, Roxy Patel.

That was not in Calcutta but needless to say over the years one has had the privilege of being associated in many different ways with this gifted community whose contribution to our lives, from commerce and industry to sports and culture ? in fact every walk of life ? has been phenomenal. And I have always been struck by their panache, wit, sense of humour and hospitality.

Which, of course, brings us to the matter of Parsi cuisine. It is a vast subject and one cannot do justice to it in a matter of few paragraphs but since there is also something to be said in favour of brevity, one can try.

According to my personal experience, this cuisine is rich in the statement it makes. There is variety that runs the gamut of many different flavours which even when subtle are strong because they are memorable.

What the Parsis do with the humble egg, no other cuisine ? perhaps in the world ? does. Having settled in coastal Gujarat originally, their variety of fish and shell fish dishes would make a Bengali envious and, traditionally, what the Parsis eat and when is very strongly linked to their festivals and important days in the calendar. And there are many dos and don’ts involved.

For example, Dhan Sakh, their most celebrated dish of meat cooked with lentils, is never eaten on auspicious days. Though a popular Sunday lunch item inside the household, you will never find it on the menu at weddings or during Navroz. There are specific days on which it can be eaten.

Outside of personal experience, it was a book that provided a wealth of information and had me completely engrossed. It is called Parsi Food and Customs, written by Bhicoo J. Manekshaw, who in 1963 became the first Indian to gain admission to the Advanced Course of the Cordon Bleu School of Cookery in London.

If one includes pickles, chutneys, beverages and desserts, there are about 250 to 300 recipes and there are also anecdotes about them and how they evolved which make for some delightful reading.

The emphasis on spices is what makes Parsi food so full bodied. Almost every dish requires that spices must be freshly ground; sometimes dry roasted before being ground. At other times, fresh condiments are ground along with dry powders for the desired result.

Open the book randomly at any page and if the recipe is about a savoury fish, meat or poultry preparation, there will be an instruction to grind together at least six ingredients. Aromatic ones like cumin, coriander seeds, fenugreek, cinnamon, cloves and various kinds of dry chillies will play a part, as will fresh condiments like garlic, ginger and onions.

There is a separate section devoted to making and storing ground spices at home and, of course, the special Dhan Sakh masala is featured here. Manekshaw clarifies that there are many variations but the one she presents has 16 ingredients, each to be dry roasted individually with a little oil on a griddle before being cooled, ground and mixed together.

This masala is used in dishes other than Dhan Sakh also, particularly their fish patias ? dryish, sweet-sour curries in which tamarind is the common ingredient.

And eggs. What imagination! Take Kera Per Eeda (eggs cooked on bananas). Onions are lightly browned first. Green chillies, ginger, garlic, turmeric and chilli powder, chopped tomatoes and coriander leaves and salt are added. This is allowed to simmer before bananas (sliced) are added and mixed in gently. This mixture is spread evenly, depressions are made in it and eggs are broken into these depressions and cooked till set. In a similar manner, eggs are cooked on a mixture of potatoes, tomatoes, minced meat, lamb’s brains, prawns and Bombay duck!

Bombay duck, the dried lamprey fish they call boomla, features in many tempting dishes, as does the same fish in its undried fresh form. Machhino Sas (sweet and sour fish curry) has three or four variations but sugar, vinegar and eggs feature in all and these have more gravy than patias. There are also some exotic items involving fish roe.

There are dozens of recipes with meat and poultry; Aleti Paleti is made with chicken liver, gizzard and heart. Chicken cooked with pineapple, meat with mangoes, lamb stuffed in round marrow, recipes with trotters ? it’s all there. And at least 30 vegetable preparations, plus pulaos and khichdis and kudhis.

Unfortunately, there are no Parsi restaurants in Calcutta but I succeeded in finding some people who do cater and these are their contact numbers: Meher Patel, for 6-15 people (24003105), Darius Jila, for 10 or more people (9830243369) and Adi Balsara (9830053822).

Pictures by Rashbehari Das