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Roshni Bajaj Sanghvi works her way through several bottles of non-vegetarian pickles.

When they move away from their state, Keralites often crave the kalamakai, a kind of mussel that has the tang of the Malabar coastal sea that can’t be found in any other kind of shell fish. Deepa Krishnadas has made it her business to supply pickled kalamakai to faraway relatives and their friends. “When my family left Kerala, everyone would want to take this pickle with them,” said Krishnadas, who uses minimal salt and diluted vinegar in her pickles “to prevent health problems”. When kalamakai is not in season, instead of using farmed mussels, she pickles Malabar sardines, which she says are much better than those from the Bay of Bengal. She also pickles seer (king mackerel) or her hot favourite, prawns.

The fish is shallow-fried instead of deep-fried, to keep it plump. Then a mash-up of ginger, garlic, green chillies, salt, dry masalas, poppy seeds and a bit of sugar (to mellow the sourness) are cooked in gingelly oil and mixed with the fish and vinegar. The masala varies slightly for each kind of seafood. “These pickles were first made for the monsoon months, for people who couldn’t eat a meal without fish,” said Krishnadas. When the English meet, they talk about the weather, but “when two people from Kannur meet, they talk about the fish they caught”, she said.

Call Deepa Krishnadas at 0497-2766-554 or 0497-2780-8764 between 6-10pm. Crave couriers pickles to Mumbai in cooled Styrofoam packs. Kalamakai Rs 160, prawn Rs 240, sardine Rs 80, seer fish Rs 220. Kerala beef pickle and chicken pickle also available on order, Rs 130 each. All prices for 500gm.

Dalal Enterprises

“Vegetables, to a Parsi, are anathema,” said Kurush Dalal, proprietor of Dalal Enterprises, which caters Parsi food. “My grandfather would only eat vegetables if meat was cooked with them, like suran ma gosht, kakdi ma gosht.” Kurush is a second-generation epicure. His mother is cookbook author and Parsi caterer Katy Dalal. He grew up with an appreciation of meaty and fishy pickles. As a boy, he’d spend summers at his grandmother’s home in Bandra cycling from house to house to distribute the pickle she made for the community. He rues the loss of those gentler times, but makes sure that Dalal Enterprises pickles are as fiery as they were then.

“The Parsi prawn pickle has a much greater punch than Goan balchao,” he said. “You can smell the vinegar and prawn as soon as you open the bottle.” Pomfret pickle has more warmth than whack, which tempts people to overdo it and suffer the effects of ingesting too much of garam masala the next day. Unlike the pickled fish, which hardens over time, achari chicken breaks down into a paste within six months of bottling, and tastes fantastic with the dal chawal, or the soupy Parsi ras chawal. “Parsis use oil to cook their pickles, instead of topping the bottle with it afterwards,” Dalal said. “We believe that the oil must rise to the occasion.”

Mangalam House, Third Floor, Walchand Hirachand Marg (2261-9313). Chicken Rs 250 for 400gm, pomfret Rs 300 for 400gm, prawn Rs 300 for 400gm. Minimum order for prawn three bottles, for chicken four bottles.

Marie Mendonca’s 100-year-old pickle recipe, was passed down to her from her mother and carries all the influences of her East Indian heritage. “We are Maharashtrians converted [to Christianity] by the Portuguese, but we became more British because Bombay was under the Crown,” she said. Like Goans, East Indians make balchao pickle and love pork, but the spices and preparation are slightly different. Goan food is more Portuguese than East Indian food, which has stronger Maharashtrian flavours. Goans use fresh masalas, palm jaggery and mild Kashmiri mirch. East Indians use dried bottle masala, cane jaggery and deghi mirch. Mendonca’s prawn pickle is in vindaloo masala with peppercorns, haldi and lots of garlic, while her balchao is made with kolim, a kind of tiny shrimp, which she dries on her terrace, and then pickles with green chillies, ginger and garlic. “We fry it with onions, tomatoes and vindaloo masala for the months when fish is not available,” she said. Mendonca puts green chillies, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, garlic, ginger and vinegar in her pork pickle and makes sure the meat has some layers of fat, “otherwise you don’t feel like you are eating pork”. It’s a huge hit during Bandra Feast, but she thinks people should cut down the rest of the time, “because of the cholesterol”.

Les Aurann, Palimala Road, Bandra (W). Call 2640-9371, 4pm-6pm on weekdays. From

Rs 150 for 450gm, based on the cost of meat and fish. Surmai pickle also available. Orders must be places 15 days in advance, and must be at least for one kg.

Roshan’s Homemade Products

Rabia Mandal is a Bengali Muslim in Colaba who started making pickle from recipes she saw on television. Roshan’s mutton chop pickle and boneless chicken leg pickle are her takes on recipes she’s come across. “They don’t belong to any particular community,” she said, when we tried in vain to identify the mix. Mutton on the bone is fried with onions, garam masalas, ginger and garlic, while cubed chicken leg meat is in a spicy thick masala with the smack of mustard oil. Only the prawn pickle has certain origins, cooked in vinegary Goan balchao masala.

Mandal and her sister Roshan started the company five years ago, and also make four flavours of yogurt dips and 20 kinds of vegetarian pickles in a separate kitchen for their many Gujarati clients. Even though the company has since grown and she has people to help her now, Rabia Mandal deveins the prawns herself and makes sure the chicken is pickled within hours of buying it from the market.

107, Vijaydeep Building, First Floor, above Thakkar’s Clinic, Colaba Market (98213-67493). Mutton Rs 350 per kg, chicken Rs 350 per kg, prawn balchao from Rs 300 per kg based on cost and availability.

Schroff’s Pickle

Zinobia Schroff is a mini celebrity in Dadar Parsi Colony. Lost among the identical buildings with only numbers to distinguish them, we were stopped by kind Parsi ladies sitting on their porches or looking out of their balconies. “Who are you looking for? Where do you want to go?” they’d ask, and then, “Oh, Zinobia Schroff?”, nodding and quickly giving directions to her home. When we reached her, Schroff brought out the seasonal special, garabh nu achar, (which means pickled womb). It is made with bhing (also known as hilsa, ilish or palla) fish roe, a Parsi favourite that is only available in the month of August, but pickled to last the year. She uses naturally brewed cane vinegar for all her recipes, which she said is milder than the vinegar used by Goans.

Her prawn pickle is cooked in a masala of curry leaves, mustard, fenugreek, cumin and garlic in organic vinegar. Schroff’s makes over 14,000 kg of pickle a year. Once, she made a little extra moghlai garam masala lamb pickle and forgot about it. “When I took it out from the fridge after a year, it tasted unbelievably good,” she said. “I called a few friends over andwe finished half a kilo in a day.”

784 B, Dadar Parsi Colony (2413-5650). Lamb, prawn and fish roe Rs 150-200, per 250 gm.

Also available at

A-Z vegetables Shop No 5, Colaba Market, Strand Road (2284-1873). Melam’s prawn (from Karnataka) Rs 115 for 400gm.

Jude’s Cold Storage Shop No 3, Lourdes Haven, Pali Junction, Bandra (W) (2600-5570). Goan chicken and pork Rs 30 for 100gm, East Indian prawn Rs 36-Rs 66 for 200gm, Karma’s prawn Rs 65 for 200gm.

Mark’s Cold Storage 2 Shahina Building, Pali Mala Road, Bandra (W) (2640-8626). Neptune’s tuna, squid and kingfish (surmai) from Karnataka Rs 90 for 200gm each, East Indian prawn Rs 80 for 200 gm, Fern’s/Costa’s prawn balchao from Goa Rs 70 for 200gm, spicy Mangalorean prawn Rs 65 for 200gm, Secret Oddysey kingfish (surmai) Rs 80 for 200gm, East Indian bombil Rs 60 for 200gm.

Mummy’s Yummies by Nargish Lala 2nd Marine Street, Dhobi Talao (6607-9177/98190-02500). Prawn balchao Rs 100 for 250gm, tarapori patio Rs 75 for 250gm, fish roe Rs 160 for 250gm.