When I was eight, I went to Udvada with my father to visit his friend Erach. During the trip, I saw a goat being milked right into a glass and watched my grandpa and Erach drink a strange-smelling drink called taari.
Taari, also known as toddy or palm wine, is made from the fermented sap of palm trees. In India, it comes from sugar palms (tadgola), date palms (khajuri), and coconut palms. The one from coconut palms is called maadi. For Parsis, taari has been an important ingredient in cooking for years.
In the 1970s and 80s, taari was brought to Mumbai from places like Nargol, Udvada, Dahanu, and Gholvad. It was often mixed with flour to stop it from fermenting too fast, and this flour was used to make tasty snacks like bhakras, popatjees, and karkarias.
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Bhakra: A fried Parsi cookie made from taari-flour batter, semolina, sugar, cardamom, nutmeg, and vanilla.
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Popatjees: A teatime snack made in a special pan called popatjee-no-paeno, with raisins and charoli seeds in the batter.
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Karkarias: Banana fritters made by adding ripe bananas, raisins, and spices to the taari batter.
One rare dish is taari no batervo – lamb slow-cooked in taari with green herbs and spices, giving it a sweet and sour taste. My grandmother used to make it, and now my wife has even adapted the recipe for pork.
Sadly, pure taari is now hard to find in cities because it spoils quickly and is often diluted. The nearest place to get it is Vasai, but trips just for taari are rare. With time, cooking with taari is disappearing from Parsi homes, and it might soon exist only in memories.
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