Bombay Buddha Bowls
The origin of the Buddha bowl is a humble one.
It is believed that Buddha, as he travelled across ancient India, would carry with him a bowl. For his meals everyday, he would go from door to door, where families would offer a small portion of whatever they had cooked. Some would offer rice, others vegetables, and so on. He would receive all this food in his bowl, or bikshapatra and then settle down to his meal of variety.
This humble, balanced one-bowl meal has today become a sweeping trend. Today’s Buddha Bowls are the new, trendy avatar of rice and grain bowls. They can be constructed with any cuisine, so long as they include all the major food groups, and are packed with a variety of flavours, textures and colours.
With this concept in mind, SodaBottleOpenerWala (SBOW), Olive Group’s Irani Café inspired restaurant chain, has teamed up with Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal to create the Bombay Buddha Bowl pop up, with it’s first edition in SBOW’s Bangalore restaurant.
Rushina had been telling me about the launch of these bowls, for which she was coming to Bangalore. I was pretty intrigued – so naturally I was thrilled when she invited me to a demonstration at the Bangalore restaurant, of how the bowls are put together, followed by dinner, where I would get to taste these meals!
For as long as I've known Rushina – in fact much longer than that – she has been fascinated by and proud of the diverse communities that make up the cultural fabric of Mumbai. Having grown up in the city, surrounded by these communities and subsequently spending a lot of time researching their cuisines, she has developed a keen understanding of them. And for this pop up, she decided to showcase four cuisines that are close to her heart: Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi and East Indian.
While Rushina has gotten creative with each element in the bowl, she has taken care to be respectful of the cuisines and their traditional form.
Each bowl has been built around one cuisine's comfort food: the Gujarati bowl is inspired by Daal Dhokli, the Sindhi one on Sindhi Kadhi, the Marathi one built around prawns and a spicy Koli seafood curry, and the East Indian one centred around wedding rice and pork vindaloo.
I for one appreciate food a lot more when I learn a bit about its story. So, to understand more about these dishes, I will explore each bowl – both it’s inspiration and Rushina’s version, in individual posts…
Stay tuned for a bit about the Daal Dhokli bowl next!
In the meantime, SBOW is continuing to serve the Bombay Buddha Bowls till the 17th of December 2017. Which one would you choose?
It is believed that Buddha, as he travelled across ancient India, would carry with him a bowl. For his meals everyday, he would go from door to door, where families would offer a small portion of whatever they had cooked. Some would offer rice, others vegetables, and so on. He would receive all this food in his bowl, or bikshapatra and then settle down to his meal of variety.
This humble, balanced one-bowl meal has today become a sweeping trend. Today’s Buddha Bowls are the new, trendy avatar of rice and grain bowls. They can be constructed with any cuisine, so long as they include all the major food groups, and are packed with a variety of flavours, textures and colours.
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| The Buddha Bowl meals at SBOW (pic courtesy of Rushina) |
With this concept in mind, SodaBottleOpenerWala (SBOW), Olive Group’s Irani Café inspired restaurant chain, has teamed up with Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal to create the Bombay Buddha Bowl pop up, with it’s first edition in SBOW’s Bangalore restaurant.
Rushina had been telling me about the launch of these bowls, for which she was coming to Bangalore. I was pretty intrigued – so naturally I was thrilled when she invited me to a demonstration at the Bangalore restaurant, of how the bowls are put together, followed by dinner, where I would get to taste these meals!
For as long as I've known Rushina – in fact much longer than that – she has been fascinated by and proud of the diverse communities that make up the cultural fabric of Mumbai. Having grown up in the city, surrounded by these communities and subsequently spending a lot of time researching their cuisines, she has developed a keen understanding of them. And for this pop up, she decided to showcase four cuisines that are close to her heart: Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi and East Indian.
 |
| Rushina with the Buddha Bowls she has curated (pic courtesy of Rushina) |
While Rushina has gotten creative with each element in the bowl, she has taken care to be respectful of the cuisines and their traditional form.
Each bowl has been built around one cuisine's comfort food: the Gujarati bowl is inspired by Daal Dhokli, the Sindhi one on Sindhi Kadhi, the Marathi one built around prawns and a spicy Koli seafood curry, and the East Indian one centred around wedding rice and pork vindaloo.
I for one appreciate food a lot more when I learn a bit about its story. So, to understand more about these dishes, I will explore each bowl – both it’s inspiration and Rushina’s version, in individual posts…
Stay tuned for a bit about the Daal Dhokli bowl next!
In the meantime, SBOW is continuing to serve the Bombay Buddha Bowls till the 17th of December 2017. Which one would you choose?
 |
| Which one would you choose? |
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