Eat, drink and celebrate the cuisine of Mumbai's Koli community

livemint.com:

jawla (micro dried prawns) masala is worthy of singing a paean for, the latter’s gaboli sukka (dry preparation of fish roe) and prawn stuffed bombil (Bombay duck) are worth the trek to its trio of outposts in Mulund, Ghodbunder and Panchpakhadi in Thane. Speaking of a trek, at the on-going,dinner-onlyAgri Koli food festivalat Courtyard By Marriott Navi Mumbai’s Courtyard Pavillion restaurant, guest chef Savita Nivrutti Koli, a wedding caterer and home chef from Karanja in nearby Uran, talks of the starring role seafood has in her community. “Almost an equal amount of what we fish for sale, will end up on our table," Savita says with a laugh.

“These take the form of appetisers like kolambi Koliwada (semolina-crusted sea prawns), kardiche pakode (baby shrimp fritters) and makul bharlele (dry coconut masala-stuffed squid)' all made with our favourite peanut oil. Our mains are a range of curries like the red moshi (shark) kalvan (curry) and the coconut-based chimbori (crab) curry. Of course, we also have quite a few vegetarian dishes like dalimbichi usal (field beans gravy) and tondli chanadal (ivy gourd and gram stir fry).

These are best had with Koli breads like the rice flour-based, neer dosa-adjacent ghavne and the puffy, wheat and rice flour kombadi wade." The last one as its name suggests, is used to mop up the fiery red gavti kombadi (country chicken) curry. The festival will end on June 30. Savita makes it a point to emphasise the significance of the typically Koli kala masala that imparts a dark, almost black-ish hue to a host of dishes.