SCHANDIS, FROM PERSIA WITH LOVE… Of course we know mordern day Iran was Persia once upon a time and Persian food is highly appreciated by connoisseurs of food, find some of it here at Caranzalem beach at capital city Panaji: kebab platter, berry pulao and other temptations. Schandis is great time pass here!
By Tara Narayan
EVERY and now and again I get bewitched by things Persian, having studied Persian history in world history in school, what happened to Persia has many lessons for us today if we care to study it! And then last week I found myself savouring a delicately delicious saffron pistachio ice-cream at this Persian restaurant which I have just discovered called Schandis at Miramar beach, so close to where I stay at Caranzalen!
Hey, how come I missed it for so long, really annoying. One evening I was taking a rare walk out to the Caranzalem side of Miramar beach and took the Seaview short cut across to the beach – and discovered the colourfully lit up by artificial “fruit trees” at the threshold – Schandis. It is adjacent to the old Seaview Hotel, which is one of the few properties overlooking Miramar beach, which I took a shine too long ago and never mind that it was and still is a bit of bhoot bangla!
I’ve seen it in bad days and good days now I dare say, there used to be al fresco courtyard café here where I’d enjoyed a chaat number or so in the very old days, when I was staying at Dona Paula. This has been refurbished to the Schandis restaurant or cafeteria really and the sea breezes blow here, it’s quite tantalizing to spend some time here for it is never overcrowded at least in the day time. I like the way this place has metamorphisezed into a Persian parlour restaurant with discreet interior decoration.
Last week I walked in to be enchanted anew by the interiors and the old world floor tiling, spacious ambience – in fact, like a fabulous Irani restaurant of old reminding of my Mumbai years in some Irani restaurant or another down town Flora Fountain. It was my friend Nandita Haksar who told me about the baklava at Schandis, there are two kinds, she said, the almond baklava which is a more economical buy than the pistachio baklava. Baklava being the delicate fine pastry sweet reputed to be invented in the kitchens of Sultan Sulayman of the Turkish empire during his magnificent century yeears).
So I wanted to go see and she was right, in a cabinet at Schandis I eyed these great platters of baklava, each small size priced between Rs200 to Rs400, almond baklava slightly more economical to buy, pistachio more expensive, but…..or so desirable. I eat one and found more sesame seeds than almond crumble in it, still the buttery filo pastry was delectable to savor, it was like savouring the flavors of the maybe…er…the sweetness of the Persian empire once upon a time (before Alexander the Great came along to ransack it and send its people scattering here and there, including India where the Parsee community speaks Farsi to this day in between the Gujarati they adopted.
SINCE I love the stories of history I must say the sound of Persia and what happened to it has always beguiled and haunted my mind. I remember the barberry pilaf we working women in Bombay had enjoyed at Irani restaurant Brittania at Ballard Estate in Bombay (some 30 years ago), the khatta-meetha berries came all the way from Persia, we were told, as we tucked into the fragrant pilaf with relish. The caramel custards here too came in aluminium tin cone cups were delicious (or maybe this was in another Irani restaurant, I’m forgetting).
TO stay with Schandis Restaurant at Caranzalen beach these days I’m so enthralled by it and apart from baklava I also picked up a bottle of baby cucumber water pickle with Majid here telling me “don’t worry about when it was made, the more the cucumbers stay in the water the better they taste!” Who cooks all the Persian food? He tells me the owner Hussain is the chef himself and their kebabs are famous and the various pilaf, one of which I learn is a fish pilaf which is very popular with connoisseurs of Persian flavors.
Since I was just dropping by I’d seen their saffron pistachio ice-cream being promoted at every table and so sat down and ordered one (Rs200 per generous scoop but value for money in every teaspoon I put in my mouth, memorable flavour). Ahhhh, this is real ice-cream. Well, since I don’t like to eat on my own some anymore I said I’d return another day with friends to appreciate more time here….for the kebab platter , falafel, saffron rice, Persian-style biryani, hummus plate, roti and special dishes and of course — baklava! One may just make a meal of baklava and be happy for the rest of the day or night.
Hey, they also do pizza, for survival’s sake I suppose. They have chicken sausage, chicky, lambo pizza, also fresh farmhouse, mushroom and margherita pizza for vegetarians – needless to say their bestseller must be “lahmacun” or Turkish pizza featuring tender lamb meat.
The refreshments menu lists homemade ice teas, slushes and fresh juices featuring peach, green tea, blue pea, hibiscus, black rose, lemon and other tantalizing combos…what is doogh? Persian lassi. Try the summer slushes of cucumber-lime-ginger-mint or watermelon-mint or coconut-apple, etc. Before I forget Schandis also offers hookah joys of double apple, orange, strawberry, bluebery, mint, watermelon, kiwi, grapes, pan masala and zafran pan – you may want to spend an evening here puffing hookah if you’re young at heart, or even old at heart like me!
This is to say one of these days go discover Schandis and not just for the saffron pistachio ice-cream. These days my mind is really preoccupied by the life and times of Persian history gone by and today’s modern-day countries of Iran (Persia) and Iraq (very different from Iran I’m told although both countries have seen some terrible Shia-Sunni warfare in recent times). You remember how the Shah of Iran turned an entire desert into a luxury air-conditioned resort to entertain royalty and world leaders on one occasion…(sigh)…such proud, aristocratic leaders are the worst kind of leaders a country may throw up in monarchies and even so called democracies. It is high time we as a world dumped royalty, celebrities and politicians in the dustbin of time where they belong forever after! The question is how can we the people, do it?