Of khow suey and other tales

FOODIE

Former banker Nikhil Chib put his money where his mouth was.

It's hard to imagine that, for four years, Nikhil Chib made a catering business of supplying parties with khow suey and momos. Why khow suey?

"Doesn't everybody have a great 'My grandmother made khow suey every Sunday' story?" asks the restaurateur who used to be a Wall Street banker.

Till date those are the two items that fly off the Vietnamese-Thai menu at Busaba, his popular Mumbai restaurant and bar. Even as Nikhil, who recently underwent a year's training at the École Supérieure de Cuisine Française in Paris, attempts to insert European accents into his culinary offerings.

But let's start at the very beginning. Even while studying finance at Rochester, Chib was taking time off to travel around Europe picking up the strains of art, theatre, even psychoanalysis.

"I realised, one year into banking, that I was just not cut out for Wall Street," admits the very poised Chib. And so this instinctive cook returned to Mumbai, where he whipped up a chance career in catering.

He spent the best part of four years travelling to various parts of South-east Asia, watching street vendors, apprenticing with local chefs and carting back ingredients.

"The Kaffir lime plant I brought back from Thailand 10 years ago is still blossoming profusely," he interjects.

Busaba, now celebrating its sixth year in existence, is actually the successor to Busabong that ran for a year in the Goa tourist trap that is Baga Beach.

Chib recalls, "Customers would sit for two hours on the balustrade waiting to be served momos. I don't think they even noticed that we played the same two CDs day after day."

The inefficiencies of supply chain, not to mention the susegad disposition of the Goans, got to him quick and he packed up. It helped that he had located an antique godown up for sale in Mumbai's Colaba district, right next to critic's choice Indigo.

That godown has changed avatars twice since then. But not without hiccups. Chib, in a passing state of disenchantment, nearly abandoned it to start a bar in Vietnam or work in Hong Kong, even working at a couple of bars in Chelsea, in New York, in an attempt to re-integrate himself in the US.

"Funnily, the doors kept closing in on me, pushing me back towards Busaba," he says. Currently in its most understated, refined form yet, Busaba is making its way from pure South-east Asian "soul food" to integrating items like goat's cheese fondue and spare ribs among its beef Bulgogi and cold Vietnamese rolls.

The trance music at the bar has been replaced by DJs spinning commercial house. Chib himself is making a transition from a purely intuitive chef to a methodological, polished one. And having just got married, this restless 36-year-old might just have to settle for settling down.

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AVOURITE RECIPE

Stir-fried chicken with basil
2 tbsp garlic (chopped)
1 tsp bird chilli (chopped)
2 tbsp each of red and yellow pepper (cubed)
1/2 tsp fish sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
20 pieces fresh basil
250 gm chicken (diced into small pieces)
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp sunflower oil

Coat the surface of the wok with the oil and heat on high flame. Drain off extra oil. Sauté garlic till golden brown. Throw in the chilli and chicken and cook for two minutes (on high flame). Add the peppers, add the fish sauce, oyster sauce and soya sauce and then the basil. Add the stock and cook the chicken for an additional two minutes until stock reduces. Serve with steamed rice.