Irani cafés

What it is

The core order is Irani chai, tea brewed strong and mixed with thick sweet milk, and bun maska, a soft bun split and spread generously with butter, made for dipping. Around that are baked goods: crisp flaky biscuits, cardamom sponge cakes and, in Hyderabad, salty-sweet Osmania biscuits. Many cafés also serve Parsi and Irani dishes such as spiced scrambled eggs, minced meat with bread, a rice dish with sour barberries, and baked caramel custard.

Where it comes from

The owners are usually called Iranis, to distinguish them from the Parsis, Zoroastrians who had settled in India many centuries earlier. They arrived poor and opened tea shops and bakeries. One common account is that they took corner sites cheaply because some local traders thought corners unlucky. The corner gave light, air and two doors. By the middle of the twentieth century Mumbai had several hundred Irani cafés. A few dozen remain, as rents rise and younger family members choose other work.

How it works

You walk in and sit at any table, often sharing. A waiter takes the order and brings it within minutes. The owner sits at a raised counter by the door and takes payment as you leave. Many cafés display a board of house rules, a famous feature, forbidding things like combing hair or discussing gambling. The cafés open early for breakfast. Some are only bakeries with a few tables. Others serve full lunches with a fixed dish for each day of the week.

How to do it

1. Go in the morning, when the buns and cakes are fresh.
2. Order Irani chai and bun maska.
3. Dip the buttered bun in the tea.
4. Add an egg dish or minced meat with bread if you are hungry.
5. Pay at the counter by the door on your way out.

Good manners

• Share your table if the café is full.
• Do not linger for hours over one cup at busy times.
• Ask before photographing staff or other customers.

What is eaten

Crème caramelCustard dessert topped with a layer of liquid caramelNankhataiShortbread biscuit from the Indian subcontinent made with flour and semolinaMasala chaiBlack tea brewed with milk, spices and sugar, served hot across India

Also part of it, and being written: Akuri, Dhansak, Osmania biscuit.

Sources and further reading

• Irani café on Wikipedia
• Department of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra