About: Home Made by Tasneem is concept restaurant and a boutique catering service offering authentic Bohri cuisine. The Bohra community eats in a specific way. There is a lot of tradition and history attached to each of our meals. The Home Made experience includes a sumptuous 5-course meal served in a thal which stems from the tradition of Bohra’s eating collectively in a group of 8 persons.

The Concept: Home Made by Tasneem serves their meals in a ‘thal’ which stems from the the tradition of the Bohra’s eating collectively in a group of 8 persons. A ‘thal’ is a large round metal plate, around which the family sits helping themselves from the same dish, course by course. It is considered to be a symbol of unity, equality and sharing. A square cloth called ‘safra’ is placed on a carpet, on which a raised metal or wooden stand called ‘kundli’ is placed; the ‘thal’ is then put on top of the ‘kundli’.

We believe that the food served on special events should be just that: Special. Hence, we write all of our menus for each and every thal.Although there are some dishes we love and would want to recommend from time to time, by and large each menu is a distinct reflection of the food heritage carried on by the Bohra’s of Mumbai.

Every meal is started and ended with taking a grain of salt which is believed to clean the taste buds and cure many diseases. The first course is then served, which interestingly is dessert. The Bohra’s consider it auspicious to begin a meal with a sweet dish. In the Bohra language all desserts are called ‘mithaas’.

Our next course is the ‘kharaas’ or the appetizer which usually consists of a chicken or mutton dish and is accompanied by a salad.

Another round of ‘mithaas’ and ‘kharaas’ is repeated.

The ‘jaman’ or the main course is almost always a rice dish. Favourites include kaarichawal and dal chawalpalidu. Depending on the dish, jaman is accompanied by either a cold drink or soup. Dry fruits or Paan (betel leaves) are a must before the family members taste the salt again to cleanse their tongues.

The Team: Home Made by Tasneem is run by a mother-daughter duo, both extremely passionate about food. Both handle full time jobs and delight people with the Home Made experience every weekend.
Tasneem: The artist behind the Home Made experience, Tasneem has been a home cook for the last 20 years, starting out with tiffin’s for her daughter’s friends in school to taking regular small party catering orders and serving meals in a ‘menij’; a monthly Bohri get together between friends. Tasneem is now broadening her horizons with Home Made.
Alifiya: The CEO or the chief eating officer at Home Made, Alifiya is the guinea pig for all her mother’s experiments, a role she is more than happy to take on considering her mother rarely ever goes wrong. In addition to enjoying Home Made meals, she also takes care of the marketing and PR for the team.

Testimonials: I was invited by@homemadebytasneem for an authentic experience of Bohri cuisine, earlier on Sunday for lunch. It was my first time eating out of a thaal, a shared plate for 8-12 persons. And looking back on my meal, it was a delightful afternoon all together!
We indulged in a 5 course meal and my favourite of the lot was the Murgi Ni Chaap. It was a simple dish with strong flavour and you could sense that it was made out of love!
Made in a thick creamy paste of coriander and pudina, the chicken has to be one of the softest, most succulent ones I’ve ever had! It was slow cooked to perfection with the meat effortlessly falling right off the bone!I thank Tasneem and her daughter Alifiya for the delightful lunch and for hosting us at their lovely home. The entire meal was an experience in itself as I learned more about Bohri cuisine and tradition. I recommend all you foodies to check@homemadebytasneem out.
The Hungry Mumbaikar, Blogger

This has been a long pending review, just didn’t get enough time to write. This place came as a recommendation from one of my very close foodie friend and I was immediately hooked on to the idea of trying a home madeBohriThal. I attended two sessions and both were fabulous five courses of sumptuous meals. The sessions starts with a nice sweet and tangy Gol nu paani (jaggery sherbet) then they have a concept of alternating dishes between mithas (sweet) and kharas (savoury). The sweets are very rich and creamy (Kalamro, BohriSouffle), SanchaniIcecream (homemade ice cream) was nice and creamy with the perfect consistency. Then the Kharas were fabulous as well, the Kasuri Chicken, Gurda-Kaleji, Dhuan Chicken were perfectly cooked and spiced. In the main course the Khichda was my top favourite. This meal is followed by homegrown paan / mukhwas. To top it all the traditional presentation / seating and timely quips from the proprietor in regards to history of various dishes makes the meal even more interesting. Must visit for foodies who enjoy tradition and history while satisfying their taste buds. Also forget calorie control for those two hours in the session 😉
AshishKirtikar, Guest

Spending a day, reviewing food, at a home isn’t something that any one would generally expect. But Homemade ByTasneem was surely a one of a kind experience.Having adhered to the traditional Bohri luncheon, the five course meal was kick started with a welcome drink called Gol Nu Paani, a jaggery and lemon based drink infused with chia seeds. This was then followed by the first offering, ‘Mithas’ – Doodhi No Falooda, which was splendid indeed.The second offering was the ‘Kharaas’ – Creamy Chicken. Slide off the bone, melt in your mouth goodness. The gravy… Lipsmacking!The third offering being the Saancha Ni Ice Cream. We’d assume this to be another dessert but sure did work well as a pallette cleanser too.
The fourth offering was the most delicious Shammi Kebabs we’ve had… EVER!
And the finale was a full blown Bhorithaal consisting of a Kara Nu Saag, Biryani, Naan Bread, Creamy Chicken and other accompaniments, which let us mention looked oh-so good!With this brief, the conclusion being, Homemade ByTasneem, highly recommended by us, not only for the food but also for the experience.
Mother of foodies, Blogger

This place came as a recommendation from good friends and given our foodie outlook we sure did want to explore this furtherBohri Muslim cuisine as we learnt from our hosts is a fusion of foods that is served on a “Thaal” and people sit around it in a circle and have it together. While this enhances commradirie it also was a concept used to minimise the effect of famine by avoiding wastage.Armed with this knowledge and getting to know the benefits of starting with salt served by the youngest person in the group, followed by periodic servings of sweet, we were left mesmerised by the kheer garnished with dry fruits and the crisp pooris. This was followed by chicken and home made ice cream. The chicken pulav was the tipping on the iceberg served with stock also referred as soup. Our stomach capacity kept reminding us to stop but remembered the Pepsi tag line ” yehdil mange more”
The underlying statement of home cooked mother food made us feel warm and comfortable. It was just like eating at home.Our request for extra kheer and ice cream was met with the warmest smile. Loved it
The take away gift of an egg based sweet, the recipe of which had been passed down the generations was a welcome delight.
Overall an awesome experience and for sure it is a must try
Amit, Guest

Notes: We will be serving our Home Made meals in a traditional Bohra manner in a Thal which is a large dish placed on the floor with up to 8 people seated around it. Comfortable, lose clothing is advisable. Parking is a slight issue (we live opposite a hospital). We cannot promise a parking spot or guarantee the safety of your vehicle. No frills attached. Our food isn’t fancy, it is, however, mouth-wateringly delicious. Our hygiene standards border on OCD. We are never lax with the cleanliness of our food. Our produce, while sourced locally, is top quality. If you have any allergies, please let us know at the time of booking.

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