Oct 15, 2010 02:23 PM
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Tibbs Frankie !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yum Yum Yummy !!!!!!!!! The very mention of these two magical words is enough to activate your taste buds & make ur tummy yell for one!!
I can proudly say I am a Frankie Freak !!!!!!!! I can eat Frankies for Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks & Dinner & still want more in my Dreams !!!!!!!!!!
Now don’t say that “Cats don’t eat Frankies ?”…………..EVERYONE EATS FRANKIES !!!!!!!!!
My very first memories of Frankies was when I was in College & I went for a movie date to Colaba (in South Mumbai) & my then boy-friend took me to this superb Frankie Joint. The aroma itself was so enticing, that I cud not wait for the man to hand it over to me. And I happily took a huge mouthful………..!!!!!!!!!!! and then I was jumping around as it was So Hot !!!!!!!!!!. I had to keep my mouth open for a few moments to let the outside air cool the Sizzling Hot Frankie in my delicate mouth (hehe!!!).
After that my mouth & tongue & lips were singing so contentedly, that I could not concentrate on the Love Poem, that my boy-friend was reciting to me !!! (hehehe!!! Joke Yaar !!!
From then on, Tibbs Frankie became an addiction food for me. Just let Cattie see a Tibbs Frankie Stall anywhere & you will see her rushing to gobble one down right away.
So I thought I’d do a little study on Tibbs & find out how This Delightful Food was born…………
Tibbs is rumoured to be behind the Frankie movement that got going in the early 70's in Mumbai. There is a history behind how the Frankie came into being. The concept was created by the late Mr. Amarjit Singh Tibb, on a stopover flight from England in Beirut, where he tasted a sumptuous roll of pita bread with stuffing. He altered it to please the Indian palette by using a soft, yet crisp naan as the pita & a spicy & juicy meat or vegetarian curry with chunks of tender meat or spiced vegetables as the stuffing, & thus the TIBBS FRANKIE was born!
Oh Thank You, Mr. Amarjit Singh Tibb, for you added another tasty recipe in our Indian Recipe Books. But it is said, that the Masala & the Tibbs Frankie Recipe is a closely guarded secret like Colonel Sander's KFC formula or Coca Cola's formula !!!!!!!!!!. But I think that the secret to its success is more apparently the ‘Masala proportions’ that are sprinkled on the Frankie.
Today the Frankie is a registered trade mark of the TIBBS Family. This was a new era in the fast food world in India, with the launch of the Tibbs Frankie. The Tibbs chain made Frankie as popular as Vada-Pav in Mumbai
==What is this Frankie ? ==**(For those of you who still have not seen or tasted it.) - The Frankie is a basically a chappati roll with different fillings like mutton, chicken & vegetarian. A thin & crispy naan is used as the base. The filling is made from the finest quality of meat is cooked with a few simple masalas, onions, some fresh herbs etc. After the naan is cooked & the filling is heated, the person making the Frankie will finely chop up some onions. He will then take the base (the naan) & gently spread a few sauces such as Chilli Sauce, Vinegar etc to add flavour to the wrap, then spread the meat or the paneer or the patty on the wrap, add some fresh onions, & chillis if desired, add a tad bit of USP for Tibbs Frankie, & wrap up the Frankie, & it is served to you.
The assortment in this Frankie range are as follows;
In the ==VEG SECTION, ==you have the Regular Veg Frankie, the Masala Veg Frankie, the Paneer Frankie & the Veg Schezwan Frankie.
In the ==NON VEG SECTION, ==you have the Chicken Frankie, the Tawa Chicken Frankie, the Schezwan Chicken Frankie, the Mutton Frankie, the Bhuna Gosh Frankie, the Kheema Frankie & the Egg Masala Frankie. ankie
Egg Masala
I heard that the fillings of the Frankie is made every day with fresh ingredients & this curry is then dispatched to the various Tibbs Frankie outlets all over the city. At the Tibbs Frankie Stalls, the curry is then mixed with finely cut onions & green chillies & various sauces & herbs are added & rolled into the naan & served to you in a plastic, which is then put inside a Tibbs trademark wrapper packet & a Tissue.
The best part of eating a Tibbs Frankie is the ‘first’ Crunchy bite, which is full of hungry fervor and the ‘last’ bite where the curry has sank to the bottom & the end of the naan is ‘Juicy’ & soft.
Just recently VT has got its own Tibbs Frankie Stall and what a sigh of satisfaction, the commuters gave, when they saw the Stall. Earlier, everyone had to eat the same routine boring sandwiches, or samosas or bread rolls in the evenings before getting into the train. But now, you see those stalls mostly empty & Tibbs Frankie Stall is always surrounded by hungry people eyeing the tava to see when their order will be processed. Even though the Stall is mall & full of smoke & the men are sweating inside….whatever…people just throng there every eveining.
The only snag here is that, you have got to wait your turn as only 2 or 3 men would be inside the Stall, one frying the naan, one putting the filling & one collecting the cash. And with the aroma of that curry masala & herbs coming out the light smoke, it is real painful to wait for your Frankie to turn up.
Whenever I don’t get a taxi, I prefer going by train & if I’m late, you will definitely find me hogging on a Frankie before I board the train.
One day, I happened to see a man standing outside the stall cutting the opnion toppings on a small wooden plank with great speed & filling the same in the vessil & giving it inside the stall. The man was definitely not the Tibbs staff but someone maybe without work on the station, given this work to do. I curiously went to the tip of the stall & peeped inside to see the vessils filled with the various curries & herbs & sauces…& the hurry in which the 3 staffmen inside were hurriedly slapping the naans on the tavasa, the tossing them over to the other man who would bail out the curries & with such speed put correct proportions of sauces & salt & herbs, wrap it & give it you. It all looked so unhygienic, especially to cleanliness conscious people like me………..but Who Cares Yaar?????????? Just put it to your mouth & have a bite & you are in a Trance of
