Akoori at Cockle Bay Beach

Redefining the Kiwi beach sausage sizzle

For my recipe lovers:

• Skip the story and get the recipe

• What is Akoori?

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It was one of our first Fridays in New Zealand. My aunt who had lived in New Zealand for a while had invited mum and me to her potluck group. We had just finished bingeing on Tadka Dal and my latest Kiwi food discovery, Potato Pom Poms.

As we all sat down with our bowls of ice cream, talk turned to what we might do on Sunday morning given it was a long weekend. Since everyone had a day off on Monday, the weekly vacuuming could wait. One of the aunties shared that it might be our last chance to enjoy the autumn sunshine before winter set in proper.

The group decided that Cockle Bay beach nearby might be a good destination. If it ended up raining, we could move to someone’s backyard and since it was close by we wouldn’t be wasting too much petrol - we were all still getting used to petrol costing $1.10/litre, a whopping Rs 35!

Beach decided the next most important item on the agenda was of course food.

My ears perked up. Could this finally be the day I got to try a sausage sizzle? Turns out the answer was no. Apparently, Firoz only ate eggs on a Sunday and nothing else would do. As talk turned to egg sandwiches and egg pattice, I tuned out with my hopes dashed.

Mum told me later that we were having an Akoori party. I had no idea what an Akoori party was and I didn’t even want to know. Cringe, cringe, cringe.

Sunday morning came, and we bundled into my aunt’s 7-seater car and headed to Cockle Bay beach.

I hadn’t really been to a proper Auckland beach yet and the sunshine glistening off the sky-blue water had me catching my breath. I removed my jandals to feel the soft grass under my feet and couldn’t help myself from ogling at the group of boys playing volleyball on the grass with their shirts off.

Photo courtesy Sandy Austin

That’s my excuse for not noticing that beaches in New Zealand came with barbecues! Free for anyone to use and perfectly clean.

All the parts of the barbecue seemed to still be in place too (unlike Chowpatty beach where they even had to lock the rubbish bin to keep it from being stolen).

Chaos descended as six families gathered around one of these barbecues and started unpacking. One uncle had come equipped with two crates of eggs (do 17 people really require 64 eggs?) while mum opened up her prized Tupperware from India filled to the brim with chopped tomatoes. As Jamshed removed his prized XL sized kadhai and placed it on the grill, I furtively checked sideways to see if anyone was staring at the group of Indians and sniggering about how they had no idea how to use a barbecue.

I pulled out a novel from my bag to hide behind when the familiar flavour of ghee warming in the kadhai filled the air around me. As the onions started to brown and I heard Kashmira aunty whipping 64 eggs in a plastic box, the aromas of sausages sizzling on another barbecue close by faded away. It had been way too long since I’d eaten Akoori and I was determined to enjoy my very first Akoori on the beach, fresh off the boat glances be damned.

What’s Akoori?

Essentially, Akoori can be best described as masala scrambled eggs. While my community, the Parsis, call it Akoori, many Indians also refer to this dish as Anda (Egg) Bhurji.

In Mumbai, Bhurji is often on the breakfast menu in a long-distance train or can also be found early morning on streets around offices. Mumbai’s Irani cafes commonly found in the CBD area of ‘Fort’ will serve Akoori too! My dad remembers cycling with his buddies from Tardeo to Colaba on a Saturday morning before stopping at Kayani’s for some breakfast Akoori.

The main difference between Akoori and Bhurji is that the former is made with ghee and is creamier while the latter is made with oil. Bhurji is often also cooked a bit more until the egg is firm, while Akoori is more of a scrambled egg texture.