The Well-Fed Bong

I've finally discovered nearly the perfect mapping tool for my blogs. Map Channels lets me make these cool interactive maps using Google Maps that I can then embed into my blog. Really cool. I've started adding maps retrospectively - so far these posts have been mapchanneled. Sausages and Smoke Dining with Saint Francis The only downside seems to be that the javascript maps do not get imported into Facebook notes very smoothly. A bit of a pity, that...

A few people called me with some names I had left out of yesterday's list. Bhagat Tarachand no longer insists you brave the bylanes of Kalbadevi; they are now also at Vashi's APMC market . O Calcutta lived long as Only Fish in the bylanes of Tardeo, and has spread not just northwards but nationwide. Zafran has stretched its arms from Crawford Market all the way to Oshiwara. Tiwari Sweets added Juhu to Opera House a while ago, and my favorite place for south Indian - Cafe Madras - has a small, hard-to-find branch called Hotel Gopal just outside Malad station.

Mumbai, ever since the days when goras pottered about cobblestone streets, has been dominated by "town". Respectability was measured in direct proportion to distance from the Gateway of India, and for the longest time the Borivali national forest started just beyond Dadar. This was true of any kind of decent housing just as much as art or theatres or dining choices. Things, however, insist on changing even when perfectly satisfactory in the first place. The city I returned to after a half-decade absence seems to have collectively heaved its arse and moved up and out. I have heated arguments with the townies who think the sun still shines where it always has, but the reality is that the heart of Mumbai is moving. Dining is usually the first to move where diners are, and it is no different in Mumbai. Trishna , Kailash Parbat and Mahesh all smelled the coffee and got familiar with names like Andheri and Juhu. Even the venerable China Garden upped and opened in Khar. Rajdha...

Vir Sanghvi has described in his column in yesterday's HT supplement his dining experiences in San Francisco, which got me to thinking. I know San Francisco quite well, having spent generous amounts of time there cycling up hills and running down reviews in the SF Chronicle. Indeed, this blog started four years ago in San Francisco, while I was wondering what to eat and no one had any good advice for me. I''ve just realised, however, that the two reviews written, " Salsa Time " and " Afternoon and tea " are my only two posts in so many years about that city. That put me to wondering... What are my favourite places to eat in San Francisco? Mr Sanghvi had a very different set of choices (some did not even exist when I was there), but below are my Fav Five, rated mostly on the wow factor of the food. This is not intended as a comprehensive list, just a personal list of favourite places to have a meal. #1 Number one is easy - its the pla...

I finally went to the other place - Lazzat-e-Lucknow. It is now no longer on my list of must-tries. I have - it may be officially stated - tried it. I tried, in particular the gilawati (in both kabab and roll versions), the seekh (in the roll version, though I did extract and eat some of the kabab by itself too) and the mutton biriyani. The first thing to notice is that the menu is a lot smaller than Dhuan, no arabic pretensions here but some Punjabi has nevertheless crept in. A single laminated tablemat-size sheet with dogeared edges suffices for the menu. Seating is pleasant, and there's even an AC section for those who can climb the short but steep stairs that characterize Versova's mezanines. Enough of the ambience - here's my view of the food. They don't have kakori. Gilawatis were great, and in particular the paratha (ulta-tawa lucknow style, the menu insisted) that made up the roll was very nice; thin, beautifully non-greasy and quite edible all on its ow...

I must post an update on Avadhi food. Versova, that new mecca of eating options in Mumbai, has not one but two restaurants boasting of Lucknow connections. My cycle trips to one (that I discovered through an unexpected google search) led me to go past the other so two birds, one stone and all that. The one I found through google was Dhuan - where a single blog post by the owner promised the best kakori in Mumbai. Who can ignore such a promise, so there I was, braving the rain a few days ago on my bicycle headed towards Yari Road. It turned out to be a lounge, very hard to find because the name (written in huge three-foot-high letters) is so fancily written that it is difficult to read. However, its conveniently next door to Rice Boat. Dhuan is actually an Arabic sheesha lounge, but it also has a long and substantial food menu. I focused only on the Kabab list - in particular kakori and 'tundey' (named, obviously, after Lucknow-famous Tundey gilawati kabab) and here's th...

Everyone raves about food from Lucknow, but in Mumbai its really difficult to find any competent version of it outside the fivestar hotels. The Bandra Copper Chimney and Sun-N-Sand's Kabab Hut were both influenced by Ishtiyaque Qureshi into churning out impeccable nawabi khana, but one has closed and the other, though still serving good stuff, is hardly in the awesome league it once was. Apparently he's still the consultant there but while it has the recipes and techniques, the place lacks the magic. Ishtiyaque Qureshi hasn't quite disappeared from Mumbai, though. He was always around for catering to celebrity weddings and the hallowed environs of CCI, but for the common man he was nearly invisible. Nearly, but not quite - he's been discovered hiding out in the bylanes of Bandra, running a catering and takeaway service called Kakori Hut on tiny Waroda Road. Luckily the food is as great as ever - oh those kakoris, ah that biriyani... You wont find it unless I help yo...

Ethnic is always an interesting challenge. Dictionaries blithely define 'ethnic' as belonging to a shared cultural, linguistic or racial identity - which unfortunately means that the world is full of 'ethnic' restaurants. Nearly every restaurant in New York or Tokyo or London is, by that definition, ethinc - they just belong to the ethnic majority rather than some exotic minority. Italian, Sushi, New American, French...et al. Here again, India saves the day. In a world full of ethnic restaurants, India is overloaded with that unique label - multicuisine. South Indian thali with paneer butter masala, chicken tandoori with chowmein, Russian salad with schezwan soup, its all here, only in India. Armed with the information that Indians when eating out order (that uniquely Indian version of) Chinese food more often than any other kind, eateries in India went about arming their menus with lots of words starting with chow. Then, as tandoori chicken and paneer butter masala s...