The Well-Fed Bong

I've been going back and editing some of my older posts, mostly to update the maps in them or add pictures. Is that cheating? I use my blog as my own way of remembering these places, so maps and pictures are important.

Tucked away inside the InOrbit Shoppers Stop is a gourmet Hypercity outlet, with lots of canned and fresh food for sale but also a deli. Its a wonderful ambience. Here you are, sitting on barstools at a counter, surrounded by food, and being served freshly prepared meals from the top-of-the-line ingredients on sale there. You can hardly argue with the idea. Unfortunately, the reality is less than overwhelming. I and a friend went for lunch there, and finally settled on two of the three sandwich choices they had - a BLT and a smoked salmon. We wanted a salad too, but most compartments were empty so we settled on a soup, (the only one on offer was mushroom and that too a canned version, not from scratch). We had some fun picking off sides from the counters, quite literally shopping for supper - a packet of chips, a piece of bread, a drink and settled down to wait for our sandwiches. That's when things went downhill. The salmon sandwich was very unexciting - real smoked salmon, but...

Lucknow's famous kabab's are not easy to get in Mumbai. I've already talked about some restaurants in Lucknow in Mumbai , Lucknow and Smoke and Lucknow Again but a new entrant has now made the list. Of all places, a roadside eatery outside my office catering mainly to Mindspace's call-centre hordes has started selling Kakori kababs and Lucknow-style mutton biriyani (complete with burhani raita and kewra essence). Though its name screams Punjab, it is Lucknow's Kakori Kabab that is given top billling on the menu. The man behind the counter is from Lucknow, and was very enthusiastic when we ordered the Kakori. He even made us sample the biriyani, complete with burhani raita, and showed us the (real, not synthetic) kewra extract that went into it (apparently he puts a little less than normal, because Mumbaikars are not entirely used to the taste). Aroma's (their misspelling, not mine) pretends to be a roadside stall but is actually a counter of the rather aspi...

In the days when I used to frequent trains, one of the (parentally unapproved) food items available at Asansol station was the Litti. Laloo has spread Litti Chokha across the railway network, on trains as well as stalls in railway stations across the country.  Litti is essentially a ball of dough baked in the dying embers of a fire. Fancy litti variants have a filling (usually sattu), simple ones are left to fend for themselves. Its very similar to the traditional Rajashthani bati (of the dal bati fame) but without the ghee.  It can't really be eaten by itself, some kind of accompaniment is required. On Asansol's railway station it was a kind of wierd tasty sauce, but more commonly its something called chokha - a brinjal-centric mixed veg mash not very different from baigan bharta. It was with some interest, therefore, that I read a Mid-Day article describing it as North India Vada Pao. Inspired by the article, I went in search of Mumbai's litti vendors as part of my ...

Ok, I changed the look of the blog. Hopefully its lighter on the eye and easier to read.

Walking to the Madh Island ferry one evening, I came upon this brightly lit sweetshop selling red, round pakoras that did not look like anything I'd seen before. The ever-friendly shopkeeper told me they were cabbage pakoras (not the usual cauliflower), and shelling out five rupees made me proud owner of five of those balls. They were very good (why else do you think I'm putting it in my blog?). Its amazing that I've never encountered the putting of cabbage and besan together with some hot oil. And neither, it seems, has anyone else. Unusually enough for something popular, this the only shop in the area that sells these pakoras. And boy are they popular; in the evenings he stretches his operation into a second counter in front of the closed shop next door, frying these balls by the kadhaifull to satisfy a steady stream of hungry Versovians. Who is he? He's Mahiyar Sweets and Snacks, Desi and Bengali Sweets tucked away in a tiny lane in Versova village on the way...