The Well-Fed Bong

Phoenix Market City is possibly Mumbai's largest mall by size. Stuck in the boring side of Kurla (something I'm sure it intends to change), it isn't exactly easy to get to - and by the looks of it not that many are getting there ("sparsely attended" comes to mind). It does, however, one of the route options on my long commute back from Thane, so I decided to head inside for dinner yesterday. My destination was Cafe Pico . Started by the folks from the rather nice cafe at Le Mill , the place promises food " born of a million little journeys " around the world. The menu lives up to the promise, mixing French, Italian and Mediterranean with the odd touch of the Caribbean, one or two Africans and even the odd foray into the east. Its peppered with dishes you normally do not see in India; strangolapretti, pissaladiere, goujon, duxelle, tagliata all appear at various points and sound nice, juicy names worth exploring, especially if the execution is good. Pee...

I got addicted to pan-tomate on a trip to Barcelona. I have, since then, been trying to recreate it in Mumbai, with little success. Pan tomate is one of those incredibly comforting classics – simple to the point of idiocy but magical nevertheless. I figured it would be easy to recreate it for Sunanda, who spent plenty of time in Spain growing up and is equally addicted. Crusty bread, crushed tomatoes, salt and olive oil – how hard can it be? Tomatoes are everywhere, oilve oil (even Spanish origin, if you're so inclined) is is everwhere, salt is everywhere, crusty bread is… There, to repurpose Shakespeare, was the rub. Mumbai, the land of A1 pao and Wibs sandwich was sadly, sadly short of hard crust bread. I tried various kinds of breads but none quite fit the bill; squashing tomatoes on one of these usually produced a pulpy bread-tomato-alien-spawn mess hardly geared to impress anyone. Mumbai does sport a few tapas places but they all seem equally keen to steer away from it. I...

Viator rates the dosa one of the ten things to try before you die . I have my own periodic dosa cravings, but this isn't entirely simple in Mumbai. There's no dearth of options - udipis abound on every street corner peddling dosas and idli any hour of the day that Dhoble allows - but most are not very good. One has to battle a lot of sugared sambar and funny batters before one stumbles upon one that satisfies my Bangalore-honed tastebuds. Rescue, however, is at hand. If you're looking for sambar with bite, idli with fluff, dosa that might bring Rajnikant back to Mumbai and coffee that is not nescafe then the best way South is East. Matunga East, that is. Kings Circle is now called BN Maheshwari Udyan but it is still the birthplace of the Mumbai udipi and the only place in Mumbai to get a dosa fix. For decades, two ornate southern style temples in the vicinity have served as the city's anchor for Tamilians, Kannadigas and various other flavours of southies. The udi...

I'm always excited about new Bengali restaurants in Mumbai, and fast expanding Kolkata chain Bhojohori Manna has been on my radar for a while now. Initial negative reviews from a trusted friend had dissuaded me from making the journey to Oshiwara; a visit had thus to wait for me to venture nearby on another excuse. Finally, on rainsoaked noon a few days ago, the eponymous song already having been played on iPod, Sunanda and I stepped into the large, empty restaurant. I'll make the review brief. Bhojohori Manna , if it can continue without any more dental troubles has overtaken Bijoli Grill at the top of my Bengali restaurant choices in Mumbai. With the exception of a somewhat disappointing posto'r bora and a disastrous rajbhog , the food was wonderful. Ethereal luchis , stunning cholar dal , a beautiful daab-chingri , lip-smacking shukto , sublime nolen-gur ice cream - there was much to like on the menu. Places like Oh Calcutta are scared of too much authenticity an...