The Well-Fed Bong

Anjali, down from London for a day, had a simple (practically one word) request – galauti . Since we were already at Phoenix, there seemed no excuse to avoid the temptations of Punjab Grill . As Indian food of any kind goes, this is my top choice in Mumbai. Indian Harvest held my favour for a while, but they closed their doors a few months ago so Punjab Grill is back on top. To Anjali’s worries – of course it does a mean galauti, except that they call it kham khatai (an interesting choice of name, because kham khatai is usually veg – and often called veg galauti). A short wait was rewarded with the requisite mini paratha holding up an ultrasoft mutton patty, a sprig of mint and a single onion ring; the whole thing a perfect bite awaiting only a squirt of lemon. My favourite on the menu full of great kababs is, however, a vegetarian one – the tandoori bharwan gucchi. In Mumbai, as far as I know, only the Punjab Grill offers gucchi – the very exotic morel – rather than c...

Food, sometimes, is not just about food. Sometimes its about the stories behind food and once in a while the story is as big as the food. Here is one such story. Its just story, no food was harmed in the process… I didn’t know very much about Ambala, but I had the vague idea that it was in Punjab (it's in Haryana) and that it was somehow associated with dhabas (The only time I'd heard of Ambala before was when I went mutton-hunting in Los Angeles and discovered Ambala Dhaba ). Obviously, dreams of mutton again swimming in my head, I went looking on the Internet for famous dhabas in Ambala. So the story starts. It turns out Ambala does indeed have a dhaba that’s famous. The Hindustan Times warned me that the famous one is full of copies – apparently there were over ten of them (even a reference to one in Chandigarh ). This piqued my interest – anything with this much imitation must be worthy of flattery) - so we headed to Ambala. On the GT Road (now all expressway-looking...