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Mumbai: Mumbai knows
no boundaries! If the city doesn't sleep, it doesn't stop eating
either. While jostling one another in the overcrowded streets, Mumbaikers love to savour street food. From sinking their teeth
into kheema ghotala to savouring hot fafda jalebi to enjoying the
usual bun maska with chai - they relish every cuisine available in
the nooks and corners of the bustling city.
This weekend my husband and I decided to give in to my street food
craving.
Our day started with piping hot fafda jalebi with papaya chatni at
Sriram Farsan at Sai Baba Nagar, Borivali.
Skipping our preferred Marathi misal paav - a spicy menagerie of
lentils, doused in spicy curry and eaten with the city's favourite
loaf, paav - at Mama Kane at Dadar, we chose bun maska and chai
kick. The street vendor outside Churchgate station smothers a
sweet fruit bun with a slab of butter to make the classic bun
maska.
Once done with fafda jalebi and bun maska, we decided to wrap up
our breakfast by gorging on kheema ghotala at Colaba's Cafe
Mondegaar. A hearty Iranian breakfast, kheema ghotala simply melts
in your mouth with spices in the right proportion tickling your
taste buds.
You can also try popular omelette paav, egg bhurji or keema paav
for breakfast. They are usually best at Stadium Restaurant at
Churchgate, Colaba's Olympia Restaurant and Lucky Restaurant at
Bandra station signal.
Looking for finger licking lunch, Khau Galli is the best for a
variety of options.
Sujata Chanda, an avid street foodie, in between mouthfuls of paav
bhaji, said: "Mumbai street food for me is paav bhaji at Khau
Galli (at Marine Lines). It is so yummy. It literally melts in my
mouth - with extra dollops of butter to go with the spicy bhaji.
The ganna (sugarcane) juice to wash it all down works out really
well."
I too filled up on paav bhaji, while my husband worked up an
appetite for paav bhaji and egg bhurji.
For those still hungry, Mumbai offers king of all street food and
a favourite amongst most thoroughbred Mumbaikars - vada pav.
The best vada pav is offered at Nitin Patil's Vada Pav stall in IC
Colony, Borivali, as well as Ashok Vada Paav near Dadar's Kirti
College.
But we savoured the poor man's burger at Ashok Satam Vada Paav
Stall at Central Telegraph Office (CTO), Fort. Spiced potato
served with paav, spiced up with sweet and hot chutney, garnished
with garlic flakes and a fried chilly, is to die for. I washed it
down with tapri chai.
For snacking, bhel puri, sev puri and paani puri make for a quick
bite for hungry travellers. Popped rice spiced with lime, chilli,
onion, coriander and tomato usually forms an evening snack for
Mumbaikars and also as 'timepass'.
For dinner, we were torn between eating light Gujarati street food
or hogging on street Mughlai.
We decided to dine at Indraprastha Shopping Centre. It offers
masala rice papad, an innovation dish created in Borivali. It is
made with roasted buttered rice papads topped with finely cut
salad with a sprinkling of cheese. It is to be eaten hot. My
husband feasted on papad; I opted for toasted vegetable sandwich,
a healthy option to finish our street food expedition.
You can also visit Bade Miyan, famous for baida roti. It serves
the best non-vegetarian street food. Located in one of the back
roads of Taj Mahal Hotel and Palace, it probably has as many
patrons as restaurants in the Taj.
No meal is complete without a paan. So we headed to Ghanta
Paanwala at Borivali. The owner of the shop, Vinod Kumar Tiwari,
has made it to the Guinness World Records for the largest
collection of bells, one of which he rings each time he makes a
paan.
The paan shop offers 125 varieties of paan and we feasted on his
specialty - chocolate paan - made with chocolate syrup, kesar,
gulkand (rose jam), cashew, almonds and raisins and dipped in khus
syrup.
Back home from my street food expedition, I couldn't help but
think that there were many options I couldn't try, many places yet
to visit and much more to eat. Frankly, this was only the tip of
an iceberg, giving a glimpse of the diversity that exists in this
Maximum City, leaving me hungry for more.
When in Mumbai, do not miss out on its street food.
(Janice Goveas
is a freelancer. She can be contacted at janoella@gmail.com)
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