Eat your heart out, Mumbai
From street stalls to glamorous restaurants, there’s something to tempt every tastebud in the food capital of India
Discover intense flavours and fragrant spices from every corner of India at Mumbai’s buzzing street food stalls
words: monisha bharadwaj
YOU CAN TAKE the girl out of Mumbai, but you can’t take the love of food – Mumbai’s calling card – out of the girl. I was born and raised in the city when it was still called Bombay, before reverting to its ancient name of Mumbai in the mid-1990s. The original inhabitants of this city were fisherfolk called kolis, and their goddess Mumbadevi gave Mumbai its i name. In 1508, the Portuguese sailed into India and referred to Mumbai as Bom Bahia, or the Good Bay. Possibly India’s most cosmopolitan city, Mumbai is a melting pot of lifestyles and cultures, and the place where Bollywood glamour meets high finance.
Located on the western coast of India, by the Arabian Sea, Mumbai is where one can indulge in the varied cuisine of the entire sub-continent: south Indian pancakes, called dosas, with tangy mango and coconut chutney for breakfast, creamy north Indian curries for lunch and a fragrant Thai dinner made with imported ingredients.
Growing up in Mumbai, the capital of the state of Maharashtra, meant that I had friends from every state in the country and we often ate in each other’s homes. It meant that almost every weekend I was eating regional specialities: delicious south Indian, Gujarati, Parsee, or Punjabi food. They were all different, marked with specific variations. For instance, south Indian cooking is largely vegetarian and is characterized by the use of spices such as mustard and fenugreek seeds, tamarind, curry leaves and coconut. Gujarati cookery is also mostly vegetarian but is more delicately spiced. The thali, a metal plate with little bowls filled with an assortment of vegetable curries, pulses and beans all served with rice and breads, is a speciality of this cuisine. Parsee food comes from the community that migrated to India from Iran in the eighth century, bringing in exciting new combinations of food such as jardaloo ma gosht (lamb with apricots) and chicken dhansak, where chicken is cooked with lentils and a mixture of vegetables. Punjabi food is what most people in Britain will be used to, since that is predominantly the style served in restaurants outside India. Tandoori cooking from this state, where meat and bread is cooked in a clay oven called the tandoor, is popular all over the world.
My friends, in turn, loved the delicacies of Maharashtra and Goa, which I served at my home. These would include rice served with coconut-based fish curries flavoured with a tangy local fruit called kokum and aamras, or mango puree flavoured with crushed cardamom and saffron. Maharashtra grows the best mangoes in India, called the Alphonso or Aapoos. Goan food is a blend of the various influences that have been a part of the region’s history. As Goa was a Portuguese colony for many years, Portugal’s influence extended to the food as well, specifically to that of the Christian community, whereas Hindu cookery was largely unaffected by it. Goan Christians also eat a lot of meat and their specialities include vindaloos, and Goan Hindu cookery (mainly from the Saraswat community) uses local produce such as coconuts, cashew nuts and mangoes. Spices such as asaofetida and mustard seeds are used to flavour many vegetables such as bitter gourds, pumpkins and plantain. Sweets are made of lentils and rice, while local produce includes cashew nuts and pineapples.
I never failed to ask my friends’ mums and grandmothers for special recipes and by the time I was 16 I had a vast recipe collection of my own.
Later I went to the Bombay Catering College to qualify as a chef. Regional cookery was important here. The nuances of Kerala cuisine were set apart from those of Kashmiri cooking and the history, traditions and rituals associated with food, which are all so essential in India, all began to come alive. India is a vast country, where language, dress, traditions and food change every few miles. Geography, climate and customs determine what people eat in the various regions. For example, Keralan cookery is dominated by coconut because so much of it grows in this southern coastal state. Preparations such as thorans (vegetable stir fries) or sambhar (lentils with tamarind) and dishes cooked with plantains, yams and cabbage are popular.
Kashmir, which lies close to the Himalayas, was the natural passage to India for many invaders. Therefore, Kashmiri cuisine is a mix of Indian, Persian and Afghan styles, which makes the most of local produce such as saffron, walnuts, dried apricots and pistachios. As it is a hilly state, not too many vegetables and herbs are grown here and the cuisine is largely meat based.
Once again, Mumbai was the perfect place to be while I was at catering college. As the food capital of India, where local food means a mix of indigenous recipes as well as dishes from around the country, and where street food is popular, my training as a chef of regional Indian food progressed without me having to travel too much.
Mumbai, being a hot, coastal city, has a unique ‘outdoor eating’ culture – there are street food stalls located on the beaches, in the commercial district, near colleges and schools and even on railway stations. The stall wallahs serve up everything from bhel puri, a mixture of puffed rice, tiny flour straws, onions and potatoes flavoured with chutneys to the Indian version of Chinese food, which is hugely popular. This has more intense flavours than Chinese food found in most other countries and boasts dishes such as Chicken Manchurian, sweet and sour vegetables and Chinese chop suey. Street carts sell colourful plates of fresh fruit, all grown on farms not too far away. Certain vendors, therefore, have a great reputation and people do actually travel long distances to eat at their stalls.
Now that I live in the UK, it’s great to see that the fabulous regional fare from different parts of India is finding a place alongside the usual chicken tikka masala and vindaloos. Incidentally, I have never eaten Bombay aloo, a staple on most Indian restaurant menus in the UK, in Mumbai! It’s also exciting to see how Indian cookery is changing both in India as well as in Britain. For instance, some years ago India started growing mushrooms and baby corn for the export market. Then surplus produce found its way into the local food markets in Mumbai. Now there are countless dishes that use these vegetables served in most restaurants in the city. Similarly, when I first moved to the UK, I had to travel quite a few miles to buy Indian ingredients such as coconut milk, aubergines or Alphonso mangoes. Nowadays, they are easily found in most major British towns.
Whenever I return to Mumbai, the buzzing street food stalls as well as the glamorous jet-set restaurants, still offer a gastronomic delight. Frankly, a city where everyone talks and thinks about food, cooks and eats it all the time is like being in culinary heaven.
Monisha Bharadwaj’s Mumbai recommendations
* Mahesh Lunch Home (PM Road, Fountain, Mumbai) for coastal seafood
* Viva Paschim (City View, Dr Annie Besant Road, Worli) for local fare
* Kobe (3, Sukh Sagar, Hughes Road) for ‘sizzlers’, which are steaming platters of meat and vegetables in a variety of sauces
* Mumbai is famous for street food. Try Sardar at Tardeo for pav bhaji (vegetables with bread). You must eat bhel puri – a mixture of puffed rice with sweet, spicy and sour chutneys – at an Indian fast food restaurant
For dinner try:
* Thai Pavilion at the President Hotel, 90, Cuffe Parade (best Thai food in town)
* Thacker’s Club Dadiseth Agiary Lane (great for a Gujarati thali, which is a speciality of Mumbai)
* Khyber, 1 45, M G Road, Kala Ghoda (fabulous north Indian food, and a good example of regional variety)
Or try this at home
KAJU SAATHE KHICHDI PULAO
(PARSI-STYLE COCONUT AND CASHEW NUT RICE)
A khichdi is a rice dish made with either vegetables, nuts or lentils. The texture of a khichdi can vary from firm to almost risotto-like, and many khichdis are almost soupy. They are considered healthy and nutritious. This one is quite festive.
PREPARATION TIME: 10 MINUTES COOKING TIME: 35 MINUTES SERVES: 4
INGREDIENTS:
3 tablespoons sunflower oil or ghee
1 medium onion, sliced
10 black peppercorns
3 cloves
3 pods cardamom, bruised
2 bay leaves
300g (10 oz) basmati rice, washed and drained
300ml (10 floz) coconut milk from a can salt
1 green pepper, sliced
3 tablespoons frozen green peas
2 tablespoons raisins
2 tablespoons cashew nuts
METHOD:
1 Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a heavy saucepan and fry the sliced onion until golden brown. Add the whole spices and swirl around for a minute. Add about 300 ml (10 floz) water and bring to the boil.
2 Add the rice to the pan and add half the coconut milk and salt. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat and add the green pepper and peas.
3 As soon as the liquid has been absorbed, add the rest of the coconut milk. Cover the pan and simmer until the rice is cooked through. 4 Heat the remaining oil in a small saucepan and fry the raisins and cashews for a minute. Pour over the rice to garnish and serve hot.
From India’s Vegetarian Cooking – a regional guide by Monisha Bharadwaj (Kyle Cathie, 2006)
MUMBAI IN LONDON
You don’t have to go as far as Mumbai to sample the delights of Indian street food. Below are voyager’s recommendations for an authentic dining experience in London
CAFÉ SPICE NAMASTE
Chef Cyrus Todiwala MBE (pictured) has won awards for his Café Spice Namaste (pictured), which he launched in the City. Of Parsee origin, Todiwala, who trained with the famous Taj Group in India, offers a classic snack, which is specific to Mumbai: the Frankie roll. It’s a chapatti fried with beaten egg and stuffed with lamb, chicken or paneer. Also try the duck and venison dishes; the spiciness works with the rich gamey flavours. As it’s run by a husband-and-wife team, there’s a distinct family-run air to this smart establishment.
16 Prescot Street, E1 8AZ; 020 7488 9242; www.cafespice.co.uk
BOMBAY SPICE
Confusingly, there is another restaurant of the same name in west London, but this eatery in the outer reaches of north London’s Palmer’s Green is extremely popular. Owner Ronnie Dubash has maintained a wide range of the street food options of Mumbai. Try the aloo papri chaat, crispy discs of puris topped with potatoes, onions, spices and an extremely more-ish tamarind sauce. And the chef’s Parsee speciality of pomfret fish steamed in banana leaf with coconut chutney is a special dish of Mumbai – one not to be missed.
396 Green Lanes, Palmers Green, N13 5PD; 020 8245 6095 / 8882 4456
MASALA ZONE
When the Masala Zone group opened its first branch just off Carnaby Street, it was among the first to introduce informal Mumbai dishes. Restaurateur Namita Panjabi – who also owns the swish Veersaswamy, Chutney Mary and Amaya – brought a more wallet-friendly option that still put the focus on authenticity. “The Bombay street food, such as bhel puri (pictured) that I grew up with was the inspiration. But it had to be a healthier version, without that ‘heavy’ feeling,” says Panjabi. Try their masala dosas, a lentil crepe, stuffed with spiced potato.
80 Upper Street, N1; 020 7359 3399 www.masalaworld.co.uk
London Mela
BILLED AS THE Asian Glastonbury, the London Mela is Europe’s largest South Asian outdoor festival. Over 450 artists perform over six stages during the one-day event, presenting an exciting programme of contemporary and classical music, dance, theatre, circus and visual arts. The Mela (which means ‘to meet’ in Sanskrit) started out as a way for London’s Asian communities to come together for a special cultural celebration.
Last year, however, a third of visitors were non-Asian, proving the event’s diverse appeal.
Highlights of this year’s event include Pakistani rock star Atif Aslam, a photography exhibition exploring The Great Trunk Road (the South Asian trade route), and sets by Radio 1 DJs Bobby and Nihal. It will culminate in a spectacular Bollywood finale – complete with pyrotechnics.
13 August, 12 noon to 9.30pm (free); Gunnersbury
Park; www.london.gov.uk
