Bombay Street Food Special

There used to be a time when I attempted to do the cultural stuff when vacationing. So duly, when I first visited Mumbai, on what was the first time Theresa and I had travelled together; I had already looked up all the stuff we needed to do. Imagine my surprise when we strolled out of our hotel on the first morning and I mentioned that modern-art museum as a destination after our first cup of coffee; "why would I do that, she said, I'm on holiday".

Street vendor stirring a huge dish of pav bhaji

Actually, though still in shock I felt quite relieved. Although an appreciation of art and the finer nuances of cultural life is a great thing, I suppose you just have to learn what you were built for. This time we didn't hesitate and went straight for food destinations whilst researching. The thing is, you get to see and experience much more of the city first-hand by going to where people eat and essentially, in a way, mimicking the life of a local, but of course sans-job to go back to.

School lunches delivered by the famous tiffin wallahs

However, this city and it's inhabitants seem to live for food. Even if you can't get away from your desk for lunch you can have a hot lunch of your choice brought to you by one of the many Tiffin-Wallas who deliver tens of thousands of specific lunch combo's everyday, with a ratio of something like 1% error.  Even if the buildings and roads are crumbling into the ground, when it comes to food they are serious and there is no margin for error.

Crystal - you would never guess but an amazing home cooked style meal

Crystal is a perfect example of their priorities. The food is quite amazing; the best vegetarian home-style North-Indian food I've ever tasted in a restaurant. The interior and exterior absolutely horrendous. Reading a number of other bloggers to find this place, most mention that they almost didn't try it due to it's look an arrival. HAving been warned, we even had second thoughts, but so glad we did.

Our meal at Crystal 

Not quite street food as you ate at a table, but due to the level of rusticity I think it qualifies. From top-left-clockwise;  rajma, malai-kofta, dal-makani, plain-rice, Baigan-bharta. We ordered our favourite classic North-Indian dishes and I was pleasantly surprised that, although fairly rich like all cooking in the North of India, which centres around butter and cream, they weren't cloyingly so. Whenever I've ordered any of these dishes when eating-out previously they have come up way too oily; but here kill substituted for richness and all the items still had taste and freshness as well as being satisfyingly special-occasion dishes. 

Street vendor stirring a large vat of delicious chai

But it's not just about the food. The beauty of food-tourism is that you really get to meet the people, talk and get a really feel of the place you're visiting. Of course, the food features heavily, but the people make it, they add the real flavour to what your eating which is why if you really want to experience Indian food you just have to brave the dirt and noise, leave brick-lane or Dishoom and get on a plane.  Mumbai is particularly known for it's streets of stalls doing a brisk triad in every kind of snack morning, noon and night, so it;s really easy to connect with people in this way.

We were lucky in one such street was just down the road from our hotel and we made particular friends with some of the sellers as, to be honest, we did become their best paying customers for the few days we stayed there. Sadly, the government is trying to get rid of street food-stalls, ironically, unlike the government here which is trying to encourage it. They say it's a health and safety risk, which is surely obvious, but it's worked for millions of people up until now and we were actually fine stomach-wise. Shortly after this photo the police came and arrested some of them and confiscated any equipment they could get their hands on before it was quickly stashed-away. But when they left the street was up and running again within half and hour!

Bhel puri at it's finest

So apart from the meal at Crystal, what are plan of action consisted of was to walk around the city, taking in the sites, whilst making our way from one recommended food destination to another. I have to say we did pretty well and motivated by the promise of various exotic snacks, covered a lot of ground and also walked off a lot of calories.  Particularly typical of Mumbai are the various "Chats"; snacks made of crispy fried things combined with various sauces, beans and vegetables of which "Bhel'Puri" is the most well known. Above is one plate I ate near VT Terminus. Perhaps, the last remaining reasonably well-preserved colonial landmark.

VT Terminus 

However, there are a seeming infinite variety of these Chats, most famously had on Chowpatty beach at dusk, which on this occasion we didn't do as it seemed at that time on the previous trip there were a lot of people out hassling us for on thing or another, predominantly they wanted to give me numerous types of massages which needless to say I declined, one thing was I wasn't sure how far these guys intended to take it actually.

Chowpatty beach - staying close to Theresa to avoid being propositioned

Sev puri scooped up with the wafers for spoons

In fact, there was so much good food to be had that I could write five more posts easily on these days in Mumbai alone. However, I'm going to limit to just one more post as we're now back and settled in London again and already have new recipes and reviews we are excited to share.