Return to Mohammed Ali Road

When we visited Mohammed Ali Road last Ramzan (September), it took me 5 months to post about it. This time around, I was determined to turn over a new leaf and blog about it in less than 5 days....so here are is an account of our foodie encounters, in technicolour glory for all to salivate over! :)Anti-gluttony Declaration - We did NOT eat all the yummy stuff featured in the photographs. While my appetite is prodigious, it has not expanded to colossal proportions yet. YET being the operative word... :P

First stop was a quick exploratory walk-through of the khau galli opposite the Dargah at Mahim. Its a wide (compared to Mohd Ali Road!) street with brightly lit food stalls and makeshift eateries on both sides and the lit-up dargah at the end. Of course, given the fact that we reached there early, there weren't too many crowds yet, but oh, the food! All kinds and cuts of meat - from drumsticks and marylands to entire chickens and to kebabs and fritters of less-easily-identifiable animals - all set out in a eye-watering display oof bright tandoori reds, unnatural greens and deep golds. At one place, entire chickens were even strung end to end,like decorative banners - lurid red tandoori chickens, obviously. :)

We sat ourselves down at the rickety-wooden-table-and-plastic-chair seating at one of the more inviting (read: more yummy looking food laid out for all to ogle!) eateries and ordered a Seekh Kebab (mutton) and a Chicken Baida Roti.

Seekh Kebab

First up were the juicy, glistening-with-oi seekh kebabs. So bad for you, but oh so good! Especially with the lengths of fresh-cut onion and the zingy mint chutney that was plonked on the table as soon as we sat down. Agent J ordered pao to go log with, and we feasted on an improvised sandwich of piping-hot kebab, spicy chutney and crunchy onion all pushed inside a pillowy soft pao. Bliss!

Next up was the Chicken Baida Roti. A packet made of deep-fried crunchy shell (as close to a 'roti' as Angelina Jolie is to being ugly) encasing a moderately spicy stuffing of shredded chicken, tomato and onion....the CBR was forbidden pleasure in every bite!

Chicken Baida Roti - golden goodness!

Agent J also sampled the Khichada at another stall (needless to say, I had a taste in, too!) - a lentil stew studded with a few pieces of mutton and sprinkled generously with sweet and sticky strands of fried onion.

Khichada

Also for our gorging pleasure was bright orange 'Mahim Halwa' to be eaten with gigantic parathas - each one easily 1.5 feet in diameter. Goodness!




Luckily for our digestive tracts, we skipped these, along with shwarma and other culinary delights - for there was more to come at Mohammed Ali Road!

At M.A.R., we caught up with H, our foodie guiding star from last year. We went to the same places as last year (if it ain't broke, why fix it, eh? ) but tried different stuff. At the first stop, where we'd supped on Paya last year, this time around we tried the Nalli-Nihari. Nalli-Nihari is a thick, smooth gravy resonant with meaty umami flavour with bits of nalli (bone marrow) suspended in the gravy - which melt in the heat, so you have to mop them up with the fluffly tandoori roti quickly.



I was too chicken to try marrow (even though its a prized delicacy - I steer away from offal because of the strong flavour), so I stuck to dipping my roti in the spicy and bursting-with-flavour gravy instead. Washed down with ice-cold Pepsi, of course. Bliss!




We also re-acquanited our tummies with the World's Best Tandoori Chicken - just one maryland this time, of the Laal variety.

Scrumptious beyind words - smoky from the grill, yet juicy and succulent. Mashahallah!

We skipped the deep-fried kebabs and didnt even stop for a bite at the legendary Suleiman Usman sweetshop - instead, choosing to just packsome Malpua, Phirni and Malai Khaja (layers and layers of puff pastry surrounding a core of thickened rabdi) for the parents.

Malpuas being fried at Suleiman Usman

Malpuas ready to be devoured.....yum!!

Of course, we ogled all the different sweets on offer...

Gulab Jamuns

Mawa Jalebi

While we didnt really unearth any new treasures this time around at M.A.R., and stuck to the old and the familiar, the experience was still very novel - probably because this time around, there were fewer crowds (we'd visited on a lull day) and just three of us. So we made our foodie pilgrimage in unhurried peace. Plus, last time my head was spinning with the excitement of visiting M.A.R. the first time ever, so my high spirits meant I missed out on the finer details which a calm mind picks up (sounds like a discourse on Art of Living, eh? :) )

This time around, I had the time to truly take in all the sights and sounds and smells (oh, the smells!!) properly, at my pace.


So, I could really taste the different spices in the nalli-nihari, and marvel at its exquisite silken gravy. My mind was not overwhelmed by all the sensory overload of my eyes, ears and nose...so I could better appreciate the soft fluffiness of the roti, and relish the chicken in a - what can I say - more aware frame of mind.

Slower, more detailed, infinitely richer - my return to Mohammed Ali Road was truly rewarding.

Fusion Confusion

If the purists see this post, I'll be "ashes to ashes" before you can say "Gobi Manchurian". I tossed together (and then ate it all up) a glorious stir fry - a technicolour mix of...hold your breath... :

• Udon noodles
• Onion, garlic, carrot, capsicum
• Hoisin sauce
• Sriracha chilly sauce
• Teriyaki sauce
• Spice blend of kafir lime leaves, lemon grass, birds eye chillies

Is it any wonder that high priests of cooking will burst a vessel....or, more likely, sprout 2-3 ulcers on reading this list? All of this in one dish?!!, they'll ask.

Now I know, that this ingredients list reads like the Impossible Trinity of Far Eastern cuisnine - Thai, Japanese and Chinese cuisines cannot co-exist in one dish.

But they did, and oh so deliciously!

The fat strands of Japanese Udon noodles were the perfect robust carriers for the onslaught of the triad of sauces - Chinese Hoisin, Japanese Teriyaki and Thai Sriracha. Throw in the Chinese stiry frying technique of wok hei and you had more international harmony than the General Assembly of the United Nations. :)

Which brings us to the much-debated debate - the battle for supremacy between taste and authenticity. Rubishing Indian Chinese cuisine (sneered at as 'Sino Ludhianwi' by Vir Sanghvi) just because it is a made-up cuisine, a 'bastardisation' of Chinese cooking by Indian no-chefs is one such example. What if the world misses out on a fabulous new taste sensation just because the purists turned their noses at it?

Also, which cuisine has strictly retained its original form for generations? Cooking is not so much a rigidly preserved art form or an immutable scientific

formula. Cooking, like language, is a continuously evolving, ever-adapting means to satisfy one of man's primal needs - cooking fulfills the need for physical nourishment, while language is the solution to the urge to reach out to fellow human beings . If a child is lactose intolerant or if a husband is allergic to chilli - does not the woman of the house modify the ages-old recipes handed down to her without a second thought? It is this fluid adaptiveness of cooking (and
language) which will keep both of them bright and alive while stuck-in-mud art forms will get mummified and remain as relics in museums.

In short, judging a dish or a new style of cooking without tasting it or giving it a fair trial is amoral, IMHO. If you genuinely hate it and thinks the flavours don't marry well, say it by all means. But don't judge without hearing (err...tasting) both sides of the case.

Restaurant Review : Moshes Cafe, Crossword, Kemps Corner

Today, towards the fag end of my Urban Trek (aimless meander through historic/ interesting/ pretty/hidden corners of the city with camera in tow) I was low on energy, and my legs were protesting having to carry my lump of weight around. So it was with thankfulness that reached my planned pitstop at the Crossword Bookstore at Kemps Corner. And for the first time ever, the bookshelves went unheeded, as, straight like an arrow I walked into the cafe on the first floor - Moshes.

The cafe was mercifully only half-full so getting a table did not present any waits or delays. Settling down at one of the small wooden table-for-twos was bliss for my aching feet! The cafe is small (eupphemistically you can call it 'cosy') and packed with small wooden tables. A leather-padded bench runs the length of one wall forming one seat of the 5 two-seater tables crammed along it.



The menu at Moshes is not too long or varied - around 5-6 entries in every category - and the categories range from salads, sandwiches, dessert, hot drinks, cold drinks to 'Lite Eats' like toasties and 'By-the-side' stuff like muffins, croissants, cupcakes etc. There is even a separate category for eggless desserts and the desserts on offer here sound so yummy - as do the rest of the vegetarian dishes - that there is no chance of vegetarians being short-changed. The price of all dishes - from all categories - hovers around the INR 150 mark, ranging from 110 to 190. There ARE a few dishes which diverge from this mean price, like the smoked salmon with cream cheese on bagel which costs INR 270 - But thats fair, given it IS smoked salmon. The prices are surprisingly reasonable for an outlet of a swish chain of cafes - but the menu is more snacks-oriented than proper sit-down meals, so I guess that covers it.

I ordered the Barbeque Chicken Sandwich with Harissa, Fresh Herbs & Brown Onions - with the Kookai - a concoction of grape, guava and kokam juice - on the side. The sandwich came in an oblong deep-dish with a knife and a fork, with a token amount of salad on the side.

But whatever little greenery was there was yum - crisp, fresh and drenched with a balsamic-olive oil dressing. As for the sandwich - it was delicious! Crunchy crispy toasted slices of bread generously packed with succulent chunks of chicken doused in a finger-licking sauce - the thought of that sauce is enough to get me drooling! Just-so spiced with red chilli, sweet with the caramelised onions and fragrant with a heady mix of cinnamon and cumin - every bite was a pleasure.


The Kookai came in an ominous shade of dark dark reddish-purple.

But it was an awesome accompaniment to the sandwich! Speckled with some purple powder on the top (what was it?!), it was sweet and cold and full of the flavour of kokam and guava (the poor grapes went unnoticed)

By the time my sandwich was served, the cafe was full and people were waiting in queue, so I didnt linger over the sandwich. Also, did I mention - the tables are really close to each other? So even if all you want to do is tuck into amazing food and and the book you have just bought downstairs - you are forced to do some people-watching and people-hearing. (Which brings me to - what IS it with kids today? Everyone - and I mean EVERY ONE - was toting a Blackberry. Even the 10-year old at the table next to mine had her own BB - as did the newly-teen girls with her!)

Anyhow, Blackberry Boys aside, Moshes is a great place for a quick lunch that manages to balance taste, health, and uniqueness in its food. Do stop by for a bite if you're near any of their outlets. And dont forget that chicken sandwich. Droool.........


P.S.: Please forgive the really sad photos - they were taken on a VGA (!) cellphone camera - having had to deposit my bag (with my precious camera!) at the security downstairs. :(

Urban Trek - Khotachi Wadi

Ever since Agent J has started taking off on (long and hard) treks in the Sahyadri hills EVERY SUNDAY, my guilt at not doing any activity has grown exponentially (it gets worse with every trek that J comes back from - which is more arduous than the last).

But what do I do? I am NOT a trekker - I love to walk, but climbing hills in rainy slippery weather is NOT my forte. So I decided to embark on Urban Treks - walks through city neighbourhoods that are historic/ interesting / poky or have beautiful architecture/great but as-yet undiscovered eateries/ unusual shops. With camera in tow, of course. :)

Last Sunday saw me take off on my first Urban Trek - in crashing rain. I had a lovely (albeit very wet) walk along Haji Ali Seaface, up Pedder Road and culminating in a lazy browse through Moraa Tara, a curio shop opposite Villa Teresa school that I had been dying to explore after years of seeing and wondering what it sold as I drove past it.

Today, I went exploring among the bylanes of Girgaon - the erstwhile haunt of the city's Maharashtrian Brahmin population (before most of them migrated sequentially northwards - first to Dadar, then Vile Parle, then Dombivali and Thane). On my radar was Khotachi Wadi, a heritage colony which still has old-fashioned houses complete with sloping tiled roofs, wooden balconies and staircases.

As you step in, you feel as though you have stepped back in Time. Most of the really old-style houses are owned by Catholics and you feel as though you are in a secret Goan village hidden in the heart of the city, just a few feet away from the crowds and traffic of crowded South Bombay. The rest of the not-so-old and not-so-beautiful additions in the Wadi are where other communities reside - most notably the Gujaratis. But Khotachi Wadi which used to boast of beautifully preserved buildings, its own heritage festival and the famed Anandashram restaurant - which served terrific authentic coastal cusinine - now looks a little neglected and frayed around the edges. Anandashram has closed down too. :(

I also strolled along Chowpatty, Babulnath Road and Pedder Road, scouting for any heritage buildings that could be captured in my lens. And found lots! Here are the pictures of today's Urban Trek!