12 tastes of bombay

An American reader visiting Bombay emailed me asking for recommendations of my favorite places to eat in the city. On my list, many places are associated with good memories as well as good food. China Garden might not be the best Indian Chinese in the city (what IS the best Indian Chinese in Bombay? Anyone know?) but every time we visit India, we go there for consistently tasty food and large, noisy dinners with my mom’s side of the family. Add your favorite places to the comments section!

1. We’ve been going to Cream Center ever since I was a kid for their chunna batura and sizzling brownie. Waiting in line during the lunchtime rush in order to eat a platter of spicy chickpeas and inflated, beach ball-sized golden puris was worth it back in the day. The lines aren’t so long anymore but the food is still pretty good. I think I had my first-ever batura there: crispy, fluffy, meltingly hot. The sizzling brownie – a warm chocolate brownie doused with hot fudge, topped with crushed peanuts and cold vanilla ice cream and served on a sizzling iron skillet- is happily messy, sputtering bubbles of chocolate. Scraping the remnants of chewy, hardened fudge off the skillet after finishing the brownie is my favorite way to end this meal.
2. Head to the Gateway of India if you’re thirsting for some made-on-the-spot sugarcane juice. Raw, sweet, and sticky-satisfying.
3. Craving a quiet conversation? Climb to the rooftop of the Strand Hotel, also near the Gateway of India, where there are tables, beer, and magnificent views of the Bombay harbor. Their menu is short; I got the hara bhara kabobs, which were not so remarkable except for their vivid green color- but the view, the beers, and the silence are things to savor.
4. The man next to the bus stop on Nepean sea road (opposite Chandralok) and the man parked outside Xavier’s College both serve mouthwatering dosas. Hot off a roadside stand, these dosas are so good I wrote my college essay about them. Get a cheese and chutney dosa and preferably eat it during an electric Bombay rain- breaking off dosa pieces with your fingers will quickly transfer the heat from the food to your senses and warm you up thoroughly. Disclaimer: you might get sick eating street food during the rain. Nevertheless, this is how I ate my first dosa outside Xavier’s and it was lovely.
5. Pizzeria on Marine Drive serves a surprisingly good slice. Most Indian pizzas taste overwhelmingly of a super-sweet tomato sauce, but Pizzeria’s sauce is mercifully savory, even slightly masalafied for a saucy Bombay kick. The crust is thin and the toppings are totally yummy: Tandoori Paneer and Bombay Masala are especially unique, but even more traditional onion and green pepper is great here, because in a proper Indian fashion, slightly browned onions are piled onto a slice. Tables line the enormous bay windows that open to a view of the sea; enjoying a tall glass of beer and a platter of crispy pizza while smelling the salty air is a delicious way to spend an afternoon.
6. The Breach Candy Sandwich. Need I say more?
7. Cafe Moshe in Crossword Bookstore is a sunny, peaceful place to sip on fresh press coffee and sample decadent pastries, cakes, and daily baked bread. Sometimes I bring a book or magazine from the bookstore below to keep me company while I enjoy a fruit tart or slice of coconut cake; sometimes I’ll split one of the Mediterranean inspired soups or sandwiches with friends for lunch.
8. Vegetable hakka noodles; sweet corn soup; Manchurian cauliflower: the Indian-Chinese food at ornately decorated China Garden is always a delight. The inherent sugar in Chinese food satisfies the Indian sweet tooth, but the more prominent roles of onion, garlic, and chili along with some Indian spices makes the fusion food a little spicier and a lot better. Indian Chinese food is also dramatically less oily than it’s American counterpart, which is a relief. Think: Sichuan cooking, but with an Indian twist, and you’ll understand why Chinese Mirch is failing miserably at emulating the food in China Garden.
9. Chili Cheese Toast is a very Bombay snack, and eating it at the popular Irani hole-in-the-wall, Café Churchill, is fun- if you can find seats. But if you can’t, or you’re not going to Bombay anytime soon, here’s how to make Chili Cheese Toast at home: get some Amul cheese (or another cheese that’s very mild and buttery) and shred it; chop tomatoes, cilantro and green chilies; mix the cheese with the veggies; and melt into a lickable goodness on rectangle half slices of white bread toast. For even crispier results, lightly toast buttered slices before adding the cheese mixture and then toast once again). Most Bombayites dip their cheesy wedges into ketch-up, but I eat ketchup sparingly and prefer them plain. You can also enjoy Chili Cheese Toast at Leopold’s, also in Colaba; the bar/café is a known hang-out spot for personalities like Gregory David Roberts, author of Shantaram.
10. Shiv Sagar: Shiv Sagar at Churchgate serves a wide variety of street snacks- under a restaurant roof. Pav bhaji, cheese pav bhaji, pani puri, regular masala dosas, fusion dosas like spring dosas (crispy dosas packed tightly with Chinese-style veggies and vermicelli noodles), idlis, Chinese-style idlis- it’s all there. Shiv Sagar cooks great versions of Indian street food, snacks, and fusion concoctions, but it’s hygienic, still cheap, and served in an actual restaurant, where you can sit on chairs to enjoy your meal. Thirsty? Try one of their various fruit juices or milk shakes- watermelon, banana, pineapple, mango, custard apple- they are all so fresh and so clean.
11. Bombay’s Mexican food is abysmally bland: baked sweet red kidney beans substitute for spiced black or pinto beans; the salsa is full of sugar; the cheese isn’t salty. But ever since Phoenix Mills opened, I’ve been able to get a partial, but totally lickable, Mexican fix from a stand outside the large mill converted to a shopping/bowling/sports bar/restaurant/nightclub complex. Lining the sidewalk are men who serve novel foods- varieties of toasted corn, popcorn, and my favorite- nachos. While not authentic Tex-Mex, the round corn tortilla chips topped with hot Bombay movie theater cheese, chopped onions, tomatoes, and cilantro, are still an appreciated addition to Bombay’s sorry scene.
12. Bade Miya/Ayubs: These two roadside stands are often grouped together because they both operate late at night, selling foods to satiate drunken hunger: paneer bhurji and kati rolls cooked over a grill, fresh and spicy. I went to both stands the last time I was in India; we ate our food against the hood of the car. It was all the more delicious because it was slightly forbidden: the paneer and roti were cooked out in the open air, sharing grill space with roasting meat, and perfuming the air with tandoori spices. And delicately biting into piping hot rotis garnished with the sloppy paneer bhurji was the best way to end a night.