day of hunger

one of the ruthlessly brilliant things about Bombay is that i get to have food/drinks at more than one of countless brilliant food joints i love during the course of a day. As is no secret there are more experimentive/world class/uber cool eating places in Bombay than anywhere else in the country however i am a sucker for those little guy places, the one hiding behind the lanes and taking effort to find.

There's nothing like a early morning at Fort. and as crazy as it sounds there's nothing like a beer breakfast at Leopold. Yes leopold as in shantaram leopold. but anyways the good part is that these guys start serving you beer as soon as the shutters are raised. a good idea before you indulge in the beer breakfast (if at all you are crazy) is to take a walk down and around the causeway. Most cities are pretty in the morning but south Bombay is simply stunning. Gateway of india is way more serene when not crowded. anyways back to leopold, forgive the rude waiters they are simply not that polite. the breakfast is super european (read salt/spice-less) thats why i always need beer to drown it in. Usually that early in the morning you will find only a few foreigners. People who landed in the city early morning or hashish dealers. Sometimes a certain gregory roberts will also be found parking his Roayl enfield and ordering his kingfishers early in the morning. Copycat i say. It isnt really as much of a food factor as it is a feel factor for me. Get a table where you can look outside. Bang opposite you can see people going to olympia for their early morning cutting chai. Olympia by the way is another awesome food joint. Probably one of the best biryani's in bombay. And if you ask the people at olympia were's their toilet they point you to the leopold Loo across the street.

Speaking of food factor one must go to jimmy boy. It's a pain for some people to locate it but it's bang next to horniman circle (i call it horny man circle). i ended up going there with this "fabolous couple" from Delhi. There's one main guy who takes your order, explains all the dishes for you and recommends you stuff. I commissioned him to explain to the said couple, what a few of those dishes were and i personally recomended lagan nu bhonu for them. the poor fellow went through the whole menu for them while they kept eliminating all the choices and finally the guy whole-ly frustrated, recomended kebabs which they gladly took. Of course after finishing the kebabs they loudly proclaimed that they get better kebabs in their delhi. I wanted to smash my head against the floor so that it would take the attention away from the fact that they had ordered kebabs at a parsi joint.

See parsi food is lavish food. it's pretty much impossible not to like it, but one has to really know how it goes. I mean we all know someone who goes and orders Vegetarian dhansak ? that's like ordering vegetarian kebabs and fruit beer. to eat at jimmy boy is a must. If thou knowest shit about parsi food then thouest be good to order a dhansak (which by default is mutton in a gravy made with pumpkin, brinjal, methi bhaji and pudina among other things), with the dhansak you also get the wonderful mutton cutlets which according to behram contractor are fried in egg batter and "half drowned" in a sharp tomato gravy. Also the patra ni machchi (pomfret), which comes wrapped in the leaf and you can virtually feel the aroma filling the space around you as you slowly unwrap it. If you are a vegetarian then my condolences.Go die. It's a pity that such joints have to put things like kebabs on their menu to lure new customers. but kudos to aspi irani's taste that the place still maintains the old world decor and the vintage irani chairs. Oh yeah dont forget to have the sago wafers and the gajar achar. which not only tastes good but is also brilliant to be used in pranks to be played on unsuspecting friends.

the last place i landed up on was peter cook's way up north at 4 bungalows. Peter is authentic chinese. he along with daddy and 2 brothers ran to india many many years ago. He spend years falling in love with the food in calcutta before he came down to Bombay. In fact when you meet him you just might recognise from the many TV ad's he has done. He's the go to guy everytime they need to put a chinese guy in an ad. Peter and brother run this restaraunt so it's almost like a home cooked meal. They make their own noodles and hand pick the vegetables. the kitchen is as well guarded as area 51. Picture a fat chinese man with a butcher knife. That's peter's brother. Well if u are nice and pleasent, peter will chat you up and trust me he has some fabolous stories from china, calcutta and even bombay. Like the story about how he met his sister after 35 years or the chinese language newspaper printing in calcutta. It's so important to live in a city with good food being served in interesting places. Yes the hyderbad has best biryani and mangalore has best some other thing but would you really travel all the way just for that ? Well i wouldn't need to ! i Have my Bombay !