Eats

Capping off the Bombay posts, this one is about food.

Like Toronto's barbecued hot dogs, Bombay's Vada Paos are going down in the history of to-die-for street food. These guys are made of three perfect parts: the main part being a deep-fried ball of curry-soaked crushed potato and herb mixture, which is clasped between two heavenly halves of the softest round white bun (which I saw being made in the bakery in Dharavi), topped off with some very pungent chili and cilantro chutney for dipping/spreading. I tried about 4 of these from different vendors throughout the city and this one, across the street from Dwijen's university, was the best.

This was a close 2nd place vada pao by my hotel, which came with extra dippings.

Dosas, which are record-sized super thin pancakes stuffed with whatever you want, are another notable example of Bombay's street eats.

We had a cheese and veg masala one. This stand was an obvious favourite and the staff were working at lightning speed from both sides of the hotplate.

One night, we all went to Amar.

The wealthy owner of this establishment is very well connected and managed to get the permission to seat his customers on the sidewalk next to his stand. We had amazing bhelpuri and those light as air buns, glistening with clarified butter. I forgot to document it, I was too busy wolfing.

This was also amazing. The Swastic sandwich: make with so much butter, three layers of milky white bread, loaded with a veg salad consisting mostly of mayonnaise. This sandwich was made for me.

Finally, the seafood! After all the fish markets and fishing towns I had visited, I was obligated have some. And okay, this was like, super fresh, right out of the sea, covered with spices, and deep fried! Sorry if my blabbering doesn't make sense. It's just indescribably good.

Anyway, Indian eats have so far proven to be everything I love in my food. I don't even miss beef because there's an abundance of other tasty things to keep me happy. The chai has a ton of sugar and milk in it, the breads are a plenty, everything is thoroughly oiled, seasoned and spiced (no more bland mozzarella, tomato and basil bullshit), endless sauces, chutneys and add-ons for dipping and smothering, and of course, the butter!

As my uncle Will always said everytime he was shoving beautiful, delicious food into his mouth, “life is good, life is gooooooood.”