When I went to school in Gorai two weeks ago, I was surprised to see different dishes on the menu. It turned out that Gorai had acquired a new cook, and this cook has been creating dishes that are less spicy and more appealing to me. Apparently the students like the new dishes too because the school had to set up more tables in the cafeteria (otherwise students bring their own food from home and eat in the classrooms). This is what I had for breakfast two Fridays ago:
At the top is puri, which is deep-fried Indian flatbread, and at the bottom left is potato masala. It tastes pretty good, although I wouldn’t eat it all the time because the puris are very oily.
My lunch looked like this:
On the left is curd (unflavored yogurt) with finely chopped vegetables (I think carrots, onions, and maybe cucumbers). I’ve been told to pour it over anything that is too spicy for me because curd mitigates spice. At the top is vegetable curry, which I thought was a little too salty, so I poured the curd over it to mitigate the saltiness. I broke off pieces of the chapati (flatbread) on the right to scoop up the pulses (lentils) in the middle. The pulses tasted good, while the chapati was bland as usual (it’s supposed to serve the same purpose as rice, which is to suck up all the heavily flavored curries).
I’ve made it a habit to get this drink for every lunch at Gorai:
I really like this drink because it is pretty thick and creamy. I don’t know if it really is heart healthy as it claims on the backside, but it’s good enough for me.
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Last Saturday, I went to The Bagel Shop in Bandra because I had a hankering after Goan sausage. This quaint little cafe has a cute storefront:
I had taken Priam’s mother here once because she has Goan roots and loves Goan sausage. She said that the ambience and decor is very Goan (I’m thinking probably due to the hanging and potted plants everywhere and the brightly colored walls). On this occasion though, I came by myself and ordered a Goan sausage bagel with mint green tea:
It tasted good as usual. I had ordered other types of bagel sandwiches in the past, but I like the Goan sausage bagel the best because of its smoky and spicy flavor.
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Last Sunday was Priam’s grandmother’s birthday, so Priam’s mother invited me and her mother’s closest friends to a lunch buffet at a five star hotel. Priam’s grandmother passed away several years ago, so his mother celebrates his grandmother’s birthday every year in memory of her. The five star hotel is called Sahara Star, and it is near Mumbai’s domestic airport. At all the five star hotels I’ve been to in Mumbai, cars’ trunks are opened to check for bombs, welcomers dressed in very fancy traditional Indian clothes greet visitors, and bags are run through scanners. Generally for me, all the five-star hotel buffets in Mumbai taste more or less the same; they taste good, but that is expected when you pay a high price. The name of the buffet in Sahara Star is Earth Plate, which Priam’s mother said means that this buffet contains cuisines from all over the world. Priam’s mother chose the Sahara Star for its ambience:
We didn’t actually eat in this section because the buffet was in a different section, but Priam’s mother told her friends to walk around this area after lunch. When I was taking photos of the buffet spread, one waiter told me to take a picture again because the cooks wanted to smile for me this time:
Unfortunately it’s not the clearest picture, but I didn’t realize this until afterwards. Here is another section:
I first piled my plate with the appetizers:
I think that these appetizers fall into the category of continental food, since Indian food usually isn’t eaten cold. They all tasted alright, relatively bland. My second plate looked like this:
Half of the plate came from the international food section, while the other half came from the Indian food section. There were mutton (creamy beige meat on the left), beef tenderloin (dark brown meat on the right), seafood (top left), couscous (top right), and cauliflower (middle right) on my plate. All were good, though not enough for me to go for seconds. Lastly, I grabbed a variety of desserts:
I like dragon fruit the best because I don’t get to eat it often in the US (I saw it once at Berkeley Bowl but that’s about it). The butterscotch cream de pot (pitcher in the left), muhalabia (white pudding in the cup) and pineapple bavarian slice (far right) were good (less sugar and more aromatic). The other desserts (mango tart, popcorn gateaux, red ball) were too sweet. Since I was pretty full after finishing all the desserts, I grabbed second helpings of only the dragon fruit (bottom). The cantaloupe was labeled as “muskmelon”, which I thought was interesting because I have not seen that term used in the US.
American Foodie in Mumbai 