We were met outside Wheelers bookstore at the train station by Asim, a senior employee of the Reality tour company with whom we had done the slum tour earlier in the day, and his friend whose name I have forgotten. There is another person on the tour with us called Michael a German economics student.
We start the tour by getting a train to Chowpatty Beach, this is supposed to be THE place for lively local street food.
First on the menu is Pani Puri which is a crunchy puffed wheat ball about the size of a Ping pong ball, that you poke a hole in and then full with some potato and a spicy water. Sounds weird but tastes great and as you stand at the cart eating, they just keep coming, you have to physically walk away to let him know you don't want anymore.
Gems first taste.....
Mmmmmmm not sure!
Then we moved to the next cart who was selling Sev Puri, this uses the same discs as the Pani puri but inside of frying and puffing them up, they are baked flat on a griddle, then 4/5 are places on a dish and topped with onions, tomato chutney, chilli sauce, cabbage and crispy corn - this was delicious and even gem went back in for seconds, it's like a crispy savoury biscuit topped with crunchy, spicy salsa and little nuggets if crisp fried corn.
The Sev Puri guy
Next stop was for Pauv Bhajee - I has seen this on Rick Stein India so was really keen to give it a go, it's essentially a lot of butter, onions, tomato and chilli with whatever veg is in season, all slowly fried and mashed together served with Pauv (bread). This was probably my fave thing on the tour
The Pauv cart on the left
Pauv Bhajee - finished off with a blob of even more butter!
Now for something to put out some of the fire, Kulfi is somewhere between ice cream and frozen yoghurt, and cones in a rainbow if flavours. We tried the mixed Kulfi which was the Indian version of neopolitan and had five different flavours.
The Kulfi king at his throne
We moved away from Chowpatty beach now and take a taxi to Mohammed Ali road for some BBQ sandwiches.
Top right - mutton sandwich
Bottom right - pauv chicken
Bottom left - chilli veg
Top left - cabbage salad
An Offal lot of variety! Heart, liver, kidney and even brains!
Now for something a bit sweeter, Asim takes is to a stall that has been serving the same two dishes for nearly 100 years.
Phinri - a gorgeous thickened milk dessert a bit like a creme brûlée
Top - milk Phinri
Bottom - saffron Phinri
Gulab jamun - made from unsweetened milk solids mixed with sugar and pistachio / almonds, rolled into balls and fried in ghee until golden brown then soaked in sugar syrup! A nice healthy snack lol.
Kabobs are a big deal in India and none more so than this one that we had next, a small spicy goat kabob fried in oil. First we of and buy some bread from the baker next door
The long-bread for the Chole Kabobs
Then we buy a leaf full of freshly fried kabobs from the cart then sit inside at a table to build our sandwiches,
Spicy goat meatballs with lime juice
You squash them into the bread
Asim tucking in
More sweet food now as we go to an ice cream shop in the heart of the Muslim community. I had custard apple and gem had roasted almond.
And then to our final stop for jalebi - a dough/batter mix that is fried in ghee and then smothered in sweetened thick milk sauce.
Even though we were both tired, we really enjoyed this night, Asim and his pal were fab and made sure we were well looked after, always having water napkins and hand sanitiser available which was reassuring.
It has to be said that Mumbai street is some of the best we have had anywhere.
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