Monsoon season in Mumbai has its own menu mostly comprising of hot tea and a variety of fried snacks, consumed ideally in a balcony or near a window where a light spray from the rain would be a welcome companion. But for me, the lasting memory of the Mumbai monsoon is the joy of eating […]
Alu wadi
Alu wadi or alwachi wadi is a Marathi snack made from Colocasia leaves. The leaves are layered with a thick paste made of besan (gram flour), jaggery, tamarind pulp and spices. After layering, the leaves are rolled up and steamed. After steaming, they are cut into round discs and either eaten straight away with a […]
Kathi rolls
For a recent get together with friends I made my version of the kathi rolls from Kolkata. I have spoken earlier about Kolkata kathi rolls vs. the Mumbai frankie and still maintain that both are quite different and tasty in their own right. The filling in my rolls is made of chicken, methi (fenugreek leaves) and […]
Chakli
Chakli is a fried snack made from wheat flour and flavoured mildly with spices. A good chakli should be crispy and crumbly to eat. But often chaklis which are store bought tend to be quite hard and not as enjoyable to eat. At home we make chaklis with an equal combination of whole wheat and […]
Sabudana vada – fried sago patties
When I was in school, we used to have the equivalent of a class bake sale, where we would set up stalls either individually or with friends in our lunch room and sell snacks cooked by our parents. Kids from other classes would buy the snacks during the lunch break and the money collected would […]
Sabudana Khichadi
The irony of Indian food is that dishes that are cooked on the days of religious fasts are often the tastiest (and at times the richest in flavour). Sabudana khichadi is one such dish. My family never observed fasts, so sabudana khichadi would either get made for breakfast on weekends or as a tea time snack. It is […]
Mutton chops
As shallow as it sounds, a very large part of my devotion during Durga Pujo was centered around the food – the bhog-er khichudi (rice and lentils cooked together with vegetables – that description does it no justice) in the morning and the various non-vegetarian snacks in the evening. And the king of those snacks […]
Bombay Howrah Dining Car 