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The Hidden Lanes of Matunga

I could not have asked for a better welcome back into the culinary world of Mumbai. My first food outing after moving back to the city happened on saturday; a food trail with Mumbai Boss' resident foodie Roshni Bajaj. For this version of their food walks, Roshni picked Matunga. She mentioned in her teaser that she will bypass the touristy favourites Cafe Madras and Cafe Mysore and lead us to hidden udupis in the bylanes of this South Indian haunt. Just the prompt I needed to sign up.

Our group met outside Ram Ashraya near Matunga Central station but the real trail began at a hidden udupi nearby. Shree Sunders came up with the idea to create novelty dosas to increase their clientele and Roshni ordered us a few. From the selection, my favourite was Chettinad, a version that uses sago in the recipe to create a soft version. That dosa and a few others plus a filter coffee later, we emerged groaning that we simply could not eat any more. That's a bummer for a food trail but Roshni led us instead to her chosen grocery stores.

There was Kannada store where the third generation owner showed us things not even seen in Chennai any longer (so claimed the Madrasi in our group). And there was a store full of everything fried, another selling pickles and dried vegetables. By then, our appetite had resurfaced so we headed to a crowded roadside stall called Ayappan doing brisk trade in idlis and dosas. We have some brilliantly presented dosas - one with multiple chutneys and noodles, another with mini idlis within. Next stop was Ram Ashraya for their famed sheeras. The flavours change daily and we were lucky enough to get the short lived season of potent jackfruit sheera.

I loved that it was a small group so we got to know each other well by the time we hit our final stop - Gupta chaat made famous by their strange toast sev puri (yes, a sev puri sandwiched between bread and toasted). Even more exciting for me was the meeting with an actual reader of my blog. She recognised me based on some pictures she had seen on twitter and even remembered my posts, which is kinda surreal because I never know if anyone reads what I am posting out there. If you are reading this, know that you completely made my day!

Comments

Unknown said…
When did you come back?? We need to schedule a LONG overdue meet!

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