Mumbai

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I didn't want to miss out so made sure to make a booking, twas the first time I'd made a booking for one. 

It was a bit of a walk, I loved the street my hostel was on, it told so many stories, wall art of Indian actors, with coloured lights, the further I walked, the roads became darker as the street lights ran out. 

Eventually I got to the main road and the lights and noise returned, I started seeing big restaurant after restaurant. The more I got closer to Seefah restaurant the more excited I got and a little nervous, what if the chef was in. 

I wasn't expecting to have a laugh but couldn't help myself when I saw the words on the wall just outside the door of the restaurant "Exit only in EMERGENCY, or in the event of BAD DATES & poor conversation".

I had the restaurant to myself for most of my meal, the menu was predominately Japanese with some Thai dishes here and there.

I started my meal with a pomelo sour and silken tofu, I was not expecting the beautiful plate of food presented to me, thinly slices of tofu and cucumber, slightly overlapping in a circle. 

For my main dish , I order the crispy corn katsu sushi, it had such great crunch and although the flavours were familiar, it wasn't a combination I had tried before, adding the usual condiments, ginger, wasabi and soy sauces ammped it up and I was in sushi heaven. 

I was feeling pretty full, not having dessert was not an option, when I read the menu, weeks back, I was so set for the cha yen basque cheesecake, then I laid eyes on the honey toast shokupan, I was feeling got a warm dessert and also, some sichuan fries, I love the sweet and salty combination, the honey toast came with ginger and black sesame ice cream. My meal at Seefah restaurant was definitely one to remember. I took the cheesecake home with me and had it for brunch, I plated it up to do it the justice it deserved.

A  must-do in Mumbai is a food tour and after some googling, A Chef's tour https://achefstour.com/tour/mumbai-food-tour was the winner. It is not designed for a single person but I promised to do my best. 

I met up with Pooja at the meet-up spot, near a small shrine temple for blessings before our tour. Pooja is friendly and a pro at what she does, this woman has been in several Youtube videos, doing this tour, definitely check them out. This tour is a really cool way to see the city as well. 

We started at the restaurant Taste of Kerala, gotta love the whole eating off a leaf experience rice. Pooja gives recommendations of how to eat this thali, even saying a South Indian would mix it all together and eat it like that, however for the sake of trying things individually, that is how we will do it. Thanks to Shivali, I am accustomed to eating with my hands and enjoy doing so, not so keen on buttermilk, it is good for digestion, apparently. When I stayed with Shivali's mum and brother they served me a dish with drumsticks which was not chicken, it is from a horseradish tree. A great meal to start with, then again this is one of 15. 

We walked by a bakery, which thankfully we skipped, I did not want to fill up on bread, Pooja spoke of the Portuguese influence being the reason for the bread, Vada pav, a popular street food which is a potato pattie served in a bun. 

Our next stop was located near a roundabout garden where office people were chilling out and waiting for a toasted sandwich. They were being toasted in the cast-iron singular sandwich press over a coal-fuelled flame. This vender was very popular. We order a three layer toastie, with capsicum, tomato, cheese, mayo, chaat masala, red chutney, topped with butter, cheese and noodles for crunch, served with three different chutneys, it is one epic toastie, however, I will stick to my kewpie, siracha, cheese toastie. 

We headed to paan store, for a local experience. I was familiar with betel leaves chewing, as my Mae-tu (grandma) in Lao chewed them with whatever concoction she had that turned her teeth into tamarind seeds. This was meethi (sweet) paan with to help freshen the palate. 

We were headed from the train station, along the way, I could not take my eyes off the small fruit vendor, Pooja gave in and got me a snack, not that I needed it, it was the rainbow layout spread and fruits I had never seen before. We rode in only women's cart or shall I say shopping train cart with so many things saleswoman, they had shoes, jewellery, pants hanging off them. 

When we got off at our stop, I loved the art on the walls and the hustle-bustle of the city roads, to add to my awe the sun started to set for this next leg of the tour.

Our train ride took us to the Parsi side of Mumbai, Parsis, whose name means “Persians,”, Pooja shared the story of "sugar and milk" that Parsis would integrate into the population and endeavour to sweeten it, as shown to the King with a bowl of milk and that is where we ended up the Parsi Milk Farm which is a family business, running since 1916. We tried some sweet curd which tasted like sweet yoghurt, the place also sold Indian dairy-based desserts. Another heritage spot we ate at was Kyani and Co, a really popular spot.

We then hit the street for some bhelpuri, really fun party in your mouth, onion, tomato, potato, topped with crunch and three different chutneys, we walked to another vendor which had something quite similar, just on a papad, so good. By this point, I was pretty stuffed and we were about halfway through the tour. 

I tasted the besan chilla which I wasn't a fan of. We hit a jalebi shop, I could never say no to jalebi. I was so surprised to see another thali on the tour, this one was the type I was more familiar with, North Indian style. We ended the night with something sweet and I was stuffed. Worth every bite, just wish I had more stomachs.