What’s on the Menu?
UNIQUE, PROGRESSIVE, MODERN AND MOLECULAR—THESE HAVE BECOME THE BUZZWORDS FOR MUMBAI’S MENUS. HERE'S A LOOK AT THE CITY'S RESTAURANT SCENE
Unique, progressive, modern and molecular—these have become the buzzwords for Mumbai’s menus. Here’s a look at the city’s restaurant scene.
LOOKING FOR LOCAL Street snacks in Amalapuram in Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai-based Nishek Jain was disappointed to find the same old samosa and patties until he spotted Punnu Gullu on one of the food carts’ menus. Curious about the unusual sounding snack, he ordered a portion only to be told his order would not be ready before the following morning. “Punnu Gullu is made with a batter of urad dal and crushed poha left to ferment overnight. Sadly, it seemed that the people of Amalapuram would rather have a samosa than their own local food,” recalls Jain.
Amalapuram was the first stop on Jain’s 21-state-wide journey to discover regional favourites that he could serve at his pan-Indian vegetarian restaurant Twenty Nine.
THE PEOPLE OF AMALAPURAM WOULD RATHER HAVE A SAMOSA THAN THEIR OWN LOCAL FOOD, AND IN A WAY THE DISH WAS WITNESSING A SLOW DEATH.
Shaped like an onion ring, the shallow fried snack is now one of the most popular appetisers at his Kemps Corner restaurant, which also has a Manipuri Lal Hara Chaat, Rajasthani Litti Choka, as well as UP’s Double Roti and Haleem on the menu.
This passion for lesser known regional favourites is just as easy to spot in the kitchens of Bombay Canteen, set up by Chef Floyd Cardoz, Sameer Seth and Yash Bhanage last February. As is obvious by his Instagram feed, Executive Chef Thomas Zacharias takes every opportunity to visit the country’s hinterland. The food he samples on his journeys sometimes makes it to the menu at their Lower Parel restaurant.
PASTICHE ON A PLATE
“But there are still too few restaurants in Mumbai that are exploring regional cuisines,” notes award-winning food writer Rashmi Uday Singh. With Firki, Panaaya and Spice Klub, the setting up of pure vegetarian restaurants may be a marked trend, but their focus is on modernising what’s already popular.
Mumbai’s tryst with modern Indian food began perhaps with Chef Vineet Bhatia’s sophisticated menu at Ziya at the Oberoi, which opened in April 2010. A few years later, Zorawar Kalra launched the modern Indian Masala Library, his first in a series of molecular gastronomy-based restaurants. And in 2016, it is no longer a surprise to find pani puri served with syringes, pav bhaji either blackened or served in cones, flavoured foam dotting the plates or liquid nitrogen accompanying everything from desserts to drinks.
Feeling the pressure to be ‘different’ and ‘unique’, city chefs and restaurateurs seem to find solace in the fact that the average patron is willing to experiment with flavours. But what began with thepla tacos, South East Asian-influenced rasam and Indianised baos, has turned into an unmitigated fusion fest that has brought together some of the most mismatched plate-mates. Although there are treats like baked macaroni with butter chicken masala (AnnCensored in Lower Parel) or tandoori prawn risotto (Dishkiyaaon in Bandra Kurla Complex), these
IT IS NO LONGER A SURPRISE TO FIND PANI PURI SERVED WITH SYRINGES AND PAV BHAJI SERVED IN CONES.
radically mish-mashed cuisines have faced harsh criticism and seem to be treading thin ice.
BEYOND THE BORDERS
It isn’t just Indian food that is getting a modern twist. When it comes to comfort food, Asian cuisine is a close second for Indians, and now that Chinese, Thai and Japanese cuisines have found willing takers, contemporising Asian menus seems to be the obvious next step.
Named after Beijing’s hip art district, Dashanzi, which replaces Arola at JW Marriott Juhu, serves Chinese and Japanese food cooked using European techniques and ingredients. Truffles top sushi rolls, charcoal finds its way into wantons, asparagus, pomegranate seeds and truffles offer an explosion of flavours in a veggie salad. “This is not fusion cuisine, it is just modern,” clarifies sushi master Chef Venecio Cadavida, Executive Japanese Specialty Chef at Dashanzi.
The idea is to serve Mumbaikars the kind of food that they might find at the trendiest restaurants across Asia’s most vibrant cities. At Dashanzi, the chefs worked for months coming up with brand new dishes that would live up to that standard. But they’re cautious about their radical ideas. “We’ll see how the menu is accepted. If it doesn’t do well, we’ll change it in a few months. We have a lot of ideas and it isn’t hard for us to innovate,” says Chef Cadavida, who works alongside Chef Stanley Lum Wah Cheok, Executive Chinese Specialty Chef.
At Abhayraj Singh Kohli’s newly launched games-themed resto-bar MRP (My Regular Place), a modern Asian bistro, classics get a progressive twist. “Progressive doesn’t necessarily mean going molecular. Most people use the technique because it looks cool and changes the texture of the food. It adds a wow factor. But I don’t believe in having smoke coming out of your food if it is not required,” says Kohli, whose family runs the Pritam group of hotels.
COCKTAIL DRAMA
While Kohli attempts to keep the food free of fuss at MRP, he goes all out with the cocktails he serves. “We’ve got a spicy mango cocktail which has a salt and Thai chilli foam. It gives you the feeling of standing on the streets of Bangkok and munching on green mango sprinkled with spice,” adds Kohli.
WHAT BEGAN WITH THEPLA TACOS AND SOUTH EAST ASIAN-INFLUENCED RASAM, HAS TURNED INTO AN UNMITIGATED FUSION FEST.
Ankit Anand, owner, Redbrik Restaurants, seems to have a similar fondness for flamboyance and adventure when it comes to cocktails. At True Tramm Trunk, Anand’s restobar in JVPD Scheme, they return to the regional, taking inspiration from flavours of country liquor from different states. “We infuse whisky, vodka or white rum with pausad, santra, tharra and create a completely new range of cocktails,” says Anand. At his most recently launched Myx, he
THE FASCINATION WITH GIMMICKS IS GOING TO BE SHORT-LIVED. AGED DRINKS, WHERE THE COCKTAIL IS LEFT IN A SMALL BARREL FOR A WEEK OR TEN DAYS, ARE ANOTHER NEW TREND.
attempts to take the patron on a journey around the world while making sure there’s an element of drama while the drink is served. “People are going out three or even four times a week. It’s the same thing everywhere. You need to give the patron more, especially considering how social media has evolved so much. They must have more material to post, right? And we must offer that to them,” adds the restaurateur.
This fascination with gimmicks is
going to be short-lived predicts Jasjit Assi, Hotel Manager, Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai. “It’s about differentiating the bar and in the process you’ve diluted the cocktail. If you go to the bars in Sydney or Melbourne, you’ll realise that the trend is going back to old-world cocktails,” reveals Assi. Aged drinks, where the cocktail is left in a small barrel for a week or ten days, are another new trend, he adds. At AER, Four Season’s rooftop bar, they serve vodka-based aged cocktails and plan to introduce a much larger portfolio within the next three months. For Assi, at a global luxury hotel chain like Four Seasons it is important to ignore short-term trends and look for longevity. “We think of concepts that will last at least five to six years,” he explains. “We want to be trendy, but we also strive to be local and authentic along with offering showmanship and innovation,” adds Assi. Interestingly, longevity was the last thing on her mind when Sanjana Sanghi conceptualised Pop-up Hut soon after she returned home after pursuing a Masters degree in Corporate Finance in London. She seems to have chosen instead to cater to the enthusiastic lot of youngsters driven by their fear of missing out and their fervor to have been everywhere, done everything. “I have always been passionate about food and I knew I wanted to bring exciting and different foods to my neighbourhood,” says Sanghi. Why stop at just one type of cuisine, she thought. Every month the menu at her one-month-old Pop-up Hut, a hole-in-the-wall eatery, undergoes a complete overhaul. Launching with live ice-cream rolls, a concept from the streets of South East Asia, the month of July sees her tying up with Bandra joint Between Breads to serve innovative burgers.
Defining Mumbai’s restaurant scene, food critic and writer Rashmi Uday Singh believes that accessibility, approachability and casualness is the guiding ethos. This is certainly what recently-launched restaurants like Myx are playing on. “But we could do with an increase in the variety of cuisines and a hike in the quality of produce and cooking,” she rues. Interestingly, while the city’s food community boasts about constantly bringing something new to the table, Mumbai is still devoid of a world-class French restaurant and our exposure to Asian food remains largely limited to Thai, Japanese or Chinese.
ACCESSIBILITY, APPROACHABILITY AND CASUALNESS IS THE GUIDING ETHOS OF MANY NEW ESTABLISHMENTS IN THE CITY.