Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The Wine is Fine

The last weekend was spent in exploring the best of Mumbai. Saturday lunch was at Mocambo which continues to serve competent food. The Beefsteak I had was highly edible (as my friend who kept taking pieces inspite of my protests would attest) while the mushroom gravy starter was very so so. The evening was a revelation. Good Earth in Lower Parel has a restaurant which is called the Tasting Room or something like that. It has one of the widest varieties of wine on offer outside five stars both by glass or by bottle. My experiments with Chilean wine led to me ordering a bottle of red which was acidic at first but post letting it breathe was just smooth. The feta cheese with bread (good really thin bread crisps) was also very nice. Must go back there someday for dinner. The atmosphere was very chilled out. Dinner was the exact opposite. In search of something Mumbai the choice was either Friends Union or Rajdhani. Rajdhani was chosen as being more salubrious (I was with a delhiite and so not very sure about how FUJC would be viewed) We just about made it inside before they closed (In Delhi we would have been shooed out) and then the machine that is Rajdhani took over. The food was very decent (This was the crawford market one mind you and not the offshoots everywhere) and came at the speed of light. The sheera stands out and so does the teekhi dal and khichdi. Post a sumptuous meal which was over in 25 minutes (From entry to exit) dessert was being contemplated. A choice between Badshah and Theobroma led to Theobroma being chosen. The brownies there are awesome.

What struck me was that something like this could happen only in Mumbai. Imagine in the space of 5 hours we transited from having wine with a side dish to a full blown gujju meal and then brownies for dessert. Truly Mumbailicious