A Very Fine Food Walk

Our expat blogger BombayJules went around Dadar on a food walk to savour Maharashtrian delicacies. Here's what she discovered -  

For an expat dining out in Mumbai, it is all too easy to only frequent well known restaurants and Sunday brunch locations. Ones which can be considered 'safe options' that cater well to our western constitutions. But what about trying out some of Mumbai's more traditional eateries, the kind of places that are part of the very fabric of the city?

Mumbai is without doubt, the most cosmopolitan city in India - but it is also the most itinerant.  Over many decades, millions of people have flocked to the city from rural villages all over India, each one bringing their own traditions, faiths and recipes.  Nowhere else in India will you find such a variety of regional cooking; rich meat curries from the Punjab; coconutty prawn curries from Kerala; vegetarian thalis from Gujurat; Irani influenced Parsi berry pulaos; the Portuguese balchaos of Goa.  The list is endless.  The most well known of these food styles can be found at the best Indian restaurants in town. But in order to get right under the skin of itinerant Mumbai you have to dig a little deeper - by going right to the soul of the community.

Expat Corner: The Mumbai Dabbawalas - Dabba Dabba Do!

We have a new blogger on Discovering Mumbai. The ever inquisitive British expat blogger and columnist BombayJules. Recently she travelled all the way to Churchgate Station in south Mumbai to observe the famous Dabbawalahs in action (Dabbawallas, Dabbawallahs, or Tiffin Wallahs). Here’s what she has learned about the famous Tiffin delivery service of Mumbai!

You can follow her blog - here 

For the readers back home, a Dabbawala is a person whose sole job it is to collect home cooked 'dabbas' - basically packed lunches - from the homes of office workers and deliver them to said office workers via different modes of transport. After the packed lunch - or tiffin - has been consumed, the Dabbawala will re-collect the empty box and take it back home to the person's residence. Each tiffin box usually contains two or three containers - mostly carrying traditional Indian foods such as rice, veg curry, chapattis and vegetables. No doubt with a fraction of the calories of a Pret-a-Manger sandwich.

Dabbawala in his pristine white uniform