Chronicles Of The Sassy Fork

Fort is one of Mumbai's premier business districts.Its name comes from the fact that Mumbai (then Bombay) was a walled city and had a Fort there called Fort George.Some of the grand old buildings remain and one can only marvel at their construction.On the Pherozshah Mehta Road is The Bombay Store,formerly Bombay Swadeshi Coop Stores Co. Ltd.It was set up by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and inaugurated by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1906 and stored locally made traditional goods so that we could know and be proud of all that our nation was producing.Today it still stores locally made goods with they come with a contemporary twist. It was so apt then that we started our walk at the Bombay Store which houses items from all over India cos we were embarking on a journey that covered food from various parts of India.There are many eateries all of whom serve a particular cuisine at a reasonable price.Of course one needs to choose wisely as regards hygiene.Some people have cast iron stomachs and ...

What can be better than having a hot cup of tea in the rains? I know my friend Kainaz Karmakar will say coffee.She is probably Starbucks' biggest fan and has been to many of their branches the world over. I like both but on an average day,I am a tea person.I have ginger tea at breakfast,peach and apricot tea in the evening and green tea on occasion.I have had Hot Apple Tea,Morroccan Mint Tea and Kashmiri Kawah.Heard of the Tibetan Rock Salt and Yak Butter Tea to keep out the cold. Was quite excited to read the announcement of the Mumbai Chai Walk by Snigdha Binjola Manchanda,a stunner of a tea sommelier who runs the Tea Trunk We started off with Cutting Chai at the Kumar Chai Stall which is near the Bombay Stock Exchange.This was started years ago and Cutting Chai is said to have originated in this area...to ensure hospitality by traders to a lot of people without turning it expensive...cutting chai is half a glass.Today you will find this in all street corners ...

Followed up the Maharashtrian food walk with a Bengali one to learn more about my Bengali roots (my mom being Bengali).This one far away from home (Oshiwara) so it was to places I hadn't been to before.As always,Finely Chopped's walk was houseful.There were some people I had met before and some first-timers.Among the new were lawyers,a sports journalist and Kalyan's ex-boss and ex-junior from the marketing research field.This picture was taken by Kalyan and the pretty woman you see at the back is his wife Kainaz who loves Bengali food more than Parsi food! It was raining when we reached Calcutta Club so we started with Jolkhabar or snacks while we waited for the others.One always looks for the Betki in Bong restaurants and we started off with it.For vegetarians, Beetroot was the substitute. Cholaar Dal is Bengali comfort food but as gram doesn't agree with me,I had Alur Dom.Kalyan then described an easy way to make it at home.He told us about his recent t...