Manfield - A personal guide to India & Bhutan

Over the past two decades of travelling through India, I have had the good fortune to meet some incredible like-minded souls and kindred spirits who have opened their hearts and homes, shared their food secrets and taken me out to eat whenever I have visited. I have been lucky enough to have developed an enviable network of friends, colleagues and ground support throughout India, which I share with guests who travel with me on any one of my bespoke Tasting India tours. These have been life-changing experiences. My deepest gratitude goes to the following people thank you for sharing these travel and culinary adventures and pointing my tastebuds in the right direction; every mouthful has been a revelation, and my horizons expanded because of your generosity, which resonates through these pages.

To the extraordinary teams of travel experts who magically arrange my ground support in India, no visit would be the same without your exacting expertise. Thank you all so much: Jamshyd Sethna and Lucy Davidson at Banyan Tours + Travel and Shakti Himalaya, Alok Singh at Enriching Journeys and Jennifer Wilkinson at Epicurious Travel.

My eternal gratitude to the expert city guides who have afforded me generous and warm hospitality, and to the home cooks and chefs who have cooked for me and shared culinary secrets and treasured family heirloom recipes so generously.

In Bombay: Anjali Tolani, Lizzie Chapman, Saket Khanna, Tejaswi Gupte, Harsh Tanwar, Yamini Oja. In Delhi: Navina Jafa, William Dalrymple, Manjeet Singh Ghumman, Rachna Sharma, Puja Sahu, Robyn Bickford, Manish Mehrotra, Marut Sikka, Ritesh Negi, Prem Singh, Tejas Sovani, Sameer Himalian, Atul Soni, Karen Yepthomi, Natalie Daalder, Mohammad Saleem, Serena Chopra and Tamara Cannon. In Goa: Jonas Cotinho, Neville Proenca, Oscar dChuna, Siddharth Savkur, Anita and Sarika Satakr. In Madhya Pradesh: Aimee Junker and Shyamanand Choudhary. In Varanasi: Indrajeet Kumar, Mr Shashank and Sumalya Sarkar. In Amritsar: Ahbimanyu and Gayatri Mehru, Gagan Khanna. In Gujarat: Gautam Popat. Across Rajasthan: Dumisani Sakuinje, Jai Singh Rathore and family, Vasundhra and Nandi Singh, Harsh and Shrinidri Singh, Siddharth and Rashmi Singh, Abhay Singh, Durga Singh, Richard Hanlon, Vimal Dhar, Vishal Gautam, Nikkitesh Bhati, Satish Dhole, Prateek Kumar, Hajra Ahmad, Naresh Bharghava, Ramkesh Saini and Adiraj Rathore. In Kolkata: Seema and Mohan Chandran, Sunil and Marina Gandhi, Abhijit (Bhaiya) Bose, Arun Lal, Sanjay Kapur, Husna-Tara Prakesh and Rakhi Dasgupta. In Hyderabad: Jonti Rajagopalan, Manisha Gadhalay, Heartz Desirez, Mohit Agarwal, Girish Sehgal and Arun Sundararaj. Fiona Caulfield in Bangalore and Mini Chandran in Karnataka. In Kerala: Nimmy Paul, Faisa Moosa, Ajita Skaria, Manoj Nair, Sabu Joseph, Anish Kumar, Sasi K.K., Sujith K.K., Jayan K.V., and Anu and Anaissa Philip. In Tamil Nadu: Praveen Anand, Meenakshi Meyyappan, Malavika and Vijiya. Across the Himalayas: Yeshi Lama, Altaf Chapri, Siddharth Pradhan, Manzoor Dar, Jyoti Singh, Shakila Riyas, Nikhil Kapur, Dr Mathew, Raaja Bhasin, Deepak Kumar Rai, Amin Lone and Narendra Sharma.

In Bhutan: John Reed, Palden and Chuni Tshering, Tobije and Genzing Dorji, Stana Johnson and Tshewang Toby Namgayl, Carolyn Hamer-Smith, Khin Omar Win, Sara Rezgui, Glenn Monk, Sha Bdr Pradhan and Wangchuk Kuenga.

Your collective voices have given resonance, depth and clarity to this comprehensive, erudite guide.

My writing is always made possible by the enduring love and support of my partner Margie Harris, who shares travel adventures and exploring new frontiers with me; the vision, wisdom and implicit trust of my publisher Julie Gibbs, who shares my love affair with India and Bhutan and breathes life into my written work; the painstaking care and eagle eye of editor Jocelyn Hungerford, and the cleverness and brilliant attention to detail by designer Daniel New.

The city of dreams and opportunity! India is a land of paradoxes, contradictions and contrasts, highs and lows, beauty and despair, joy and sadness, wealth and poverty, and Mumbai has all of these. It is the most frenetic city in India, without a doubt an exciting, exhilarating, edgy urban jungle, a kaleidoscope of riotous colour and energy that leaves a lasting impression, and a true melting pot where you cant help but feel alivethe mesmerising, seductive and cosmopolitan heartbeat of modern India. Bombays name was officially changed to Mumbai in the 1990s, but everyone still refers to it as Bombay, so I will stick with the locals and use this name here. Both are acceptable and interchanged without fuss. Everyone, whether local or visitor, wants a piece of Bombays fame and fortune. Its one of Indias key tourist destinations, big on personality and style, exhilarating at every turn, its food a showcase of regional diversity.

Walk through the Colaba , Fort and Ballard Estate districts and eyeball the wonderful colonial edifices and neoclassical architecture. Stop off at one of the street vendors along Khao Galli , a terrific food street, at lunch between 1 and 3 p.m.; look out for kheecha (seasoned rice flour flatbread cooked over hot coals) and perennial staples vada pav (soft white bread roll with spiced potato and tamarind chutney filling a Maharastrian staple) and bhel puri (a snack of puffed rice, diced potato and onion, tangy tamarind, chilli, moong dal and coriander chutney).

Explore the Crawford Market for amazing fresh produce, get your spices from the Spice King (shop number 133 in the fourth lane) or head to Mirchi Galli (Chilli Lane) in the Lalbaug district for the abundant displays of dried chillies, and the snack shops next door where everything is made by hand. Dont miss the early-morning flower market in Dadar (just before sunrise) near the heritage area of Shivaji Park where many Maharashtrian vego cafes and food vendors have set up to feed workers and shoppers.

Stand outside Marine Lines station a little after 11 a.m. to watch the distribution of tiffin lunch boxes as the tiffin wallahs get off the trains and deliver over two million lunches each day. Its miraculous to see: food is cooked in home kitchens, collected and delivered to the right person at the right office every day. An urban marvel that is ingenious and brilliantly organised.