Khanna - Savour Mumbai : a culinary journey through Indias melting pot

westland ltd

61 Silverline Building, Alapakkam Main Road, Maduravoyal, Chennai 600 095

No. 38/10 (New No. 5), Raghava Nagar, New Timber Yard Layout, Bangalore 560 026

93, 1st floor, Sham Lal Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110002

First published in India by westland ltd, 2013

Copyright Vikas Khanna, 2013

All rights reserved

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First e-book edition: 2013

Book design by Kavita Chopra Dixit (Red Design Company)

Food Styling and Photography by Michael Swamy

Food Styling, Research, and Recipe Development by Mugdha Savkar

Cover Photograph by Pravin Pol

Recipe Development and Food Production by Ganesh Shedge and Jalal Sheikh

Research and Food Production by Kush Arora and Mrunal Savkar

Printed at Manipal Technologies Ltd, Manipal

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, circulated, and no reproduction in any form, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews) may be made without written permission of the publishers.

It CAStS A spell on me.

It AlwAyS HAS.

M umbai that unique juxtaposition of dreams and reality, of wealth and ambitions, seething with vibrant forces, the modern and traditional Indian experience in perfect harmony.

Every day thousands of people come to Mumbai from all over India to realise their dreams. It is like New York City and Hollywood rolled into one. Mumbai is the pride of India and presents countless possibilities, which lure people from every region, enriching the culture of Mumbai, making it the melting pot of the Indian Subcontinent. We project our dreams onto the city and ache for them to come true.

My dearest late aunt, Surinder Bua, was my first introduction to this great city. Her stories of living in Mumbai were like tales of a fairyland that I thought I would never see.

Growing up before Google, the world was a different place. We had one channel on television, few telephones, no Internet and only a few precious books, so all our news and most of our information came from people who had experienced it firsthand.

For us, Surinder Bua's visits to my home in Amritsar meant much more than just time with her they were our chance to see the world through her eyes. We sat spellbound as her tales unfolded. She was a gifted cook in addition to being a wonderful storyteller, and she loved feeding the family. Sometimes she made dishes that we had never tasted before, from various regions of India. The effect on my culinary imagination was profound.

The food she introduced me to was different from anything I had ever imagined: Parsi, Gujarati, south Indian, Maharashtrian, Konkani, the list went on.

This is the gift of the enriched soul of Mumbai. It takes much pride in its diversity. Surinder Bua would proudly say, 'Aamchi Mumbai,' which means 'Our Mumbai'.

My first trip to Mumbai was when my brother was training with Larsen and Toubro (L&T). I was a child who grew up in a homogeneous society, so the trip was a challenging one for me. I discovered that the regional heterogeneity of the people of India that we had only learned about in school their languages, rituals, beliefs and cuisines were all represented in Mumbai, and all living in harmony. Noisy harmony to be sure, but chaos is part of the excitement that makes Mumbai so special.

Just as I can hear New York City, my present home, with my eyes closed, I can also hear the special sounds that make up Mumbai. I was immediately enraptured by this fabulous dream of a city. It was painful to separate myself from Mumbai, and I still look back at the moment when my brother dropped me off at Dadar station to take the train back to Amritsar. I asked him, 'Why can't the whole of India be like this?' And I knew then that I would be coming back.

But, not quite as soon as I had hoped. There was a huge gap of ten years before I came back to Mumbai, this time for work. For me it was a dream come true.

I got the opportunity to train at the Sea Rock Sheraton Hotel, Bandra in 1993 and lived in Mumbai for two whole months. This also happened to be the year of some unrest in the city. Though riots erupted during my stay in the city and I had to live in the hotel for nearly a month, I also learned some of the best lessons in survival and teamwork. We cooked and cooked for the guests who were stranded in the hotel. My colleagues used to say, 'If we live through this, we will live through anything.'

During the campus interviews at my college Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration (WGSHA) at Manipal, Karnataka my only focus was to get a job in Mumbai. My wish was granted and I landed myself a job at The Leela Kempenski, where I worked for a year. This was to be my most important and last trip to Mumbai for a long time to come. There was so much to learn during that period which would benefit me in kitchens in the years ahead. We worked long hours and almost every evening travelled to south Mumbai to explore more cuisines and experience the city in its many avatars.

After a year, I left Mumbai to resume running my catering business in Amritsar, and thereafter I left for the US. But one of my innermost desires was always to return to Mumbai and showcase its magical foods which are a major contribution to world cuisine. Unfortunately, people across the globe know Mumbai for mainly two reasons: it is the financial capital of India, and it has the world's largest movie-making industry Bollywood. I was determined to one day put Mumbai's cuisine on the map.

When I was working at The Leela, I did not know that fifteen years later I would be given the opportunity to write a book on one of my favourite cities in the world. At that time, the name of the city was still Bombay. A lot has changed since then. Some of my favourite haunts have vanished, and I have discovered so many new ones.

And so, after many trips to the city over the years, and several months of research, I am humbled and honoured to present recipes from some of my favourite Mumbai restaurants. Their dishes are representations of a timeless culinary art. Many recipes have been modified and adapted for the home cook, but I have tried to do full justice to their authenticity.