Things that made me go mmm… in Mumbai
(part 2)

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…continuing on from my last post on some of my most memorable foodie experiences in Mumbai.

Dahi batata puri at Swati Snacks

No visit to India is complete without indulging in chaat, Indian snacky street food. Eeeks, you say, street food, that’s the recipe for food poisoning. Have you seen the yucky conditions under which they make the stuff on the road? The guy just dipped his bare hands into the pot of tamarind chutney! And the water for the pani puris looks totally ominous. Wretch.

To all those germ-counting, hand-sanitizing, OCD tourists, stick to your five-star, white linen-tabled garlic naan, chicken tandoori and saag paneer fare. And then go back to wherever you came from, in whatever part of the world, and eat it all over again in your neighborhood Indian resto. <em>Or</em>, hunt out a place like Swati Snacks in Mumbai, that despite being indoors and away from its street vendor brethren, maintains an appropriate level of down-to-earthness that’s critical to enjoying the authentic Indian chaat experience, without the same nauseating-flies-crawling-all-over-my-spoon feeling.

While chaat is a broad term encompassing many different types of savory snacks, I have a weakness for any combo of spice, yoghurt sauce, tamarind chutney, and deep-fried <em>anything</em>, whether it’s a puri or a samosa or battered chillies or sev (mini deep-fried strings of salty dough. one of those things that once you start, you can’t stop.)  And Swati Snacks fully delivered on the chaat experience I was looking to get with their plate of dahi batata puri. Each mini puri that I greedily popped whole into my mouth was like a flavor-busting grenade, exploding out crackling sev, salty sprouts, and puri flakes, and then a spice-extinguishing spurt of yoghurt and tamarind chutney in quick succession all across my tongue. <em>Sigh. </em> The raw, soul-satisfying pleasures that can be had from a simple, street vendor-inspired plate of puris and chutney.

Spice-speckled dahi batata puris awaiting explosive taste bud action

The other two snacks that Swati is quite famous for is their Panki and Satpadi Roti, both of which were good, but definitely a couple of taste notches below the dahi batata puri in my opinion.

Panki Chatni, smooth translucent sheets of garlic besan (aka gram flour) dough steamed in between banana leaves, and served with green chutney and chillies
Thick wholesome Satpadi Roti with Gattu nu Shak, soft besan rolls soaked in yoghurt-based curry

 

Fresh Coconut Water

When stepping outside feels no different than stepping into a sauna, with all your clothes on, and Mumbai pollution beating down on you to shatter any temporary illusion that the heat could be nature’s free steam spa treatment, there’s nothing more refreshing than a sip of cool coconut water, straight from the shell. Doesn’t take much to make me go mmm.

 

Veg Thali at Chetana’s

I’ve written a separate post about this one…check it out at https://iliveinafryingpan.com/restaurantreview/indian-thali-at-chetanas-in-mumbai/

This is all I’ve got for this trip, but I’m already planning my next visit to Mumbai, with pilgrimages to Joss, Bademiya, Gajalee, Goa Portuguesa, Soam, and a whole bunch of other places that friends have raved about. Feel free to suggest more places you think I should try when down in Mumbai!

Swati Snacks
Phone: +91 (22) 6580-8405 or -8406
Main location: Tardeo, Mumbai
Smaller stall: INOX cinema foodcourt, Nariman Point, Mumbai

CategoriesBest Meals City Cuisine Indian MumbaiTags,

Author: InaFryingPan

With a family legacy of ingenious cooks, a nutritionist and chef-extraordinaire mother, and a father who introduced me to steak and caviar when I could barely reach the table, I had no choice but to acquire a keen awareness of food during my childhood years in Dubai. But it was only after I found myself on a college campus in Philadelphia – far away from home, too cheap as a student to spend on anything other than pizza, and with dorm rooms that had little rat-holes of kitchens if they even had them at all – when I developed a heightened appreciation of food. An appreciation of food that I once ate every night at the dinner table in Dubai, but that was now an entire ocean away. I lusted for the culinary treasures that lay outside the stale walls of my college dining hall, hijacked friends’ kitchens to try my hand at something, anything , remotely edible, and greedily raided different websites in search of highly-rated restaurants. With my move to New York to work for a consulting firm that secretly harbored self-professed foodies, my appreciation transformed into a passion, an addicition. I felt like everyone around me in New York was talking about food: where to get the best cupcakes, pizza slices, banh mi, kati rolls, pho, fried chicken, and every other food item out there that is just a plain old dish in some part of the world, but that’s become hyped to unforeseen proportions in New York. What fuelled my addiction over time was travel to different cities, both for work and play, which gave me unfettered access to the culinary havens of not only New York, but also of DC, Virginia, Chicago, Houston, Vegas, Austin, Seattle and even a little city called Bentonville (Arkansas!). After 9 years away from home, I’ve finally taken the leap to come back to Dubai – with not just an awareness, but genuine appreciation and passionate addiction for what I’d taken for granted as a child. Mom, I’m back to reclaim my seat at your dinner table, and to rediscover this city with its ever-expanding menu of international flavors.

1 thought on “Things that made me go mmm… in Mumbai
(part 2)”

  1. Pingback: Braving the storm with mouthfuls of chaat . | The Foodonymph

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