The Hindu Business Line : Gastronomic expedition as anniversary treat

When Cheryl and Bill Jamison of the US decided to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary by going round the world on the strength of their frequent-flier miles, India was definitely on the agenda. But there was a problem: ‘the whole enormous country’ enticed them.

Cheryl made a strong pitch for Agra, the site of the Taj Mahal, and Bill pushed Khajuraho, ‘a three-dimensional version of the Kama Sutra,’ as the two recount in Around the World in 80 Dinners: The Ultimate Culinary Adventure ( www.landmarkonthenet.com).

However, in their tight itinerary, it is Mumbai that they settle for, landing in from Thailand, on a Diwali night. “Every neighbourhood we pass through, even the slums, glows brightly, sparkling with candles, bonfires, lanterns of all kinds, and strings of twinkling white lights,” reads the narrative in the ‘India’ chapter. “In tourism circles, India is known as a tough nut,” the Jamisons write. “One of our most widely travelled colleagues, a master journalist at the New York Times, told us before we left, ‘No matter how much you like to chart your own course on a trip, India rules. It will always throw you tricky curves’.”

Crawford Market, ‘Mumbai’s biggest food bazaar,’ is their first destination. In the ‘dried spices’ section of ‘stalls loaded with cardamom, coriander, turmeric, black mustard seeds, whole star anise, aniseed, ginger, cloves, canela cinnamon… masala and tikka blends’ they smell a tandoor mix; ‘the robust, freshly ground scent’ almost takes off their heads! ‘This man blends 92 different ingredients by hand to make it,’ a Crawford guide explains.

The authors then go to ‘the Jain Temple in the affluent Malabar Hills’ and follow it with a visit to the Chowpatty Beach. “More of a park and fair than a spot for swimming or sunning,” they describe. The beach comes alive in the evening, “when hundreds of families gather to gab, gobble, and play. Musicians, trained monkeys, and contortionists, among others, provide entertainment, while kids chase after balloons and one another when they’re not riding toy jeeps or merry-go-rounds.”

Plus there is a lot of food: “A couple of dozen chaat (snack) vendors sell popular street foods such as dosas (fried flatbreads) with various fillings, kulfi (Indian ice cream), and most famously, bhelpuri (crispy puffed rice, fried noodles, vegetables, and chutney scooped up with puri bread.” The treats look good, but the duo is ‘too wary to try them without good local guidance’.

Well, where do they decide to go for dinner? “The Taj Mahal’s Masala Kraft, highly recommended according to our research by Mumbai food authority Rashmi Uday Singh,” the Jamisons inform.

At sunrise, the following morning, they go to the Sassoon Docks, where ‘vividly painted trawlers in the water jostle with one another for space to unload their catch’. An ‘exhilarating spectacle,’ and perhaps appetising too, for ‘a breakfast of eggs and curry’ back in the hotel, before they head to the airport for the next flight to Kochi…

A gastronomic expedition of a global scale.

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