On the go...Street food in Mumbai.....

Hello everyone!

Hope you enjoyed the first part WELCOME TO MUMBAI.

Continuing my story about Mumbai  I would tell you about street food which is very famous here.

While eating in Mumbai one can have all delicacies in top end hotels or restaurants but if you want to taste the real tasty stuff  come to the streets. There are some very good places where the food is hygenic.

Khaoo galli - literally means  food street and it has food stalls lined up on both sides of the lane serving variety of food items. Its near Churchgate station and it has mainly vegetarian food.

Juhu beach or Chowpatty beach -  There are many stalls right on the beach serving numerous snack items.

Mohammed Ali road - down at South Mumbai area it serves mainly non vegetarian delicacies. 

Elco restaurant  at Bandra west  has best street food available and my personal favorite is Dahi papdi chaat.
Kailash Parbat Hindu hotel at Colaba and Andheri and in many malls across the city have very good snack items.

So what exactly is street food here.  They are mainly  vada pav, pav bhaji, bhelpuri, pani puri,  ragda pattis, sandwiches, variety of dosas and idlis. Street food in India is very cheap but tasty however do consider about the hygiene part before you have these delicacies.

VADA PAV

 

Pav Bhaji

ragda patties 

pics courtesy: google and original uploader.

For Pav Bhaji recipe.. check my blog entry here
 

Enjoy the delicious items when you visit Mumbai.

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Mumbai city.... a brief description

Welcome to Mumbai…. The city that never sleeps.. as the people say. Hello everyone and today I take you around Mumbai city and hope you all would enjoy this ride with me. I would write this in three parts so stay tuned for next part.

Mumbai, capital of Maharashtra and financial capital of India, home to Bollywood film industry and home to people from all over the country.

The local language spoken here is Marathi but English and Hindi are also spoken fluently. So a new visitor will not have much trouble.  Temperature varies throughout the year. March- June is summer months with temperature reaching almost 40degree .June- October  monsoon season with rain in full force.  November to February is mainly winter months but being a coastal city the winters are mild here and pleasant weather.

Places to see:   colonial architecture from the Victorian times ….mainly around South Mumbai area.  Famous monuments to be seen in this area are the Gateway of India, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria Terminus) building, the Municipal Corporation and Police Headquarters and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Vastu Sanghralaya (formerly, the Prince Of Wales museum). The famous Taj Mahal hotel is located just opposite the Gateway of India. The Mumbai University buildings and the High Court are also excellent examples of colonial architecture in the city.

Nehru science center and Nehru planetarium are very good place to visit as they have museum and planetary views shown at both centers

Mumbai has a few beaches, at Juhu, Chowpatty, Marve. They are a great place to see how the locals spend their Sunday evenings, with various food and game stalls. 

The life line of Mumbai.. the local trains run extensive network daily on three lines…. Western line, central line and harbor line.

Mumbai is famous for its street food description of which I would give in my next post. Modern Mumbai has huge malls and multiplex to cater to everyone’s needs with branded names. 

If  I continue it would turn out a big essay, so come to Mumbai and enjoy your stay while you explore the city and feast on various delicacies which are offered.

 

GATEWAY OF INDIA

CHHATRAPTI SHIVAJI TERMINUS

PRINCE OF WALES MUSEUM

JUHU BEACH

pics credit: Google

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Carrot Halwa.... gaajar ka halwa

Hello everyone! Time to have something sweet… today's recipe is well known in Hindi films and I am sure everyone loves it.  Gajar ka halwa….. ha its seasons of carrots so got this recipe soon after my earlier one with carrots. Plus it was my son’s birthday few days back so thought why not make this dish.

Lets begin cooking…

Ingredients:

½  kg big carrots grated. (Preferably the red pink ones)

4 tbsp  ghee

Half cup sugar

Half cup milk

2tbsp poppy seeds (khus khus –optional)

Few almonds cut

Little saffron strands

1tsp  cardamom powder or 1 cardamom whole

( now these are all adjustable to your needs and your style of cooking)

Method:

Grate the carrots and keep them aside. In a deep pan  put ghee, let it heat then put carrots and stir them for few mins till carrot sweet smell comes. 

Next put milk and stir the carrots and let them cook for few mins. Here some people use mawa or khoya but I have never tried with it and used milk with equal results.  I like carrots soft here so I have put more milk but if you want bit dry then reduce the quantity of milk.

Let the milk dry up leaving the carrots soft.  Reduce flame and put sugar. Stir and as sugar also leaves some water so keep stirring till sugar dissolves.  Take the halwa out of gas.  Sprinkle saffron strands, cardamom powder, poppy seeds  and almonds on top.  Stir and serve hot or cold as you prefer.

Carrots after cooking reduce a lot so adjust your quantity accordingly.

Hope you enjoy this delicious yummy gajar ka halwa……

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What type of person you are.... find out

Hello! Today’s post is to describe the types of people we meet in our daily lives. It’s a humor post so have fun.

Impatient person:  always in hurry type and won’t think twice before talking and wants things done first and fast. In this category also come people who see the shopowner is still opening the shop and yet say I want this or that.

Interfering person:  he or she won’t see if the person is busy talking to someone or doing something and straight away butt in trying to make the other person notice him.

Stupid person:  there are shops here who have big telephone booths for Local, national or international calls and yet this person would barge in and ask DO YOU HAVE TELEPHONE BOOTH! Uff they somehow miss the six footer booth standing outside the door.

Annoying type: every few mins he would ask questions related to the work he is doing. If you don’t know then why are you sitting here?

Silent type:  who won’t say a word what they want and just use hand sign to tell his message or whatever he wants to tell.

Forgetful type:  these people tend to forget their own things like wallet diary or cellphone and even forget to pay to shopkeeper and straight buzz off without backward glance but they do remember at times that they forgot their personal belongings.

Accusing type:  the blame game begins. Mistake is of this person yet doesn’t stop him from accusing the shop owner or the other person. These people also fall in the category of abusive people with flair knowledge of slang words.

The know-it-all type:  ever ready to say they know everything and would try to fix things without waiting for approval and won’t listen to a  no.

These are sort of negative people and there may be more too.

Helpful person: he would stick around and help out on his own without any acknowledgment

Cheerful person: always says hi hello how are you with a nice smile.

Generous person: he would walk away  intentionally or unintentionally paying more than he is charged for.

Straightforward person:  they come, they do their work and they leave without any argument or anything.

The honest person:  he would  give out things he sees or pays  even the bills the shop owner forgets to  collect.

Well this is my list. Feel free to add more if you know and yes……. Which type of person are you from the above…. Remember I would  wait for your answers so do answer generously  and honestly…….  And  if you are one of the negative ones….. change yourself to positive  one….

Have a nice day  everyone.

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New year.. new dish using carrots

Hello everyone! Wishing you all a very happy new year. I know it has been some days since the 1^st of January happened. Better late than never eh….

Today I bring for you one of my very simple dish and easy to make. Good for those who prefer less oil, less chilli, less sugar even…

Serves 2 people and increase quantities according to your need.

Ingredients:

                                                                     2  large thick carrots. (Preferably the red pink  one not the bright orange.) cut into 1 inch long pieces (ALMOST THE  SIZE OF FRENCH FRIES)

1green chilli  slit length wise

1/4tsp  rai or mustard seeds

1/2tbsp oil

1tbsp  besan or gram flour (optional)

1tbsp sugar ( optional)

Salt to taste

1/4tsp haldi powder or turmeric powder

Method:

In a pan  heat oil, then put mustard seeds,stir till it splutters, add green chilli, stir once more, add carrots. Stir them, add salt and  turmeric powder and mix well.

Here I add a little 4tbsp water for carrots to soften and quickly cook. Cover and cook on slow heat for 2 mins.  Check if carrots have softened and increase heat and stir again. Again here I add besan but if you don’t want you can skip this part. Besan would stick to carrots and soak out extra water. Add sugar if you wish and any case carrots have their own sweetness. Stir and take out of the heat.

Serve hot  with roti or puri  and for garnish use  cut coriander leaves.

I  have kept it mild and you are free to improvise on this by increasing chilli and leaving out sugar and besan.

The above is my method of cooking but there is another way. Do not add water. cover the vessel and cook carrots on low heat. Keep checking in between to see if its cooked then add besan and sugar if you wish and this would be bit of dry method.

Tip: always put little quantity of any masala and taste before serving. Once you add more salt then it gets difficult to reduce it in some cases.

Enjoy and do let me know by your comments if you cooked it. 

Submitted to
MurariAnniversary-Giveaway-2012 @ Hema's Blog.

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