In this age of cluttered e-commerce, here’s an offline cart we heart.

Dev’s Momos, a street wagon that sells steaming hot momos to South Bombay’s growling tummies out for an evening walk or drive. Dev and his partner moved from Delhi to Mumbai about three years ago - the smog and competition were determining factors – and set up shop near Hindmata Cinema in Dadar. Since then, they’ve branched out to Worli, which happens to be their most popular stop, and are now in the midst of a Chowpatty set up. Churning out about 2,500 momos daily, Dev sells three basic fillings -  chicken (Rs 50), paneer (Rs 50), and cabbage (Rs 40), all of them accompanied by a fiery chili and tomato sauce. While the prep starts at 6 am, the cart is all wiped out by 7 .30 pm. So when we visited Worli late yesterday evening, only the yum chicken momos were left, but we’ve been told that the paneer ones are yum as well. Now the stall is as hygienic as a street  stall can be, but we can tell you this: our friends who eat here often haven’t fallen sick yet.

While we waited for our plate, a chatty, tired suited gentleman parceled 3 packs of chicken momos, currently plagued by a bai who plays truant a least twice a week.

We suppose Dev's Momos is the place to come when you run out of steam.

Getting there: Dev’s Momos, call 9594424318, RG Thadani Marg, Worli, next to Café Coffee Day, Rs.50 for a plate of chicken/ panner momos (8 pieces), open 7 days a week from 5.30 pm till 10.30 pm. We suggest you make it by 7 pm before everything runs out.

Rumour Has It...

Yesterday, a friend tipped us off about a picture on Theobroma's latest Facebook group status. "Trying our hand at Khaboos for a new Lebanese restaurant!" it said, above a picture of the inside of an oven with rising dough. While a call to one Theo branch revealed that the restaurant will open in Powai soon, voices at the other branches were either clueless or trying to cover it up.

It's not much, but we thought your taste buds should know. More on that soon!

Along Came Polynesia

Boys, you can finally unearth that Hawaiian print shirt you’ve been saving from the 90s. But please don’t.

Polynesian bar and restaurant The Mai Tai Lounge opens at High Street Phoenix with tiki masks and Bahia cocktails and lots of greenery - a peaceful contrast to the chaotic malls around. From the guys behind Hard Rock Café, Shiro and California Pizza Kitchen, this international chain has a pretty outdoor seating area with reggae music, cane furniture and wooden carvings. The cool breeze from the long stemmed fans adds to the luau vibe.

The Rum Diary

We visited after a Monday evening movie, to begin with a round of post-weekend drinks. First up, the Bahia (Rs 455), a potent combination of white rum, pineapple juice and coconut flavoring. It was a bit like our bar review at Shockk - generous on the booze, degeneration on the taste buds. A frutier option came next –the Guava Mai Tai (Rs 455), light and gold rum mixed with their ‘secret formula’, it’s like a Hunter Thompson novel in a glass.

If you want something stronger, try the Samoan Fog Cutter (Rs 655) a vase full of rum, gin, brandy and  sherry wine with orange juice and whatever else the bartender decided to throw in.  Not to be had on a school night.

You’ve got the dip? They’ve got the organic chikoo chips.

You’ve got a weekend day free? They’ve got a river-side farm that can customize an all-natural brunch for you and your friends.

This is all coutesy Gandhiana, an organic farmers self-help group run by Michelle Chawla, a Mumbai resident who fled the city to live on a Dahanu farm with her husband. Through this organisation, she recently started doing a whole bunch of interesting things, like selling fresh produce at famers’ markets, retailing yum natural products through an e-commerce store and organising organic Sunday brunches on demand.

Chikoo Flick

A browse through their e-store will reveal cereal, pulses, flour, beverages and snacks sourced from producers who follow natural farming and fair trade practices. There’s Konkan coastal rice and organic chilli flakes, filter coffee and Himalayan spice tea, liquorice candy and ginger drops. If you buy the red rice and ask nicely, they’ll even give you a recipe for red rice idlis. These are shipped across Mumbai, and Gandhiana plans to figure out a system of delivering their fresh produce as well. We’ll wait for the fruit of this labour.

Besides retailing natural products, Gandhiana also wants to sell you peace of mind. Drive up to Michelle’s farm in Dahanu for a day, and  she’ll organize a brunch for you and upto 15 friends by the river. Expect in-house sundried tomatoes, millet buns, red rice idlis, sangria with organic fruit, honey infused tea. The focus will be on organic, but also on yummy, she tells us. There’s also a wood fired oven on the property, so some pizza perhaps? While Michelle admits that the brunch hasn’t been fleshed out properly, she says menus can be conceptualized together (start at Rs 1,500 per head) depending on what you’re looking for and dates can be worked out.  She also conducts farming workshops for kids, so if you’re looking to pack off just the children for the weekend, this might be a better option.

An Idli Mind

We sampled Gandhiana’s red rice idlis with chutney and super fresh salad bar offerings with tamarind dressing, and tried hard to convince Michelle to provide a Gandhiana organic catering service for parties. She’s going to think about it, but until then, Gandhiana has plenty to keep you busy with in the coming months. Pass the salt march, please.

Getting there: Visit http://gandhiana.org or call Michelle on 8806661235, Rs 95 for lemongrass mint tea, brunch to start at Rs 1,500 per person.

Food Bulletin

Nom Nom, Andheri's pretty Asian restaurant (from the guys behind Silver Beach Cafe) is all set to open its Bandra branch at the end of the month. During a bpb review of the flagship restaurant, we found non-tasty sushi, but awesome Tom Yum soup, Thai curry and burnt garlic fried rice.

The new branch will have new menu additions including steamed soy crabs, black pepper crabs, tiger prawns and more varieties of dimsum. They plan to win over the suburb not just with aromatic curries but with "sake bomb competitions". Sounds like a Bandra plan to us!

Getting there: Nom Nom, shop no 1 & 2, Delux Mahal Building, ground floor, opposite Mini Punjab restaurant, 16th Road, Bandra (W), slated to open at the end of February.

There are few things that are more rewarding than the sight of bread rising, while Kishore Kumar’s Aankhon Mein Tum from Half Ticket plays in the background, chef, product consultant and food blogger Saee Koranne-Khandekar will tell you.

In a bid to replicate this happy feeling in your home, Saee recently started providing bread making classes on demand, where she’ll show up at  your apartment  and conduct one for you plus friends/family/beau/belle. “Kishore Kumar's crooning is optional,” she promises. Rising star?

Besides the feeling of accomplishment that comes with a bread making class – “oh to see a beautiful loaf sitting on your kitchen counter” - Saee’s reason behind focusing on this subject was to dispel any myths that come with it: it must be a big investment, need fancy equipment, too difficult to do at home. None of these are true. In fact, My Jhola’s baking classes are  planned in such a way that they use resources that are available at your home. “For instance, you require a square platter when you’re baking focaccia, but in one person’s house we just used a steel thali,” she tells us.

One look at Saee’s blog with pretty pictures and a recipe YouTube channel, and you’ll want to have her over. We can’t wait to learn how to make her yummy-looking pesto pull apart bread. Yeast interested?

Profiteroles and Loss

Besides bread, Saee can do a dessert class in your home as well. The baking class menu is usually planned according to the kind of group, budget and time at hand. While your pantry will have to be stocked with the basics – flour, eggs, sugar etc – the exotic materials like herbs, vanilla beans and extracts will be brought to class by Saee.

Hat Tip

Saee we found through The Baker’s Dozen, an artisan bread delivery service that will launch its Prabhadevi store soon (more on that later). Here, besides selling international breads like pain aux levain with walnuts and raisins and brioche, they also plan to conduct bread tasting sessions paired with wine and cheese. From one loafer to another.

Getting there: Bring Home My Jhola by Saee, call 9870243193 or find more information here, start at Rs 3,000 per head.

What: The Daily, ground floor, Suburbia Building, behind Shoppers’ Stop, Linking Road, Bandra (W), Rs 180 for a Kingfisher pint, cocktails start at Rs 250.

Why: Dishant and Amrit have been collecting newspaper clippings of good news for a while now. Hard as it is to find, they have a heap, framed in rose wood and hanging from the ceiling of their new bar called The Daily, where “good news and good times are waiting”. Inspired by Mad Men’s rich, vintage feel, the space has been designed by Busride Designs and done entirely in rosewood, a glass partition separating the outside and inside sections. While the food will not be restricted to finger foods – the owners recommend you get the steak, pork burger, and fries with minced meat – the drink list includes smoked martinis and prohibition era cocktails. Full review coming soon!

When: Your Daily fix slated to open at the beginning of March.

A celebration has been devoured recently. A carcass stands where a party used to be. The chandeliers are streaked with soot from kohl eyed women and the fridge is an empty rib cage.

The party is over. Drunk and hungry you return home, with no will to make a bowl of Maggi or a sandwich. Enter Mad Bites, a new food delivery service that runs from 11 pm to 7 am and delivers all over Mumbai. The nocturnal buffet on their website ranges from salad and pasta to burgers and sandwiches, pizza, Chinese food and dessert. Stomach (gr)owl?

Yesterday, bpb's midnight snack consisted of the Teriyaki chicken burger (Rs 130), schezwan chicken (Rs 140) and a double chocolate brownie (s 75). Calling Mad Bites on the phone (lines open only at 11 pm) is much easier than placing an order online we found - the website needs to be more intuitive. But once you place an order, the alerts are quite impressive, starting from an email to confirm your order and one when your food has left the kitchen with a tracking number. Also, full marks for punctuality, as our order reached us  exactly an hour later as promised.

The Graveyard Shift

While the food is packed neatly and sent with plastic cutlery in case you're at one of those ill-equipped friend's homes, our burger looked like it was massacred. The Teriyaki sauce has dripped out from one side making the bun completely soggy. The filling was tasty - it has boneless pieces of chicken and no lettuce, onions or tomato - but the accident had just rendered it too unappetising. The schezwan chicken fared far better and came in a leak-proof plastic box, with Sellotape just in case. This gravy, not overtly red but super spicy, is just what you want to eat with a mound of rice after a few drinks. The double chocolate brownie was dry and sandpaper like, without any hints of rich chocolate and not more than a bite level of edible.

We get that the point of such a service is ease of ordering, reasonable prices and promptness, so we weren't expecting restaurant level food. And you shouldn't either. So as long as you skip dessert, and opt for a spicy gravy dish with rice, you will be appropriately happy. Even though the party is over.

Getting there: Mad Bites, call 8080804040 or order on www.madbites.co.in, Rs 140 for chicken Hakka Noodles.

 They came with geraniums and stayed to order pizza, lounging late into the night on floor cushions, fire escapes, the lone couch, balancing glasses of good wine on scarred wooden floors and laughing at this Scouter’s inability to cook an edible dish of simple lemon pasta, the recipe for which had been meticulously spelled out in that week’s Sunday Times.

We recount this story over a bowl of vastly better lemon-and-almond spaghetti at the newly opened Sassy Spoon, winding our forks around perfectly al dente noodles coated in olive oil and parmesan, bright with citrus and toasted almonds. It is our favorite dish of the evening.

Of All The Gin Joints 

Although it might sound like a greasy diner, Sassy Spoon is one of the more upscale restaurants to open in Mumbai recently, with interiors perfectly suited to nostalgia: soft yellow light from bare-bulbed chandeliers (very similar to those at Cheval), sepia ceilings, and a wall of lovely old suitcases. They also have a pretty patio and small bar that mixes big-flavored drinks: try a perfectly puckish tamarind margarita, bell pepper martinis and Carribean Cloud, essentially a Sno-Cone of rum and coconut water. 

The appetizers we pick are less successful, ho-hum roast chicken wrapped in rice paper and beet and feta keftedes that come with plenty of tzatziki but too little cheese. We are also looking forward to Mulgapudi scallops, exquisitely fresh meat coated in coarse, grainy powder: in theory this marriage of textures, of ingredients high and low, should work but on arrival the dish tastes disjointed and at Rs 825 for three stingy pieces, feels like a rip-off.

The Plot Thickens

Mains consist of the abovementioned lemon spaghetti and honey duck breast with a side of couscous. Like many of the dishes here, the duck is impeccably presented, but the thick, dark ribbons of meat turn out to be too dry, the couscous accompanying them, too shrill. We are underwhelmed.

We have heard much about the desserts at Sassy Spoon, manned over by promoter and pastry chef Rachel Goenka. The Sassy Stacks “are an absolute must-try,” our server pronounces with a touch of hysteria, and we are afraid to contradict him. They arrive in a theatrical flourish, squares of red velvet cake served with raspberry caviar and cappuccino foam. Assembled together, the dish is sweet, but we’ve had better red velvet cake in the city. Get the peanut tart instead, a perfect, perfect, perfect pairing of chocolate and peanuts and caramel that makes us smile out loud.

End Notes

The tastes of the tart and of a long-ago memory from a tiny New York apartment stay with us as we combat the bitterness of a big bill. As we leave, it seems to us that while Sassy Spoon serves up some gems, searching for them in a mostly mediocre menu might prove to be too expensive an enterprise.

Getting there: The Indian Express Building, Nariman Point, call 22888222, Rs 3,000 per person with a cocktail.

What’s more delicious: a bookcase with prettily patterned leather bound French books or a showcase full of well-read macarons? Decide at Marie-Antoinette, Bandra’s new patisserie and coffee shop started by two French nationals who recently moved to the city. Savoir-fare?

Hidden in a lane off Carter Road, Marie-Antoinette has a big bright sign that looks like it’s written with icing and pink wallpaper. We took a Sunday seat here, admiring the tomes that are just for show – but being one of the first few customers, they gifted us one – and ordered a macaron in every flavor. The rest of the small menu features financiers, chocolate cake, quiche and Panini, coffee, tea and juice.

I See France

During a conversation of guillotine and gelatin, the macarons arrived in a blush-coloured box with Ms Antoinette’s head on it. The macaromn shells, soft and not too sweet, are well made and each flavor features a different kind of filling. The strawberry for instance, kept within it a jam that was way too sweet. The black currant jam, slightly sour, was much better. The apple macaron featured a homemade filling with real bits of apple, our favourite flavour in the box, a close second to the salted caramel. The chocolate and banana flavours were tasty too, but the macarons in general could do with a little less sugar.

The financier is the dessert to get here, a small (and pricey) rectangular sponge cake, moist with a nutty aftertaste. While the opinion on the classic version was divided on the table – this Scouter liked it – the strawberry flavor with real seeds in it was a unanimous favourite for the evening.

A Good Lait

The chocolate cake was out of stock, so we went straight for the salties. The quiche we were told, must be ordered an hour in advance. Since we didn’t have Marie Antoinette-level of luxurious time on our hands, we went for the mushroom and mozzarella-tomato paninis (there’s no meat on the menu besides chicken). In between came a latte and a hot chocolate, both recommended, and a lush mostly-strawberry (supported by a few other fruit) juice that could bag a role in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette Part Deux.

The tomato Panini arrived with fresh bread, but a rather flavourless filling, one that co-owners Severine and Marc said should be fixed with balsamic vinegar. The mushroom version is much better.

A Dress the Situation

Come Thursday, February 7, after the opening party, the mezzanine at this patisserie will be stocked with pretty silk dresses designed by Severine. “Beautiful dresses and beautiful cakes. Everything that Marie Antoinette loved,” said Severine. Who’s (be)heading here this weekend?

Getting there: Marie Antoinette, ground floor, White Rose Building, Shirley Rajan Road, next to Rizvi College, off Carter Road, Bandra (W), call 9819435957, Rs 45 per macaroon, Rs 60 for a financier, Rs 220 for a Panini, Rs 90 for a Café Latte.

bpb reviews anonymously and pays for its own meals.

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