Mumbai's diverse culture is reflected in its diverse cuisine, which includes street food with Muslim, Gujarati, South Indian, Parsi, and Maharashtrian influences. Dishes that pop in your mouth without breaking the bank are made with these flavours, colours, and textures. If you enjoy eating, you are fortunate to live in Mumbai, where there are many excellent locations to eat street cuisine.
A festive dish prepared by Maharashtrians and Gujaratis, particularly during Holi (to commemorate the end of the winter season) and Dussehra (to commemorate Lord Ram's victory over the demon Raavan). It's created by cooking chana dal (yellow gramme) with sugar or jaggery (molasses or gur) until it's dry, then hand-grinding it smooth. Flavourings include nutmeg and cardamom powders. Stuffed into wheat flour dough and flattened out, palm-sized balls of the mixture are cooked on a tawa frying pan with a little ghee (clarified butter). When you eat them with a lot of ghee, they taste fantastic.
Vada Pav is a spicy and savoury soft dinner roll or fluffy bun stuffed with a fried batter coated potato dumpling fritter called Batata Vada and laced with hot and sweet chutneys. It is a famous vegan street food snack in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra, Western India.
You should not miss out on this. Batata Vada goes with everything, whether for breakfast, lunch, or teatime. It's created with mashed cooked potatoes, green chilies, lime juice, turmeric, ginger, garlic, and coriander leaves, then dipped in a besan (gramme flour) batter and fried. It's typically served with green chutney or fried green chiles.
There is no greater combination than bread and butter, which is why this recipe is so well-known. It is made with brun or gutli pao, a traditional Mumbai bread, and has a crispy-hard and crumbly texture on the surface but a pleasantly soft interior. The brun is cut, and butter is liberally spread. There is a slight sweet taste in some places. It is typically consumed with chai (tea). Try dipping bun maska in chai if you're not a Mumbaikar.
Pav Bhaji is another renowned Bombay street snack. A variety of mashed vegetables prepared with spices and seasonings (bhaaji) is served with pan-fried bun bread (pav). The bun is slathered in butter. If you are hungry and looking for street food in Mumbai late at night, you can find at least one Pav Bhaji stall open late in your region where you may satisfy your need.
Bhel Puri and Sev Puri are the most famous vegetarian street food meals in Mumbai. Bhel Puri is a traditional Marathi chaat composed of puffed rice, veggies, and a tangy tamarind sauce. Sev Puri is a chaat that consists mostly of Puri stuffed with diced potatoes, onions, three chutneys (tamarind, chilli, and garlic), and topped with sev (tiny bits of crunchy noodles made from chickpea flour paste). It's seasoned with raw mango, lemon, and chaat masala.
This street-side creation combines the most improbable components. Thin slices of beetroot, cooked potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, onion rings, and mint chutney are sandwiched between buttered white bread. After each mouthful, you get the most refreshing tangy taste, cut into four triangles so you can handle all the layers without spilling them. A toasted version steams the vegetables inside and provides another layer of flavour. There is no other sandwich in the world quite like it.
Ragda, soft, spicy, rugged-flavored chickpeas, and pattice, mashed potatoe formed into fat patties and fried, make up this twin treat. Crush the ragda with the pattice and pile on the accompaniments - finely sliced onions, pungent tamarind sauce, and scorching green chutney. Mash it all together and dig in for the genuine Mumbai flavour.
The Mughals brought this Persian dessert adaption to India. Falooda is a rich drink made of vermicelli, milk, almonds, pistachios, rose syrup, and the important component, sabza or basil seeds, topped with two scoops of ice cream. It's a terrific pick-me-up on a hot day because it's refreshing, rosy, and energising.
Each Indian state has its own version of this tasty snack. In the state of Maharashtra this dish is typically called as 'kande pohe' meaning Pohe with onions. To prepare this dish pohe (flattened and processed rice) is first soaked and rinsed in water, then drained and cooked with onions, potatoes and roasted peanuts with a tadka of mustard seeds, hing, turmeric, cumin seeds, fresh green chilies, and kadipatta (or curry leaves). It is a popular snack that is also sold in local restaurants and food stalls. In home recipes people also add other vegetables such as peas and corn to it.
