Haley’s Travels: The sights and scents of Mumbai

This is a photo of the Dhobi Ghat Laundry Mat on the outskirts of the Mumbai skyline.

Rehoboth Beach restaurateur Matt Haley is visiting children at an orphanage he supports in Nepal, exploring the Himalayan culture and cuisine, traveling throughout India and then on to Europe, and reporting on an occasional basis.  His reports are presented here to expand our own perspective on other parts of the world and cuisines that may eventually find their way into the local restaurant scene. All of the photographs are by Matt or members of his traveling group.

Mumbai-Bombay
October 2010

I arrive in Bombay and am immediately stopped at immigration for traveling in and out of India within a two-month period. It takes a while but is taken care of.

My friend Ashit Patel (brother of Tushar from Dover) has come to pick me up. We head into town and I am amazed at the amount of people, the skyline and the ease at which things move. There are close to 20 million people here and you would not know it because things flow so smoothly.

I have quickly noticed how kind the people are and how quick people are to help. Never holding a hand out. After checking into the Vivanta Hotel, to my surprise Ashit and Rajeev take me on a tour of the path the Mumbai terrorists took on what they call 26/11 which is the date of the Mumbai terrorists’ attack on November 11th a few years ago. I quickly realize it is their 9/11.

From the boatyard village to the Taj to the police station to Leopolds, we walk step for step the  path of that night. It was chilling and interesting and set the tone for the visit, and gave me a quick understanding of how Bombay operates. My friends lost a lot of their friends that night. It was very important for them to show me. I also quickly realized that this was one of the safest cities I have ever been in which was to be proven over the next few days.

Ashit is the Indian version of me. We are in the same business; we dress the same; we are the same age and we are both risk- taking, cutting-edge brothers of older reserved brothers with very similar tastes. When he picked me up we were both wearing jeans, sandals and white button down shirts – my standard outfit for 40 years.

Our first food encounter was at a place called Cafe Mondegar in the Colaba district off the Causeway. It reminded me of a cafe in Paris and we had drinks and chicken sausage with chili sauce. It was a perfect starter for the night. Colaba is bustling at night and I knew I was in for a dining treat.

Water chestnuts at the "Thieves Market."

After a short cab ride through the city at night went to a place called “Gaylords,” a very old classic Indian bistro that again reminded me of being in the Latin Quarter in Paris. Let me say, Bombay to me is a combination of Paris, Chicago and Barcelona.

At Gaylords we dined on fresh kabobs, butter chicken and spicy mutton all accompanied by wonderful flatbreads called Naan & Roti with mango and mint chutneys.

I had to turn in early that night. I was still incredibly tired from Nepal.

I had turned 180 degrees on accommodations from Nepal. Iwas staying in a Taj Hotel now. I felt a little guilty but still took advantage of it. My breakfast the next day after my steam and massage was fresh guava juice, chick pea masala and flat bread.

That day I explored Mid/South Bombay on my own. My favorite place being “Dohbi Ghat” the world’s biggest laundramat. There are over 1,000 laundry workers there. It’s incredible. The clothes that are being washed are so colorful and fresh I just had to do laundry. While waiting I had a shave and a scalp massage which is my favorite thing to do in India. Another favorite is the fact that I had all of this including laundry for $3 U.S.

Saturday night we went to Bade Miyal, a famous street vendor on a back alley street. Only in India can you eat at a table set between two parked cars, three lazy cats and two homeless children sleeping and have a phenomenal meal. Ashit knew the owner so we were treated well, but I noticed it was the same for everyone.

Lamb and Chicken Kabobs, stewed lentils, cheese naan and thin roti were on the table. The atmosphere was very fast and fun. This was just an appetizer I was then told.

Bade Miyal Street kabobs.

After a short tour in a taxi through central Bombay and viewing the most expensive house ever built – one billion dollars – we ended up in the red-light district called “The Cages.” This was interesting and another part of seeing the good with the bad. I had told Ashit not to show me the good if he can’t show me the bad. This is a basic practice for me wherever I travel. So it was.

The “Cages” is where men go to exercise their needs. I appreciate the fact that 95 percent of the women in India stay sexually inactive till marriage. I could easily look at this as something to judge but I chose to look at it in an interesting way and understand the system. Something I certainly can’t change by commenting on.

I will say that I was surprised when we stopped. Ashit and Rajeev got out of the taxi and signaled to me to come along and I thought: “I don’t think this is going to work for me.” Right when I finished that thought we crossed the street and walked into the busiest restaurant I have ever seen! “Jaffer Bai’s Darbar Deli.” Glad that we were not on the other side of the street, I started to notice the amount of people in and outside of this place at 12:30 at night. The take-away line had three people working computers and another line down the street. The favorite was the “Arab chicken in butter sauce” and the roti which was so thin you could see through it.

We spent the next few days traveling around and researching restaurants and the styles of various food service businesses. All doing real well I thought. Once again I had no idea Bombay was on such a roll in the food scene. Another thing that’s true is they say “Bombay doesn’t sleep at night.” This is more than true. Not just clubbers, families too, just having good fun.

On one of the last nights, we spent the evening with Ashit’s friend Chitra, a beautiful woman who has been in Mumbai for her whole life. She was very elegant and laid back at the same time. She also had the coolest apartment (flat) I’ve seen. Decorated in a Indo-British look, it had to have been extremely thought out. It had some of the finest artwork and antiques of their time I had ever seen.

Ashit had his restaurant cater the meal. One of his businesses is a Chinese restaurant chain called Mr. Chows. Chinese is huge here. The table was full of our Chinese favorites back home, but done impeccably well with an extra touch of freshness. It reminded me a lot of Confucius in Rehoboth Beach.

The next day (the last in Bombay/Mumbai) we went to Ashit and Rahul’s new venture. A three- acre restaurant/event property in north Bombay two weeks before opening and toured the facility which was astounding. While we were there they booked a wedding party for 1,000. After touring the kitchen, which reminded me of Rehoboth Beach Country Club,  we sat down for a 25- course tasting of the menu.

The menu was lamb galouti, sheek kabob, chicken wrapped in foil, mutton organ gosh, butter chicken, creamed corn spinach and pander cheese, black lentil dal, garlic chicken kabob, matka chicken and fabulous desserts: chikki kulfi and gulab jamunan, a frozen sweet milk with praline and a reduced sweet milk bread in almond syrup.

Later that night we visited the Royal Cricket Club of India (RCCI). It was old and tasteful. Members only! I felt like I was walking into old Yankee stadium by myself at night and being catered to by the elite staff of India.

After leaving RCCI I met up with my friends from 60 kph motorcycle club to discuss my motorcycle ride south through Goa. 60kph is a motorcycle club in Bombay started by Gaurav Jani and friends. Meeting with Miliand and Dipesh was a treat. I have promised to return for a ride with them but for now they put me on my way to Goa with an adventurous itinerary.

Next stop: Goa

Talk to you then.  Matt

Ashit Patel in his new restaurant in North Bombay.

Tags: Matt Haley, Mumbai