We tour around a bit more, going up Malabar hill and into the richer districts of Mumbai. At the top of the hill are two parks, the one overlooking the river (which was our destination) is closed for reconstruction, so we go to the park on the opposite side of the road called Sri Pherozeshah Mehta Garden. This garden is actually built atop a huge reservoir, built in the late 1800’s, then expanded in the early 1900’s to hold over 30 million gallons of water. It supplies water for a huge portion of the city and there are many rules about using the park – mostly trying to keep it clean.
The other interesting thing about the park is that there are rules on how to walk on the pathways too – no walking or jogging side by side – you need to be single file. Interesting….
Otherwise, though, the park is beautiful with lovely topiaries, a friendship clock tower…
…and a great view of some of the high-rises in the city – including the most expensive residence in the world – a penthouse condo for $1 Billion.
We walk around a bit and learn that a lot of mixed religion and/or caste couples come here in the evening to be together – particularly under the arbors where they can hide from others. They aren’t allowed to see each other, but have fallen in love anyway and this is the best place to meet to be together.
It’s getting late – it’s well after 2pm and we are all getting hungry – so Michaela asks the guide to take us for lunch. He talks about going to the beach for street food, but says it will be really hot. Then he finally decides to take us to a restaurant where they serve Thaile – a Northern Indian style dish that will give us a taste of a variety of dishes. Sounds good to us. We had wanted meat – restaurants are either all veg or all meat – but turns out this place is all veg. It is actually a series of restaurants in one building with a bakery/cafe out front. I’m still not sure which restaurant we ate in – Relish (the international veg restaurant) or Samaat (the veg restaurant since 1972), but regardless, the meal was amazing.
Thaile is actually the name for the dish/serving tray that you use to eat. Everyone gets a huge tray with little individual bowls. Plus sauces on the side.
You can get a feel for how big it is here in front of Tom.
Then waiters come around and fill up the bowls with different types of curries and foods.
Oh, and bread, all different sorts of naan and Indian bread.
Oh, and more food.
Oh, and then even more food. Seriously it was a cornucopia of food. They just kept coming around filling up your bowls. There were fava beans, eggplant, pumpkin, some sort of white, thin curry stuff (that was my favorite actually), yellow thin curry stuff, and an assortment of various other sauces and spices – oh and a samosa and a phyllo wrapped deep fried potato. Plus buttermilk with oil and pine nuts on top to help with digestion. Ok, so that is disgusting - and Ed and I don’t even try it because Mom just tried it and almost spit it out – so thanks – I’ll keep my bad digestion, thank you!
The guide also suggested we all have mango juice (at an extra cost) because it would help calm down the spices in the food. Ok – we’re game!
We had a blast trying everything (well, with the exception of the buttermilk drink). The most fun though was trying to only eat with our right hand, since that is the traditional way here (because they use their left hand for the bathroom, never their right hand). That is harder than it sounds, let me tell you. We all tried gamely, but halfway through the meal, the boys and I basically gave up and just enjoyed the food with whatever hand. And enjoy those boys did! When Ed and I were stuffed, they were still going strong and loving every second of it, getting two and three refills and loving the spiciest of the dishes best.
The mango juice – which was more like a smoothie than plain juice – so thick we ate it with a spoon was an unqualified hit. Definitely the way to go to counteract the spiciness of the curries. But the buttermilk? Nah, we’ll pass on that. It smelled nasty, looked nasty and when Gram took a big swig of it, I thought she was going to spit it back up. So, passing was the way to go there.
Splitting the bill, the whole thing was incredibly reasonable – only $11 each, and that included paying for the guide’s meal. Excellent experience and meal. Totally great.
No comments:
Post a Comment