Blog Archives
Pilgrimage to Bandra
I don’t quite remember which Mumbai friend first introduced me to Pani Puri at Elco Market in Bandra. Whoever you are, I am eternally grateful. Over the past couple of years, as I visited Bombay on my bi-monthly business trips, I would always somehow make time for my pilgrimage to Bandra and Elco Market. Now that I live here, I am trying to limit my pilgrimages to one weekly trip.
I didn’t even know how much I liked pani puri until I tried this dish here. It’s technically street food. Here at Elco, you have a sense of cleanliness (real or imagined). The guy who’s actually dishing out the pani puri wears a clean ,disposable glove – at least on the one hand that dips the puri into the spicy and sweet water to make it whole and complete. And, I heard (but never verified) that they use bottled or filtered water to make the pani. That can be pretty important. But nothing is quite as important as sheer taste!
For the uninformed and uninitiated, Pani Puri consists of taking tiny, crisp puris and dipping each in an equal amount of sweet/tart and spicy water, then handing it quickly over to the customer. Included in the puri will be a small amount of boiled lentil. Said customer then puts the entire water-filled puri in his or her mouth and gulps it down. At Elco, they don’t serve you a plate where you make your own. You stand around the pani puri counter where the pani puri guy makes each masterpiece himself – with just the right amount of sweet and spicy water – for you to wait your turn and just gobble down.
Seshram Serving Up Delicious Pani Puri at Elco Market; Photo by vishalphotography.com
One “plate” of pani puris at Elco consists of six servings or puris. Most people settle for one plate and then branch out to some of the other goodies that are being freshly prepared. Some graduate to maybe two plates and you can sometimes see on their faces that that was more than they had bargained for.
But not moi. If I don’t have three full plates at each visit, then there’s something truly wrong with me. Each tiny puri is power-packed with taste and flavor. It is crisp yet succulent. It is spicy yet sweet. It is minimal yet full. It is simply, food ecstacy. Of course, this is just my humble opinion. You would think I am describing something else altogether! But, I insist that I’m not.
On your next visit to this city, see if you can find some time to make your own pilgrimage to Elco Market at Bandra. It will be worth it. This review shows what other goodies you can find there. And, here at this photo blog is another great picture of the pani puri at Elco (scroll down and you can’t miss it!), in addition to some wonderful and colorful pictures of Mumbai. Enjoy!
Why so Tao?
Let me get the basics out of the way. Like for instance, why this name for my blog? Blogging pros say that it is important to name a blog such that it is “ISM” – Informative, Short and Memorable. I don’t know about the other two, but I do know it does not meet the standards of “S”.
The Tao Concept of Yin and Yang
So, what’s so zen about yin and yang? If you are interested, I found a fabulous post about these concepts that really laid it out in plain and simple English. But, if you are too lazy to make yourself go there, here is the short and sweet version:
Yin and Yang are essentially the nature of change, balanced as two halves of a whole.
Just pause and think about that for awhile. That’s profound. It says that if you don’t taste the bad, you won’t feel the good. That long and short define each other. Night and day, male and female, high and low and the list goes on.
But, let me go back to that first definition:
The nature of change
balanced
As two halves
Of a whole.
All of that, to me, describes the essence of India today. And, here on this blog, it will be India experienced and India lived. It will sometimes be India loved and other times India disliked. And finally it will be India decoded (is that even possible?!) and India described.
So now, is the name Informative and Memorable enough for you?
The Yin and Yang of Life Anywhere 