Fasting,Feasting

Mohalla to experience the area’s mood and food after Iftar.

Born and brought up in Mazgaon,Amlani’s first memory of this area is linked to cricket. “I would come here ith friends after a match and the winning team would treat the losing team to some delicacies,” he recalls.

We enter Bohri Mohalla,an area still comparatively empty as the diners usually prefer the period between 11pm and 4am to leave their houses. That doesn’t mean that the street isn’t ready for business. Surpassing the scent of attar and henna on the way in,we’re greeted by an amalgamation of smells as we walk past shops offering barah handi. The naans are sold in the shop next door,so one would have to buy the barah handi from one place and the naan from the other. “They take great pride in their food,” he explains about the system. “Everything here is very specialised.”

We finally make our first pit stop at Jilani Fast Food Corner (JFC in short) for some baida roti,which is served piping hot. With the egg mixed with lemon,it’s tough not to fill up on it and head home for the night. But there’s still so much to see,quips Amlani,so we head down to one of his favourite restaurants for a main course of shahi biryani.

“I hope you have the stomach for this,” he warns as we enter. The live kebab counter smells promising. The diners,mostly locals,enjoy their plates of paaya,naan and other Muslim specials. But something about the smell of fresh butchering reminds us of the warning from hardcore fans of the area’s food: “Don’t look at how the food is prepared. Just concentrate on eating.” This advice goes awry soon as we spot cockroaches lounging on our table.

Watching the colour drain from our face,Amlani decides that perhaps it might be best if we headed down to the actual road,which features a different kind of cuisine with more “Sunni influences”.

Cordoned off to traffic,the street is chaotic with tables,chairs and make-shift kitchens set up on the road. “Teetar,bater,” is all we can hear as we catch a glimpse of caged quails set aside steaming tavas of oil. Amlani can’t help but get excited like a little child on a visit to Disneyland.

Having consumed a portion of chhota kebab and lamba pav,we realise what we’ve seen today is just a scratch on the surface of what the area has to offer. “It takes at least four visits to get an idea,” concurs Amlani,as we finally get to talk properly over a pot of phirni at Suleiman Usman Mithaiwalla. As we drive back home,he confesses: “I don’t care about cockroaches. I would pick them out of my food if I had to. But I wouldn’t stop eating here.”