#CMCSnapshots

I truly live to eat. Well I can prove the same by taking you on a food trail which lasted one whole day! Shailaja Shah Photography (First Batch) student shares her experiences of exploring one of the most popular eating places of Mumbai which is the Mithibai College.

PIZZA! FRIES! PASTA! BURGER! BEER! So have I got your attention? Is your mouth salivating already? Delicious food is a weakness of everyone that I know… well at least food is my biggest weakness. According to a survey conducted by Foodporn in 2015, it shows 87.23% people in the world LIVE FOR FOOD and it’s not the other way round. (Who am I kidding? There is no such survey conducted in real life, it’s all in my head. But I’m dead sure about this fact!!)
You must be thinking that why am I talking about food. Well, it’s because I am a dedhshaani. No seriously, out of 15 topics to choose from, me being me, I picked up photo essay! I thought it’s going to be easy but I couldn’t be more wrong. You can say that the stars were not in my favor. After hours and hours of brainstorming I couldn’t come up with a topic. I was stuck. I was getting impatient and frustrated. One thing you should know about me is that I deal with my emotions by eating. Naturally, I was hungry as I had yet to select a topic. In this case I was HANGRY.
I guess God took pity on me and sent the sevpuri wala bhaiya as annadaata for me. After having the first piece of my spicy sevpuri, I had an epiphany! Myeureka moment! It was that moment where I decided that my topic should represent me and there is nothing better than food to do that. Food is my life! I am a hogger, literally. As there is “May the force be with you” my motto is “May the FOOD be with you!” So food became my base. I now had to decide whether I should cook the food or go out and eat. I opted for the second option as I am lazy and also it gave me an opportunity to go have my favorite food.

I’m not a kind of person who’s into sophisticated gourmet food. I like food to be sasta, sundar and tikao, in short, comforting and tasty street food. So along with my partner in crime (my cousin) and my camera (the love of my life) I headed to my go to place i.e. Mithibai college lane. This place has everything to offer, a plethora of food. It has a variety of cuisines, from Indian to Italian. The food there is loaded with flavours and it is budget friendly. I have been frequenting these food stalls since ages and I have never been disappointed. This trip was no exception. The minute we got down of the auto, we were hit by amazing aroma of delicious food and our mouth started watering then and there. The lane was full, in spite of the colleges being closed due to holidays. The number of options of food available to us did confuse us but we didn’t panic and remembered a great advice given to us by our good friend Mr. Dumbledore: “It’s our choices that show us what we truly are far more than our abilities.”

With positivity in our head we went to our first stop: DHEERAJ. This place is famous for its epic vadapav and sandwiches. This place has been around for a long time. They have maintained the taste of the vadapav over the years. So here we were and without giving it a second thought we ordered for a vadapav. The piping hot vadapav was way too appealing. The chutney was made of fresh coriander, mint and chilles. The filling of the vada was made of mashed potatoes and spices. The filling was dipped in the gram flour batter (besan), which was later deep fried in oil. The vadapavwala then applied green chutney on the pav and sprinkled some traditional dried garlic powder on it.

After taking the first bite, I have only two words to say about it: FREAKING DELICIOUS! The Indian burger, Mumbai’s go to food, this vadapav proved why people come here and demand for more. The chutney and the masala in the vada complemented each other perfectly. One just cannot stop after a bite.

After ravishing the vadapav we headed to our next stop: GAYATRI to have sandwiches. This place was packed with people. Orders were being shouted. This place offers a variety of sandwiches, frankies, vadapav and sodas.

We wanted to have everything. But we calmed down and decided to go for a sandwich. Though we were pulled towards grilled cheese sandwich, we opted for a sada veg sandwich as we just had a huge vadapav and also we had other places to go. The sandwich was tasty of course!

The vegetables were fresh and the chutney was a bit spicy for my cousin which led us to our second order i.e. sodas. I opted for blue soda and my cousin went for the classic kalakhatta. This was what we needed in this hot summer. The sodas were totally refreshing and it helped us to cool down.

We took good 15-20 minutes break after having our sandwich. Later on we went to our next stop: ICE AND ROLLS. This place is known for its rolls obviously, but it also offers pastas, pizzas, burgers, sandwiches and more. Everything was calling us but we went for their signature paneer tikka roll. The way the guy made the roll was mesmerizing. The paneer pieces on tava, which were being sautéed, were so soft that we wanted to jump over the counter and start eating also the aroma was heavenly. We just couldn’t wait to dig into our roll. After a lot of self-control and patience, we finally got our roll. Our patience was rewarded as the roll was smashing! The paneer melted in our mouth. The taste was perfect and balanced. Again it was spicy for my cousin’s palette; she gulped down two bottles of strawberry Energee.

Totally satisfied by our experience in ICE AND ROLLS, we went to our next stop: THE VJ CAFÉ. So this place is a new addition to the food heaven in suburbs. This café offers different types of fries! You heard it right; it sells French fries!! From simple fries to chipotle fries. They have it all. As this place is in Parle (aka Gujju area) they offer even Jain fries made of bananas. So basically everyone’s happy. The menu is vast. But almost all fries have one thing common i.e. Cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. For a cheese lover like me, this place was like paradise for me. After a 5 min discussion about what to have, we picked cheese chilli fries. We were in for a treat. Boy oh boy those fries were legen wait for it dary!! LEGENDARY!! Fries were covered in melted cheese, mayo and chilli sauce. What more can one ask for! It was worth every penny.

Though we were full, we went for desserts, as no meal is complete without it. So we headed to our last stop: ICE AND ROLLS again. As I had mentioned earlier that it is known for its rolls, it is also famous for its Ferrero Rocher shake. There was no better way to end our food journey than by having the shake. The shake was mind blowing. It was thick and perfect! If we weren’t filled to the brim we would have surely had another round.

This was it. This was our food binging. Good, tasty and budget friendly food, which brings joy in everyone’s life. The total cost for 2 persons food was Rs.490 (almost 500), which is quite cheap and epic. Though the food was from roadside stalls, it was tasty and hygienic. These items represent me, as they are my comfort food. So, whenever I feel low or happy, I go to these places to hog and find solace in the delicious food. So to end this essay, I would want you to know that if you are planning to go here, don’t forget to give me a call! Till then keep eating and stay happy!