Note : This place has been closed following discovery of rotten potatoes inside their kithcen !
I've started realising or unearthing a few things that are advantages of staying in Mumbai. The first advantage that I realised was about I stay in Mumbai, an island. The monumental rain of 26th July 2005 made me a proud resident of this island city. Ok..but whats the advantage ? I'm not alone in the island city with Brooke Shields giggling and swimming with me. But hey, check out my profile, it says I crave for profit and one pop-up on my netscape navigator is saying ''Island prices shooting up; Invest in real estates.'' I've replied to them saying '' I've a little space to sell on this jumbo island where one can find loads of brooke shields on streets of Juhu, Bandra, Mulund and Thane. Ohhh, that brings us to one more advantage that Mumbai offers to me, variety of attractions (Read that make me popping eye-balls) around to make you feel always young.
A few guys from newly found islands of India i.e. Banglore and Kolkata would object to my statements about Mumbai and may claim that equal numbers babes also walk aroudn their cities making pop their eye-balls too. So whats big about Mumbai .... aha...Here I come... Read on
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Kahi saal bad, do bhai mil gaye : Remember ''Deewar''---------------------------------------------------------------------
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These these bhais (not bhains i.e. buffaloes. Bhais is plural of brothers), one from Banglore and the other from Mumbai met to talk to eather other, they were at crossroads.
Banglorewala : Bhai. Kaise ho ?
Mumbaiwala : Bas thik-thak.
Banglorewala : Bhai, tum bade dukhi lag rahe ho. Kya baat hai ?
Mumbaiwala :Dukhi kyun ? Mein tumse sukh hoon.
Banglorewala : Tumse mein sukho hoon. Mere paas Infosys hai, Wipro hai, Charminar
hai .. Narayan Murthy hai, Devegowda hai ... Tumhare paas kya hai ?
Mumbaiwala : Mere pas ... Mere pas ... Tata, Birla aur Ambani hai, SBI hai, RBI hai, ICICI Bank hai, 2-2 stock exchanges hai, Gateway of India hai... aur aur...
Banglorewala : Aur kya hai ?
Mumbaiwala : Mere paas vada-pav hai .... (Lambi khamoshi ... Banglorewala bhai chup-chap nikal gaya ... )
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Mere pyar vada-pav
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Vada-Pav, desi answer to the videshi Burger was initially introduced by Shivsena to provide the unemployed youths of Mumbai as a mean to earn their livelihood and also as cheaper food option. Vada made up of potato filling, coated in besan and then fried is stuffed into a Pav making it an excellent and fitting reply to the videsi burger at an unbelievable low price.
One can find atleast thousands of vada-pav vendors in Mumbai ranging from vada-pav stalls at railway stations to the street-side vada-pav wallas.
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Jai Ho Kunj-Vihar ke vada-pav ki
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Locatedoutside Thane (W) station and exactly opposite the ST depot, this Hotel called Kunj Vihar is always frequented by people from all walks of life. Let it be the college going guys, bus travellers, train travellers or the working people, Kunj Vihar always strikes a chord with them for their jumbo vada-pavs.
Their vada-pavs are popularly sold as Jumbo Vada-pavs owing to the sheer largeness of the pavs and vadas. Every vada-pav wala in Mumbai is known to put a secret ingredient in his vada-pav making its taste absolutely different from the others. And Kunj-Vihar is absolutely no exception to this making their vada-pavs an absolutely a yummy affair.... To add more to spice to this, you are also allowed to have ample quantity of khatta-mitha chatni and fried raw chillies.
Sounds tempting ? Absolutely ! Vada-Pav has been successful since inception for its attribute to cool down my bhukh for some time and if it is a jumbo vada-pav forget ur bhukh for atleast 2 hours. Sold at Rs. 7 now-a-days, this is an absolutely a wonderful food.
Most of the time, we end up eating up the vada-pav while we are standing on the streets with the beggars pushing us around for it... but these guys have also taken care of it by procuring nearby shop so that one can seat and feast on the delicious vada-pav.
I heard someone saying...eeks...this is a junk food and what about the hygiene factor ? .... I say... Hello...aawaj thikse nahi aa rahi hai...mein bad me call karta hoon ! But jokes apart, I've been eating their vada-pavs for the last decade and I'm still alive and kicking and moreover I'm not eating Dabur Chyawanprash ... so coverage aa gaya hai... So forget about that junk tag and goli maro us hygiene factor ko.
Apart from the vada-pav, kunj vihar also sells lassi which also a big draw.
Other maharashtrians delicacies and south indian snacks are also served, but vada-pav remains a strong crowd puller for them.
Some tips on ambience : Dont take ur gurl up here if u r on date. Ab samaz jao ambience ke bare me !
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More on that junk food tag
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The concept of vada-pav wasn't intended to serve the diet conscious people, rather it was meant for the people who are always on the run and want something to satisfy their hunger whole they are on the go. The concept became so popular that the number of vada-pavs sold on the streets of Mumbai have out-numbered the number of burgers sold worldwide ... vada-pav still remains the food for the people on the move and remains the favorite food of Mumbai ...
Bolo Vada-pav ki jai ! Jumbo Jai !
