Bombay Chatt - 21st Meet!

What a gorgeous fall day it was. Vaishali hosted our Bombay Chatt Exchange. As we all know Jalpa welcomed a baby girl about 6 weeks ago so we had a special visitor, Mohini Jhoom, this month. MJ was fasting for Navaratri so she only had milk. Vaishali served us baraf gola (snow cones) with a modern twist. Unlike traditional gola’s these were severed in cup which I am sure most of us preferred. I still have very vivid memories of buying these gola’s off a street vendor and enjoying them as a child. They would have different flavors and although I cannot remember what specific flavors I had enjoyed, I just remember enjoying them. 

We had Jalpa’s Channa Dal next. She served it just the way you find it in India: in paper cones.  You would find channa dal again sold by street vendors. Nishal recounted a really funny story – she remembers traveling by train in India and these merchants selling the dal to train goers. Even if you didn’t want to have any, the sight and smell of the channa dal tempted you every single time and you would end up buying a pack or in this case a cone full of it! 

We moved on to the Bombay Sandwich that I served cold and hot (grilled). There are many variations of the sandwich and it’s a personal preference as to how to serve it. I remember being in India a couple of years ago when we were shopping for my cousins wedding and enjoying these sandwiches. I remember a couple of days we would purposefully not have a formal lunch because we would want to order these sandwiches; you can partially find these on every street corner.  

We also enjoyed the Pani Puri that Nishal made. What surprised me the most was that she made the pani (water with mint and other ingredients) from scratch. It was so good! I think most people would agree with me that no matter how hard you try you can never get the pani puri like the street vendors in India. Again I remember being in India 10 years ago and telling my cousin I will risk getting sick just to have a serving of pani puri. And so I did. And no, I didn’t get sick. 

And finally we ended the afternoon with Kulfi made by Parul. She somehow found a way to make it where it wasn’t too creamy but savory enough to be called a Kulfi. Yum!

 
Hetal will no longer be attending due to scheduling conflicts.