Jumbo Binge

Rashmi Uday Singh’s

Good Food Guide

I wade my way through the sea of squatting hawkers and the tidal waves of commuters pouring in from Dadar station. The night air implodes with screaming coloured lights. It is here that a revolution is quietly but briskly taking place. The quintessential symbol of the streets of Mumbai, is being blast-chilled, cooked in stainless steel utensils with gloved hands and being branded. In short the ‘Vada Pav’ is becoming ‘Jumbo King.’ I am fascinated as I bite into the explosion of the crisp hot and spicy flavours of the vada which snuggles between the soft enveloping blandness of the pav, and soaks in some of the flavour, but not quite.

And guess who is the first person I want to share the good news with? Deepak Parekh, the jetsetting chairman of the pioneering H.D.F.C loves Mumbai’s permanent passion ‘the vada pav.’ He enjoys it everywhere, be it the hot vada from his favourite ‘vada-pav walla’ below his Nariman Point office, to those in the dusty highway stopovers in Khopoli and Panvel. And now it’s ‘Jumbo King’ time.

Purists, are you shuddering at the thought of ‘vada pav’ going hygienic? Good news follows. This one passes the taste test (Vijay Choudhri, the flower seller, Pravin Parab, the peon prefer it to the one at the street side. So does the well-known cookery teacher Rano Kamalbir Singh, “Mouthwateringly excellent,” says ‘vada-pav’ buff Esther Daswani and the final stamp of approval is from Deepak Parekh). Jumbo King’s owners (Rita and Dheeraj Gupta), have impeccable pedigree. Their grandfather was in the ‘vada pav’ business, they are MBAs but still own 12 non-branded ‘vada pav’ station stalls and having set up three years ago, already have 11 outlets, with plans to set up 75.

Go to any of the, tiny, bright yellow tiled stores (with yellow-capped workers) and check out the classic ‘vada pav’ (Rs 6) the cheese ‘vada pav’ (Rs 11) even the samosa pav (Rs 11 ) and chase it down with a lassi (Rs 11) or a cold drink. Finally, how about a ‘diet Jumbo King’? Made of brown bread instead of the normal maida-bread, this is their latest offering. Not to be missed.

FOODLINE

Today's column is in response to a few of the readers asking for inexpensive places to eat in. It is also written to keep you networked to the foodie pulse of the people. Do call or email me with your feedback. Do keep calling and do keep smiling. tel.: 22161313 and email: foodline@rashmiudaysingh.com.