Eating in India

Disclaimer I’m vegetarian so my food preferences might vary from yours

Its a paradise for vegetarians, if you were ever curious - India is THE country to be vegetarian in. Veganism isn’t as visible from the outside, but most establishments can cook without animal products and offer dishes even if they are grouped under vegetarian (South Indian food is very often vegan if you ask them to leave the Ghee out). India also has more unique food traditions such as Jain food (a strict lacto-vegetarian diet based on the principle of ahimsa (non-violence). It completely excludes meat, fish, eggs, honey, and root vegetables like potatoes, onions, and garlic because harvesting them harms the plant and soil microorganisms).

At a high level, every state in India has its own language, culture and cuisine. As a metropolitan city, you’ll find all of it represented in Mumbai. I’ll abstract and focus on a few here that I associate with and elaborate below:

  • South Indian
  • North Indian
  • Indo-Chinese food

The street food and Irani cafés that Mumbai in particular is famous for are in the Mumbai chapter.

Indian food can be easy to navigate if you learn a few words. DIshes tend to be called quite literally by whats in them.
E.g: Aloo == Potato, Gobi == Cauliflower. A dish with predominantly potato and cauliflower is called Aloo Gobi.

South Indian

Largely represented by rice based dishes and a vast number scrumptious breakfast dishes, each state in the south has its own unique style but you can look for generic “Udupi” restaurants that sell a generic version of it in Mumbai. While I call them breakfast dishes, you can eat them whenever you feel like!

Dishes to try:

  • Idli: Steamed batter made of rice and lentils, eaten with a coconut chutney. This delicious dish is also your best bet if you have a sick tummy or want an easy meal. The steamed nature of it means its usually safe to eat without worry of falling sick!
  • Dosa: Often referred to as a savoury crepe, you get a potato filling and a lentil stew called sambar with it. Probably in the top 3 dishes that I miss the most living abroad (You can find it in many countries now, but I’m from Bangalore and I crave a very particular style of Dosa)!

The menu for south indian breakfasts can be massive, just follow your taste buds. You can easily eat just south indian for a full week and not explore the entirety of the menu.

North Indian

Largely represented by curries and bread-like items, although each state has its own unique take on the mix. More often eaten for lunch or dinner, expect to share the meal - it isn’t too common to order for yourself, instead the table orders together and shares.

Dishes to try:

  • Paneer butter masala + Kulcha: Its paneer cooked in a tomato cashew gravy and a ton of butter, calories galore but it tastes amazing! Kulcha is a different style of bread from naan, try it out!
  • Chole Bature: Its puffed dough with a chickpea curry. My friends and I celebrate a made up holiday every year to eat it(https://cholebature.day/).
  • Biryani: Rice cooked with a ton of spices (People from Hyderabad, don’t hate me for putting biryani as a north indian dish). Try the various variants, they all taste uniquely different and are usually spicy!

Indo-Chinese food

Probably my favorite cuisine of all time! It started off with Chinese immigrants to Bengal, India in the 1800s. Its a fusion of the cuisines and tastes nothing like either. Parts of the cuisine were even invented in Mumbai as late as the 1960s.

Dishes to try:

  • Gobi Manchurian: fried Cauliflower in a chilli tomato gravy, crunchy and perfect as a side dish with some noodles or rice.
  • Chilli Garlic Fried Rice: need i say more?

Water & the one food rule

Water: don’t drink tap water; brushing teeth with it is fine. Restaurants will ask “regular or mineral?” - “regular” is filtered water and fine in proper restaurants; say “Bisleri” (bottled) if you want the sealed option. Many hotels have filtered refill stations - bring a bottle with you.

The rule of thumb: eat things that arrive cooked and hot, or sealed and packaged. That’s it, and it covers most of what goes wrong. The three things it quietly rules out are the ones people forget: ice in drinks, pre-cut fruit from a stall, and raw salads outside of proper restaurants - all three are washed in water you didn’t choose.