On hindsight, it seems unpardonable that we lived in Cox Town for over a couple of years and didn’t really explore the Mosque Road – MM Road area, especially during Ramadan. But that story is more than half a dozen years old and the entire experience is way more mainstream now. In fact, such was the hype this year, that I became more or less convinced that TOI would do a brand takeover next year! Before time ran out, we had to visit, even if it meant traveling from Koramangala on a week day.
Due diligence was done across the web for must-eat items. Â We reached there by around 8 and found two organised ‘food courts’ in addition to the various stalls on the roadside. First on the list was Patthar ka Ghost, which had its share of chewy pieces but otherwise turned out to be quite splendid. While they were getting us plates, we managed to eat kheema samosas, which turned out to be delicious! Both of these were from the eatery smack between the food courts. Another item on the list of must-try items was the Bheja Puff, which we tried inside the first ‘food court’. This was only average, specially because it wasn’t really hot. So we quickly focused attention on the ‘camel meat’, arguably the biggest star in the list. This turned out to be more like mutton in terms of texture, and we wondered…..
Given that most of the items on the list had been checked, we decided to switch to crazy consumption mode. The rolls in the first food court turned out to be just average, but that “chick on a stick” (first image below) was fantastic. (and reasonably heavy) It has a layer of egg and a tangy masala within, and I’d rate it among the best dishes I had there. All of this was washed down with Arabian grape juice. We then moved on to the second food court, (moving in the direction towards MM road) which was slightly larger, but with a similar set of options. More mutton and beef was consumed, the former in the form of kababs and the latter in muti coloured versions! 🙂 Before we proceeded to the final course, the haleem had to be sampled, and the centre stall in the second food court actually had quite a decent version.
Desserts are slightly non-intuitive in this context, and we had actually consumed a Khova Naan much earlier in the game. Unfortunately, not the famous Albert Bakery version, and was only just about ok. We went back to the stall between the food courts because we’d spotted quite a few options there. The Shahi Tukda was up first, and though reasonably good, was totally beaten by the fantastic Phirni, and the superb Banoffee Pie. Actually the ‘pie’ was replaced by a plastic cup, but it still tasted great!
We more or less crawled towards our respective cars, and this was not just because of the crowd! We were a group of 8, and at about Rs.350 per head had a feast that would have us burping well into the next day. This is obviously not fine dining and you have to earn (nudge – push – get irritated and shove) your way through equally fanatic carnivores to the food you want to consume, but it is oh-so worth it. You have 2 more days, go for it! 🙂