Last week I went to India - my first full trip there in four and a half years. 'Full' meaning the trip encompassed more than just Mumbai and was built on a reason beyond just a late-year mileage run. Granted, the low cost of the ticket, booked first in March 2020, right after the pandemci started, contributed to me dealing with 15 hours of masked flying (twice). So was allure of going back, visiting family, some of whom had it far worse as int hte past 12 months India went through multiple waves of lockdowns, some so brutal that had daily curfews put at 4pm in Mumbai for a few months. That was setting the stage. It most certainyl wouldn't be a normal trip.
I'll start with Mumbai primarily because it wasn't as 'new'. I had done short trips, work related, to Mumbai in 2018 and 2019. In the case of Mumbai the differences were stark in that it still isn't normal. Stuff shuts by midnight with an unofficial, but official, daily curfew there. The day I landed my cousin and i went out around 11:15 to Leopold Cafe - one of the sites attacked in the 2008 attacks - and it was nearly empty. In time I would learn this had more to do with it being during Diwali, but still, it was a sight.
Mumbai itself was in good form - hot but dry, somewhat livable with a cool breeze coming from the water in Colaba. I spent my three or so days in Mumbai repeating a series of things I had done in the past, only this time masked. I'll give India credit on this, the locals are quite good on wearing masks. Now, most wear it below the nose, but it was a high rate of people wearing masks walking around outside, despite the heat and humidity.
Restaurants in Mumbai remained good as ever. I went to some of my old staples, from Mahesh Lunch Homes, with its great Mangalorean (my ancestral hometown) food. They have this great 'special' curry which is one dish with one red and one white curry, both a bit sweet.
The next day I went to Bandra, a more 'modern' (not really, just more green) district of Mumbai. There houses some of my favorite restaurants in India, one being Candie's which is a lunch spot that serves amazing meat puffs and pastries (along with other food). and then O Pedro, which is a modern Goan restaurant opened by the late, great Floyd Cardoz.
Floyd Cardoz is an Indian masterchef (he literally won a season of Top Chef Masters) he tragically passed away very early in the COVID pandemic. His legacy lives on in both India and New York, and O Pedro was the first of two of his restaurants I went to. The dishes there are modern, but with classical Goan details - such as a Goan Sausage taco (incredible), lightly dusted fried fish, and chicken chili fry (the most 'traditional' of the dishes). O Pedro was excellent - our dinner at The Bombay Canteen, when of his other places, the next night was even better.
Bombay Canteen is in Parel, an area that perfectly encapsulates modern Mumbai, posh shopping malls with five star hotels and restarants built out of an area of the city still mostly poor. In this mix is The Bombay Canteen, which once again had 'modern' Indian food. The best dish, honestly one of the better things I've had in a long time, was the 'Tandoori Bone Marrow', which was charred bone marrow covered in some spices with a standard green chutney and tamarind dipping sauces.
Mumbai's nightlife was a bit muted, again with all places closing by midnight, but what it still has is the sense of a massive city, a real city, with neighborhoods and high-rises and a life blood that while is so differnet than most third wold cities, let alone first wold ones, but still makes sense.
Conversely, Bangalore doesn't make sense, but it is home to people I love and at various points within its ridiculously outsized urban sprawl (think Houston, but one without even the small true 'downtown' that Houston has). What Bangalore does has, to a maddeningly curious degree, is breweries. This brewery trend is not new - I wrote a post six and a half years ago after my Feb, 2015, trip ranking my favorites at the time. What is new is the audacious standard they all live up to now.
We went to two breweries in my time in Bangalore, a city that lifted its 10pm lockdown literally two days before I arrived. My Aunt and Uncle (should say, young enouhg that they forced me years ago to call me by their first name) were eagerly awaiting for an excuse to go out, and they used it to take me to two of them. They could have picked any two, there are dozens. Literally dozens. He chose first The Bier Library and then Brahma Brew Werks, both were great more around the setting than the beer.
Not to say the beer is bad. the quality of hte beer isn't good, but it is both improved and well more varied (including Gose's and Porter's and things like that) over the years. What's really staggering about these places is the size and their popularity. Both of the two we went two are huge, multi level, open layour, places that even in covid times can sit hundreds of people. The ifrst we went to was on a Sunday Night and was packed when we got there around 9:30 and still somewhat crowded when we left around 12:15 (their last call). I have no idea how sustainable this is, but what is really clear is these places are more for their crowd, their ambience, their popularity. I asked my Uncle if there were cocktail bars, speakeasy's, these tpyes of places. He said no, though a lot of people come to the breweries but have cocktails. I think at some point the drink options will get more varied, but for now beer rules Bangalore.
What also rules Bangalore is good weather (though it's been a relatively wet year)- as it was a calm 65-75 every day. It also has good food, if not as prominent as the restaurants in Mumbai. Great South Indian food - my daily dosa breakfast was a delight to return to for the first time in five years. It's also a surprisngly green cities in areas - and maybe its still a by-product of COVID, but I found the traffic and urban maw of Bangalore far more reasonable to deal with this time around. Maybe time away makes the heart grow fonder.
I mentioned at the top I made quick pit stops to Mumbai in 2018 and 2019, and while I'm usually against repeating trips (Cape Town excluded), I do wonder if this weekly sojourn to my homeland can't be a more frequent occurrence. There's a ceratin charm in India, and a certain modernity once you look past some of the dirt and look for the beauty.
