Stories — Bombay Bhukkad
Bombay Bhukkad

A hungry state of mind

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The stories behind the food. The people, the places, the plates.

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Featured
Alibag white onions — pearly white, no tears
Culture Alibag

The Onion That Doesn't Make You Cry

A GI-tagged crop with a 2,000-year-old story, growing one ferry ride from Mumbai.

6 min read 16 Mar 2026
02
A Mumbai bar story — a specific bar, a cocktail origin story, a bartender profile, a drinking neighbourhood, or a cocktail recipe. Write in Little Little voice: intimate, nocturnal, knows the city after dark. — Colaba, Mumbai
Culture Colaba

The License That Built Bombay's Night

A 1949 Prohibition Act that nobody really enforced. A lounge bar that opened the same year. A cafe that survived eleven bullets. And the small, stubborn rituals of drinking in a city that was never supposed to drink.

7 min read 6 May 2026
03
Investigating how Matunga's iconic, decades-old Udupi restaurants are economically struggling with escalating commercial property taxes and the generational shift in patronage towards modern quick-service restaurants, threatening their unique cultural role as affordable community dining spaces. — Matunga, Mumbai
Culture Matunga

The Dosa That Held the Line for Eighty Years

A coastal town in Karnataka. A famine in 1336. A property tax revision in 2025. And a sixty-rupee filter coffee in Matunga that is doing the work of three generations.

8 min read 5 May 2026
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Investigating how the unique culinary identity of Sion Koliwada, forged by Partition-era Punjabi refugees, is facing an existential economic threat from escalating costs of traditional tandoor charcoal and a generational reluctance among younger descendants to continue the demanding trade, potentially diluting the neighbourhood's legendary tandoori dishes. — Sion Koliwada, Mumbai
Culture Sion Koliwada

The Sardars of Sion and the Price of Charcoal

A neighbourhood built by Partition refugees in 1947. A tandoor that costs Rs 45,000. A bag of black wood that doubled in price. And a generation of sons who would rather work in a bank.

7 min read 4 May 2026
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Investigating how iconic, century-old Irani cafes in the Fort precinct, often housed in heritage-listed buildings, are economically grappling with escalating property taxes and the prohibitive costs of maintaining and restoring their unique colonial-era interiors, thereby threatening their ability to sustain an affordable cultural experience for their loyal, multi-generational clientele. — Fort precinct, Mumbai
Culture Fort precinct

The Cafe That Cannot Afford Its Own Building

A 121-year-old chai stop in Fort. A property tax hike of 15 percent. A restoration quote of 2,200 rupees per square foot. And a bun maska that still costs less than a Metro ticket.

7 min read 4 May 2026
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Investigating how iconic, century-old dairy and sweet establishments like Parsi Dairy Farm on Princess Street are navigating the economic pressures of stricter FSSAI regulations and rising costs of traditional dairy ingredients, impacting their historic product pricing and generational continuity. — Princess Street, Kalbadevi, Mumbai
Culture Princess Street, Kalbadevi

The Dairy That Refused to Add Preservatives

A 108-year-old shop on Princess Street. A regulator finally counting milk vendors. And a kilo of mawa that costs what it costs because someone, somewhere, is still doing the arithmetic by hand.

8 min read 2 May 2026
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A Mumbai bar story — a specific bar, a cocktail origin story, a bartender profile, a drinking neighbourhood, or a cocktail recipe. Write in Little Little voice: intimate, nocturnal, knows the city after dark. — Colaba, Mumbai
Culture Colaba

The Bar Was Always There

A wholesale cooking oil store from 1871. A jukebox from 1950. A cocktail from 1933. Colaba's drinking identity is older than most countries.

7 min read 29 Apr 2026
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Investigating how Matunga's iconic, decades-old Udupi restaurants are preserving their culinary heritage amidst the escalating commercial rents and a generational shift in patron preferences, impacting their long-term economic sustainability. — Matunga, Mumbai
Culture Matunga

The Banana Leaf Is Holding the Line

Matunga's Udupi restaurants survived prohibition, partition, and Pizza Hut. The gas cylinder might be different.

7 min read 27 Apr 2026
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Investigating how the increasing influx of migrant laborers in Dahisar East's expanding residential and commercial zones is fueling a rapid proliferation of regional street food vendors from states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, significantly altering the local culinary landscape and creating new economic competition for established snack stalls. — Dahisar East, Mumbai
Culture Dahisar East

The Radar Moved. The Chaat Followed.

Dahisar East is getting 50,000 new homes. The litti-chokha cart beat the construction crew to the plot.

7 min read 24 Apr 2026
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Investigating how the newly completed stretches of the Coastal Road are reshaping the economic viability and operational models of traditional snack and beverage vendors along Worli Sea Face, forcing them to adapt to new pedestrian flows and customer demographics. — Worli Sea Face, Mumbai
Culture Worli Sea Face

The Promenade Ate the Pavement

A 5.5-kilometre stretch of reclaimed concrete is quietly dismantling a street food economy that nobody planned and everybody used.

8 min read 23 Apr 2026
11
Things to do in Mumbai this weekend — food walks, brunches, pop-ups, live music with food, markets, festivals happening Saturday and Sunday — Mumbai (city-wide), Mumbai
Culture Mumbai (city-wide)

The Weekend Is a City

Mumbai didn't invent the weekend. It just made everyone else's look underfed.

6 min read 23 Apr 2026
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A Mumbai bar story — a specific bar, a cocktail origin story, a bartender profile, a drinking neighbourhood, or a cocktail recipe. Write in Little Little voice: intimate, nocturnal, knows the city after dark. — Mumbai, Mumbai
Culture Mumbai

The Cocktail Didn't Change. The Bartender Did.

Mumbai's bars stopped importing their imagination. Now the drink in your glass tastes like the city that made it.

6 min read 22 Apr 2026
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Investigating how Bhuleshwar's iconic traditional mithai shops are grappling with the dual pressures of soaring dry fruit and dairy costs alongside a significant cultural shift in customer preferences towards modern desserts, threatening their artisanal craft and generational survival. — Bhuleshwar, Mumbai
Culture Bhuleshwar

The Sugar Is Not the Problem

Bhuleshwar's mithai makers have survived famines, partition, and the fall of empires. They may not survive Instagram.

7 min read 22 Apr 2026
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Investigating how the traditional Koli fishing communities of Sassoon Dock are navigating the dual challenges of Mumbai's rapid coastal infrastructure development and changing marine ecosystems, impacting their ancestral fishing practices and the economic viability of the city's oldest fish market. — Sassoon Dock (Colaba), Mumbai
Culture Sassoon Dock (Colaba)

The Dock Was Here Before the City

Sassoon Dock's Koli fishers aren't fighting for a market. They're fighting for the last proof that Mumbai was theirs first.

7 min read 21 Apr 2026
15
The Dough Diaries: How Pizza Conquered India and What India Did Back
Culture Pan-India / Mumbai

The Dough Diaries: How Pizza Conquered India and What India Did Back

A flatbread with 3,000 years of precedent didn't need permission to arrive. It needed translation.

6 min read 18 Apr 2026
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Culture Bandra

The Return Trip

Three chefs walked out of New York kitchens. They ended up in Bandra. The interesting part is why they stayed.

7 min read 15 Apr 2026
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Know your mangoes, a story about diff kinds of mangoes and what information we can give the reader since its time to purchase them — Mumbai-wide, Mumbai
Culture Mumbai-wide

Know Your Mangoes

Forty varieties. Thirteen weeks. One country’s summer.

10 min read 14 Apr 2026
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Culture Mumbai

Asha Bhosle : The Voice that Fed

Asha Bhosle didn't just sing for India. She took its food to the world. 14 restaurants across 5 countries, one secret garam masala nobody was allowed to decode.

7 min read 13 Apr 2026
19
Every Culture Has a Dumpling. India Has Forty.
Culture Mumbai

Every Culture Has a Dumpling. India Has Forty.

Modak, momo, gujiya, kozhukattai, dim sum. A civilisation reveals itself through what it wraps in dough.

7 min read 11 Apr 2026
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Nobody Does It Like the Shettys
Culture King's Circle

Nobody Does It Like the Shettys

How one community from one coastal district fed an entire megacity.

8 min read 7 Apr 2026
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