Navigate your way through Mumbai on a budget – Street Food

Imagine you land in Mumbai for the first time and you have, let’s just say, INR 100 to taste Mumbai’s yummy food. What are you left with? What are your choices?

You still have a lot of choices, believe me. Yes, this expensive to live in Metro offers you a plethora of options to eat. With INR 100 per meal, you’ll never go on a hungry stomach – the city has to offer for everyone and every pocket.

Vada Pav

The Indian burger. The humble man’s sustenance. As this ranges from INR 8 to INR 15 per serving. They are sold all over Mumbai. Every nook and cranny. These deep fried batter dumplings with potato filling are made at an alarming rate at any vada pav centre. Served with dry garlic chutney and/or wet coriander chutney inside a pav. To fill you up, you can have atleast two of these.

Misal Pav

How can I not make a mention of this dish in this post? Misal Pav is a whole meal in itself. The steamed lentil gravy base, add chopped onion and garnish with farsan topped with chopped coriander – Voila! Have it hot with Pav.

Veg Sandwich

Come across a sandwich-walla, don’t be alarmed to see the number of variations that he can serve you. Be it sada sandwich (plain sandwich) or the more exotic mexican veg sandwich; these sandwich-wallas are mighty creative. Do not be shocked to see Nutella and peanut butter banana sandwiches the next time you visit.

Price: Starts from INR 20 for a Plain Vegetable Sandwich that is loaded with cut vegetable slices like boiled potato, beetroot, onion, cucumber and tomato between two liberally buttered and chutney added white bread slices.

Momos

Perhaps you’ll not find this everywhere in Mumbai like the humble vada pao. But some khao gullies (food streets) do have this. Steaming hot dumplings, either with veg filling or non-veg filling must be eaten hot.

Price: Starts from INR 60 for 6 pieces of momos.

Masala Dosa

Being south Indian, this dish does not have an instant appeal to me.

Of all the Udipi restaurants that throng the city, there are some that are still true to their roots and serve only south Indian fare. So if you happen to stop by Matunga suburb, close to the railway station is Hotel Ramashray – a must visit to get your idli – dosa fix.

If you’re in for a more fun variation of this dosa, head to Ghatkopar’s Khau Galli and watch the dosa guys in amazement as they create variations in an assembly line. From Chinese dosa to Chocolate dosa, you’ll get it all here.

Frankie

Frankie – another name for a roll, is popular thanks to Tibbs. I would recommend having it only at Churchgate station, one of the flagship store of Tibbs. Enjoy this roll made of maida (all purpose-flour) with a stuffing (potato for vegetarians, chicken/mutton gravy for the non-vegetarians).

Price: Starts from INR 60 for one roll.

This post is a part of a series of posts on Mumbai on a budget.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.