Eating Out: Part 1

Days in June and July seem to have a mind of their own. The fact that they bring the monsoons to the South Asian lands probably goes to their head. Which is why, more often than not, you’ll find them in a resplendent sunny mood for a week or so and then all dark and moody in the week thereafter. I mind their mood swings, really. They don’t mind mine and so, I think it’s only fair that I tolerate their yo-yoing behaviour.

It was on one of those days, when the weather had started to plaster a scowl of a downpour on the city, that I happened to find myself in a Jumboking outlet bang opposite Borivali station. It was around 2:00 pm in the afternoon on a sulky Sunday (or Monday perhaps - I’m not quite sure.), the Sun was fast asleep, and the humidity in the air more than made up for the absence of the irritation that an afternoon in Bombay prides itself with.

Jumboking keeps itself away from all the fancies that a condescending queen would long for. It’s a no-nonsense fast-food chain that has peppered the entire city with hassled tired nooks that sell a dandified version of the Bombay vada pau.

Photo credit: Ranjitha Deepesh @ Taste & Flavours on TrendHype / CC BY-NC-ND

Vada pau, for the ones who don’t know what that is, is a ball (vada) of mashed potatoes and chillies squished into a piece of bread (pau). More often than not, dollops of masala (red chilli powder) add to the spice quotient of that vada pau. But neither the searing heat that its masala hammers their tongues with nor the pungency of the dark green chillies the mashed potatoes make merry with comes in the way of the vada pau being Bombay’s favourite fast food. It hasn’t been mine, so I’m told I’m not a typical Bombayiite. Or Mumbaiikar as we are known now - all because a politician thought renaming the city as Mumbai would increase his vote margins (It did!).

Anyhoo, as I was saying, vada pau is not on my list of favourites. I don’t resent it but I am not a die-hard fan of it either. Nor I think are several others too. Which is why Jumboking manages to sell a dolled up version of it and make a profit on the makeup it uses as well. The makeup comprises buns in place of pau and a slice of cheese. All of that gentrifies the taste of the rustic concoction and in doing so, probably lends some modernism to the vada pau. And it’s probably that modernism - that I and the rest who have no opinion about vada paus - is what makes dolled up version convenient enough to buy and munch on.

That afternoon though, I wasn’t overanalyzing my tastes in food. I merely wanted something to eat. Jumboking happened to be the nearest approximation to a place I’d be likely to get anything worthwhile to pass off as lunch; and so, there I was.

Its counter was squeaky clean. It did have hints of it just being cleant - water had left its marks as it dried up from the platform and the platform itself seemed tired and listless about presenting itself to customers to lean upon. Three to four people kept me away from the counter - the queue wasn’t all that long. And the guy taking orders at the counter, for some reason, was in no mood to quicken his pace of interaction.

I am a bit impatient these days. Not that I wasn’t impatient in the days gone by. I was. It’s just that that impatience seems to be on the loose far too much than I would want it to be. Needless to say then, I began to get impatient in that queue as well. But of course, I knew that would not help the proceedings - that had a mind of its own - in any way. So, I did what I do best.

I began to observe the people in the queue.

To be continued...