Brains in Bombay

After a month of easy village living in the South of India, we took a break from the yoga routine and went up for a wild weekend in Bombay (Mumbai). There we ran into our friends in the Smirnoff Ten, and checked out a new music club called Blue Frog. In the club's brochure, the chef claims to be knowledgeable about "obscure meats" but we didn't see any on the menu.



We were told that lamb brains were on menus all over the city, so after a long walk among the grand colonial buildings of Colaba, we stepped into an Iranian restaurant north of Victoria Terminal, called, simply, "Iran Like Restaurant," with Pepsi/7UP as a sign sponsor. Sure enough, fried lamb brains was listed as a special.



The manager recommended the brain masala fry with a side of roti bread, and an order of sweet chai to wash it down with. Everything was matter-of-fact, and I didn't attract stares or smiles as a foreigner ordering something "weird", as often happens in China.

The lamb brains were soft and delicate like silken tofu, and soaked up the curry sauce perfectly. They were white in color, unlike the pink pig brains we ate before. We haven't been fond of animal brains thus far, but we really liked these, and even ordered them again a few days later. The soft smooth texture and neutral flavor compliment the spicy masala.



Iran Like Restaurant
69/73, Palton Road, Opp. J.J. School of Arts
Besides New Haj House, Mumbai 400001

Devil's Picnic

Just finished reading the book "The Devil's Picnic" by Taras Grescoe. The author travels the world in search of illicit and illegal food and drink. He enters Singapore with a bag full of outlawed chewing gum, he hunts down real moonshine absinthe in Switzerland, and chews coca leaves in Bolivia. The book has a solid examination of the history of prohibition, and how some current laws work in some societies, but not in others. It's all a fun read, at least until the last chapter, on legal euthanasia, which is downright disturbing.



There's also some weird meat in there -- hunting for criadillas (bull's balls) in Barcelona, in an EU-regulated Spain, and how to smuggle stinky raw milk cheeses into North America. Does the European Union mean no more weird meat in future Europe? What do you think about the EU's regulations on food and beverage? Comment below...