Column

The weekend rant

In recent years, one of the biggest changes in our beloved world class city is the profusion of restaurants offering different cuisines.

In the bad old days, if you were not in the mood for greasy Punjabi masquerading as Mughlai, it was either Indo-Chinese or something approximating Continental. Entire generations grew up thinking Russian salad and sweet corn chicken soup were exotic international dishes. Now the there is an Italian restaurant on every corner and sushi joints opening up by the dozen; and don’t even get me started on Pan-Asian.

The net result is the emergence of food experts; almost everyone is now a connoisseur. With the result that half the city is composed of foodies and the other half of chefs and between them they have everything all sewn up. The chefs not only cook but also talk on television, write in the newspapers and generally hold forth on food, while the foodies nod sagely. Asking questions shows you are a mere novice, a babe in the haute cuisine woods, a yokel in a world of sophisticates.

Since I neither cook nor can claim to be a food maven, I find myself asking questions. And the big question currently occupying my mindspace is—where can I get a decent cheesecake in this city? You may think that in these inflationary times when the world is at the precipice of an oil crisis and the stock market is falling, this would be a trivial matter, but I persist—can someone guide me to a good cheesecake in Mumbai?

My misadventures in this search for the cheesy grail are many, but I will detail only two: at one time I went to a small bistro noted for its deserts and confectioneries. The sweet lady insisted I try her cheesecake. It was a delectable confection, light and supple and airy, but I felt something was missing.

“Are you sure you have put cheese in this,” I asked. She was embarrassed; no, she hadn’t, because her clientele wanted something not too heavy so she had just whipped up what was essentially a soufflé on a biscuit. But she still called it a cheesecake. At another place, the cheesecake, touted as a speciality, was hard and unyielding, finally cracking to dust under some determined assaults by a fork.

Where or where is that soft and silky masterpiece, with the right amount (lots) of cream cheese or ricotta, baked to perfection with a hint of lemon, gently floating over the taste buds while the graham cracker crumbles, sending you towards heaven? The quest
continues.