Street-smart chefs

Street food stalls face many constraints — lack of space, absence of refrigeration and untrained staff being some of them. In fact, the people running these stalls mostly enter the business by accident rather than design. But over the years they develop a passion, as well as the skills, methods and knowhow to serve delicious food under these conditions. DNA tracks a few food stalls in Mumbai that have been around two decades or more to understand what goes into making that plate of roadside savoury.

Lucky’s Sandwich
People come in waves at Lucky’s Sandwich. One moment the stall is awash with people waiting for their orders. Suddenly the crowd ebbs, but this is a mere illusion of respite. Another wave arrives. And so it goes on from 11am to 11pm.

“We use up 50 packets of bread daily. That’s 500 sandwiches,” says Ramesh Mhatre, 47, who has been running the stall for the past 30 years. Between Mhatre and his team, a normal sandwich takes 5 minutes to make, a toast sandwich around 7 minutes and a grilled sandwich 10 minutes.

And all this in a 6 feet by 12 feet area, in the nook of the newly constructed skywalk outside Ville Parle station. So the space has to be used intelligently.

Every counter has its supply of boiled potatoes, cucumber, onion, tomatoes, capsicum, chutney and masala powder. The main supply of vegetables is stocked on one side, where one man is stationed to constantly peel potatoes.

Mhatre set up the stall in the ’80s with an investment of Rs40. “I had failed Std 8 thrice and the principal told me I was too old to continue in the same class. So I started working in a chaat stall. But I was more interested in the sandwich stall next to ours. So when I started out on my own, I decided to make sandwiches,” says Mhatre.

As the stall became popular, a neighbouring shopkeeper suggested that Mhatre visit Snowman’s in Breach Candy. “There I got the idea of making the grilled sandwich and also the importance of providing a parcel sandwich with proper packaging.”

According to Mhatre, the secret to his success is simple — quality and quantity. “I use good quality vegetables,” he says, holding out a ripe tomato, “And the filling is solid. Customers should feel they have got their money’s worth.”

Sharma Chaat Bhandar
Nanag Ram Sharma, 60, is proud that he is a “shaukeen” (connoisseur) and a very demanding customer himself.
Sharma shifted to Mumbai more than 30 years ago to seek a better-paying job than the one he had in Jaipur, on a water works project. He started off as a cleaner in a sweet shop run by a person he knew, but quickly graduated to the chaat counter, picking up the basics of chaat-making from other people who were on “pheris”.

Gradually, he improvised his recipes by listening to his own judgement, as well as that of discerning customers. “For me, the best teachers have been my customers. But I don’t listen to just about anyone. The younger generation only wants sweet things. I listen to old people who have had chaat for many years and can tell the difference in taste. I take feedback from tourists and food connoisseurs who have had chaat in cities like Delhi and Kolkata. I feel proud when people tell me they come to my stall for the taste and not just to fill their stomachs. After all, when you are hungry anything offered to you will taste good.”

The commitment to quality has paid dividends. After his initial stint at the sweet shop, Sharma ran a chaat counter outside Woodland Café. Next he started a counter outside Sahakari Bhandar in Juhu. In 1984, the owner of the newly opened Amrapali Shopping Centre nearby offered him space in his complex, to attract more customers.

Today, scores of cars can be seen parked outside his stall in Juhu Scheme. Since his chaats were so popular, did he ever think of starting a restaurant? “When I started out, opening a restaurant cost Rs30,000, which I didn’t have. By the time my business grew, the cost of opening a shop also went up to Rs30 lakh. Today it takes several crores,” says Sharma.

Arumugam Nadar’s Dosa Stall
Starting a dosa stall was not part of the plan when Arumugam Nadar, 53, arrived in Mumbai, though he did have a background in cooking, having worked in a restaurant in Coimbatore since the age of 12. Nadar intended to join a mill in Mumbai, which he did. But he soon realised that he couldn’t sustain himself with the pay he got from this job alone. So he started the dosa stall right outside Century Mills where he worked. Three years later, he quit the mill to run the stall full-time.

Nadar applied all the lessons he learnt in Coimbatore, including a tradition that involves making a small dosa and keeping it aside for God. “It ensures that business is good,” he says.

That and crispy masala dosas and medu vadas available in the shop. Nadar’s day begins at four in the morning, because he opens his shop by 7am to serve crisp masala dosas, medu vadas and idlis for breakfast. “Most of the stuff is made at home, which is nearby, since there isn’t enough space here at the stall. The dough for dosa, medu vada and idli is made by my wife, while I prepare the sambar and the filling for masala dosa,” he says.

Although all the food he serves is freshly made each day, he does recycle the oil. “We end up using 9 litres of oil per day. I keep replacing the oil every couple of days. But it’s not as if I waste it. The oil can be used for making the filling for masala dosa and other household purposes,” he says.

Nadar’s formula for success is simple: make good dosas and the customers will follow. “There were two other restaurants in the area serving south Indian food, which shut down when the mill closed down. But my stall continues to thrive,” he says
proudly.

“You shouldn’t soak the urad dal too long if you want your medu vadas to be crisp,” offers Nadar as a quick parting tip.