It is not easy to break in with new trends when it comes to food.
But if any city is ready for that, then it has to be Mumbai. Mumbai is the true melting pot of India with people from every region of India, and now of the world, coming here to carve out their fortunes here. Only a few succeed. For the rest of us the city becomes addictive and, like Hotel California, you can enter but you can’t leave.
A number of trends have worked well here – Lebanese, especially hummus and Paneer Shwarma, Italian, with its vegetarian pastas and Jain pizzas, Gelattos, fat free and vegetarian and deceptively fattening salad bars. And I won’t even write about our garam masala Chinese.
The point I am making is that a number of new food trends have made it here, especially when they are localised. I have mentioned ‘vegetarian’ quite a few times as there are certain communities such as Gujaratis and Jains who are largely moneyed, like to eat out, but eat vegetarian food due to religious reasons. Maharashtrians, the dominant local community, from what I understand from my Maharashtrian friends, have weekly vegetarian days as well as vegetarian periods of the years.
The meat eating charge is led by local Christians and Muslims (no pork), Parsis and us Bengalis. The numbers of the latter two don’t amount to much. There are others who eat meat but not as religiously as the above.
And then there are the anti red meat and cheese fascists with their whites only rhetoric. They play on the heightened sensitivities of our near and dear ones and keeps us limited to white meats and fish.
The objective of this amateur sociological treatise (I did graduate in Sociology but then who payed attention to studies in college?) is to make the point that a concept restaurant called Steak House seems to have a hope in hell in Mumbai. Even when opened in an avante garde locality like Bandra.
Steak House opened a few months back at Pali Naka, Bandra, close to our house. I wish I could have done a review bur even we haven’t gone there. Kainaz likes steaks. I am not too fond of steaks. I like a bit of carbs with my meal rather than just meat. Plus I am not supposed to have a real beefy steak. As far as I am concerned, a fish steak, or a chicken steak, is as ridiculous as a ‘paneer shaslik’ or tandoori mushroom.
I guess I am not the only one and the Steak concept hasn’t worked. I recently noticed that they have added and Chinese to their fare and they have added a ‘Not Juss’ qualifier. It’s sad that their pioneering spirit came to nought. But Ce est la vie.
BTW has anyone been to Steak House? Is it worth a visit? Please let me know.
7/9/09 went there last night. Very avoidable.
