This Mumbai Market is the World’s Busiest Street Food Destination

[crowd clamoring]

[food sizzling] [traffic honking]

We're here on Mohammad Ali Road,

the heart of the Muslim community of Mumbai.

I would argue that this is quite possibly

one of the busiest street food streets in the world.

I'm here with Chef Hussain.

Yeah, hello. From Bombay Canteen,

also, himself, a part of the Muslim community.

He knows the street like the back of his hand.

This is also known as Khau Galli,

which literally means food alley.

There's probably 30, 40, 50, a hundred spots on the street,

and he is gonna tell me which ones

are the absolute top ones to hit today.

What do you think? Absolute Legends.

Legends, we're gonna- Legends!

Those are the ones that we're gonna head.

There's a lot of ground that we need to cover.

We'll let our noses guide us.

[people chattering] [car horns honking]

We're at a tawa place and a tawa is this big,

circular black metal cast iron griddle.

[metallic clinking] [Meherwan yelps]

I'm getting maced right now by some of the stuff.

They got multiple meats on the tawa.

Let's find out

what we should be getting. Dude, this is so exciting!

[Meherwan] So it's the classic street assembly line.

You got the guy on the tawa

that's got four different menu items going simultaneously.

Then you got an assembly guy next to him,

that's assembling the orders

using the raw ingredients from the tawa.

He's handling the breads.

[Hussain] Remember the bread I was talking to you about?

Oh, that's right. That's the bread.

Yeah. That sandwich bread,

my dad used to come here to get this after school.

Right. He introduced me to this.

[Hussain and vendors converse in foreign language]

This, which is mixed mutton,

keema and potatoes in one of these breads,

almost like a Sloppy Joe but not really sloppy.

Then we got the bhuna, which is also in a naan sandwich.

Yeah. And then we got something

which is very typical to Bombay.

The baida roti. It's the baida roti.

Yeah. Chicken, that he'll

then put in this, scramble it with the eggs,

fold it over and cook it like Mutabbaq on both sides.

Yeah.

So the tawa probably India's oldest cooking surface.

What the wok is to China, the tawa is to India,

the flames in the middle and essentially he knows

when to move things to the center to heat 'em up,

and then when to move them

to the side when they're done cooking.

So quite often you'll see the cooked products sitting

on the edge of the tawa where it's just resting

and the minute you put an order, he pulls it back in,

heats it up and ready to go.

Tell me what we got here.

Potatoes and lamb keema. Ah.

Inside of the nancha brown. Yeah. Yeah.

Like a potatoey keema basically.

I think, this is the best of both worlds.

It's like carb

on carb and meat. Got it. Yeah.

I'm gonna try that one first.

Yeah, you gonna try that first?

Yeah. Illustrate.

Oh, man. Oh, my God. The beauty of cooking

on the tawa is that you never,

always get everything cooked the same way.

There'll be some charred, crispy parts,

there'll be some parts of green chili that are raw.

Exactly. There'll be some parts

that are semi cooked,

so you get different textures of the same ingredient.

Also, when they're doing a lot

of things together on the tawa,

what ends up happening is there's always some amount

of meat that's leftover from the previous order.

So it features back in your order.

And if it gets a little crispier,

cooks a little more different.

Little more. It's Insane. Perfect bite.

Really good. Fantastic.

This should be just the mutton chop you said, right?

Yeah, yeah.

[Hussain speaks in Hindi] Bhuna means roasted.

Is just a dry roasted mutton.

[Hussain] Sorry to cut you off

but that's where it came from, right from the Tawa.

Bhuna was on the tawa. Oh!

Man, I mean, it's like you have this,

there's no way you're going back to a hamburger

or a Big Mac or I mean, there's just no way.

I mean, this is the OG, right?

Last, Baida Roti. Again,

a very famous- Bombay thing.

It's a Bombay thing? Baida Roti.

Yeah.

It's Bombay's Quintessential late night snack.

I mean, you get hammered what you wanna eat.

Think of this as the pastry, it's just flour, water,

eggs in the pastry.

Take up a lot of chicken.

Yeah. Onions,

chilies, whack it all in a bowl with some eggs.

Whip it up, throw it on that.

So you mix the egg with the chicken?

With the chicken. Got it.

And then pour on there. You pour on that.

Yeah. Give it a quick fold

and slap it on the griddle.

It sounds strange to have egg on the inside,

but it almost acts like a you know what mayonnaise does?

It's a binder and it gives you that mouthfeel that's soft

and creamy and it's eggs.

I mean, who doesn't love a masala omelet?

It's a delicious bite.

Hmm.

That's exceptionally good. That [beeps] great.

So we paid about five bucks for all that food.

I mean, there's no value meal in America

that even comes close to what we just ate today

in terms of flavor, it's really remarkable.

The quality.

The quality of what you can get on the streets compared

to anything back home.

I mean, the reason these places are so crowded is

'cause everybody can afford it.

It is insane back there right now.

The guy's not moving fast enough, the cashier.

And customers are actually threatening him.

Seriously threatening him with violence.

'cause he is not getting the food out fast enough.

I mean, it looks like at any second a riot

is about to break out. [bike honking]

Alright, let's go hit the next spot.

Oh my god, oh my God.

Look at this. Yes.

So there are martin kebabs that are mixed

with a whole bunch of spices, a little bit of bread.

I guess, it'll bind it because when you eat it, you'll know.

Yep, yep, yep. This is a people's dish,

right? Yeah.

And they give you a whole bunch of it.

So it kind of gives you the flavor of meat.

Yeah. It soaks

in the juices off the meat while it's fries,

the bread absorbs it. Right.

And it's just flavor pack

in every bite as you go. It's like popcorn shrimp.

Yeah. Except it's lamb. It's lamb.

Yeah. Yeah.

All the fat pulls in on one side.

These guys shape it right here.

They drop it in there

and then every time he needs to take them out.

But he just pushes them up.

He's got a system, bro. He is got a system.

It's got too much of a fry, right?

It's already cooked lamb.

Whoa! [both exulting]

Baby, baby, baby, all right.

So, each one of these balls is a little bit of mutton

and probably some bread, perhaps some chickpea flour,

A little bunch of spices,

maybe a little cilantro on the inside.

So there's a lot of fennel and little-

Crushed chilies.

Ginger, garlic paste. Oh my God.

But you know the texture, right?

You can get it from the texture

that they- A hundred percent.

It's just a tiny little nugget of heavenly meat.

Here's the crazy part.

This street is so street food

that you can get a street snack

while looking for street food snack.

And that's exactly what this is.

This is a Nihari-o-clock.

We need to get some Nihari.

Where should we go? A hundred percent.

I know a spot down the road from here.

We are here in Nihari express and it traditionally,

you break your fast with Nihari.

Nihar means empty stomach.

Nihari is a meat stew which has been flavored

with the marrow from the bone,

the shank that goes in the Nihari

along with amazing aromatic spices.

Six to seven hours, this pot has been cooking.

There's roughly 250 pounds of Nihari in here

to feed all the people that are gonna be showing up

on the street.

So, it's been wrapped to retain heat.

You notice there's a wet clot ceiling the lid

and the Handi, the base,

and the bricks are weighing it down to make sure

that all the heat, all the steam has been staying inside.

Think of it as a Indian-Dutch oven, if you will.

Just been cooked really low, really slow,

so that the meat is literally falling off the bone.

Oh my God. Oh my God.

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It's still bubbling inside and the smell is heady.

It literally goes to your head.

The shanks have been tied with a string.

That way he can pull the shank out

and get all the bones out of the Nihari.

Look at that. Look at that.

That shank has been simmering in there for seven hours.

Kinda like a beef broth on steroids.

You want to get absolutely all the stock from the bones,

but most importantly,

the marrow from the bones to ooze out into the Nihari.

And when you get your plate of Nihari,

you'll see little bits of marrow floating on it.

I mean, it is one of the most decadent dishes out there.

And yet it's made every day for everybody in the street.

This originally was Food of the Kings.

What we're seeing today is the people's Nihari

and all that fat has floated up to the top,

what they call the Rogan.

So he is gonna take the rogan, the fat,

skim it off the top and separate it

and put it in this bowl over here.

Think of it as God's ghee.

So, now the meat's coming out.

So the meat goes in, then a portion of the gravy,

they've separated some of the marrow out.

This is actually the marrow

from the shank, going on top.

And there you have it.

There's the full order, a bucket, some green chilies,

lime, sliced ginger.

That's a big component of Nihari

is putting the sliced ginger on top

and getting a lot of that ginger.

The authentic way to eat Nihari is with Tandoori roti.

Roti done in the Tandoori oven.

This thing runs at about 900 degrees Fahrenheit.

And these things cook instantly.

Think Indian pizza oven except inverted upside down.

The clay oven is so hot

that the dough instantly sticks to the side

and starts to bubble out.

The top of it is cooking much like a pizza cooks

in a pizza oven, convection heat.

And it's gonna blister and char

and the back of it gets crusty

'cause it's the part that stuck

to the inside of the clay wall.

Takes about a minute to a minute and a half maximum,

and then is gonna peel it off using these long skewers.

So while the technique is similar to making Naan,

what's different, of course this is a roti,

where there's no dairy, flour, water, and a pinch of salt.

It's just an absolute piece of art.

It looks like a pizza.

And on the backside you've got sort of almost a pizza crust.

The crunchy bits. It's perfect texture wise.

The inside, the outside, perfect for dipping,

perfect for mopping.

And traditionally enjoyed far more on the street

than Naan would be.

This is a little mind blowing.

You get led down little sidewalk tuck into a little doorway,

and all of a sudden you're

in this cool air conditioned little cave.

I'm so excited right now. I can't even tell you.

Get some of that mutton, don't hold it back on the button.

Looking for it.

Look at that. Beautiful.

Alright, let's do this.

Get a little bit of that nice fat.

Get a little bit of chili.

Get a little bit of that meat.

Mop up some sauce.

Get that all the flavors in one bite.

You want it,

all of it to hit your mouth at the same time.

Get the full experience.

Get out. Get outta here.

Get out. [Hussain laughs]

It's the marrow. It's the marrow.

It's so creamy.

But then in the background,

all these lovely aromatic floral notes.

Oh my god. Cloves, the cardamom,

the ginger.

It's just one of these incredible perfect bites.

So that's the crusty bit.

And then there is the softer bit.

You leave the crustier bit in here

to just soak while you eat the softer bits.

And then that crustier bit soaks it all up, right?

That's flavor.

That's flavor down right there.

It's gotta be one of the best bites in the city.

Alright, I'm gonna shove this in my face and then wrap it up

and get outta here and see

what else Muhammad Ali Road has in store for us.

[crowd chattering] There's one here.

Woo!

Now we're doing it.

We are doing it, baby. Good. We're doing it right.

We're doing it right. [both speak in Hindi]

It's not just a shock value thing.

It's both a delicacy and it's also a poor man's food.

Every part of the goat was used.

It's creamy, it's delicious.

About a pick of fresh goat brain and chop it up.

What we got going on is onions, garlic paste,

green chilies, all of these sauteed in a little bit of oil.

And once those get a little bit caramelized,

he's gonna move the goat brains in,

which he's doing right now

and start mashing cooking it all together.

This isn't the easiest thing to do.

It's easy to overcook the goat brains.

Now he is adding his Masalas.

So, he's got his masala dabba over here.

He is putting turmeric, Haldi, red chili powder,

Jeera powder, black chili powder,

and cumin powder, coriander powder.

The surface area of the tawa have one big advantage is

how quickly the liquid and cookout

and he get that admired reaction going.

So he's basically making a pan sauce.

[Hussain] Pan sauce. Yeah, exactly.

Scraping the bits of the- Bits of the pan sauce

into it. Yeah.

And you got that concentrated flavor now

without anything burning.

I know the show's about street food,

but I swear to God this is the most street.

I think, I've hit maximum street right now.

Yeah? Yeah.

I've maxed out on the street.

We are on the street. I mean, Jesus Christ.

We're gonna get run overs just sitting here right now.

That's a good way to go.

Eating brains. I mean, I'm excited.

I'm not like, Oh, I gotta eat goat brains.

This is probably gonna be delicious.

And then hit it with some Pyaaz, onions.

A Paav for you, sir. Thank you, kind man.

Paav for me, go and scoop it in here.

I'm gonna make a little Keema Paav

or in this case, a goat brain Paav.

It's like that soft, creamy scramble.

You know, that takes eight minutes to make?

Exactly. It's custody.

Custody.

It's unconscious and custody in the same breath.

Not a hint of [indistinct]

It's absolutely delicious.

I mean, I wouldn't just say to get this

because it's a delicacy.

I'm like, get it because it's delicious.

Yeah. Think silk and tofu,

think a soft scrambled egg.

Essentially this is that same texture,

just with that meaty to Umami that comes with meat.

So if you can get over the fact that it's goat grains,

it actually is a delicious texture that most

of us are quite familiar with, with incredible flavor.

There's masala, there spices, there's onions,

there's cilantro, there's all the full trifecta

of Indian spices.

I think, it's closest to foie gras.

Seared foie gras is- Exactly.

Foie Gras. Foie Gras.

Foie Gras. Foie Gras!

Things have calmed down a little bit just

because the call for prayers just happened.

So everybody's taking a few minutes out to pray.

Okay, I love good milk or dairy center.

I love the way they lit up.

I love the way they're bright and colorful.

They're essentially letting you know that there milk,

the dairy is so pure

and the one that's quite famous here on Muhammad Ali Road

is Noorani Milk center.

One of the specialties here is this Phirni,

which is essentially a rice pudding

that's made in a clay pot.

So it's rice,

milk cooked together

and then set into these clay pots like this.

What ends up happening is that the residue moisture

in the pudding is absorbed by the clay pots.

And it thickens inside- And then it thickens up

and almost sets.

So when you actually eat into it,

it's like, how do I say?

It's almost custody. Yeah. Moist.

Chill.

So this is saffron? That's saffron.

Yeah, I want the Phirni,.

It's broken, slow cooked rice.

It's never- I can see that.

It's never the whole rice. Never the whole rice.

[Hussain speaks in Hindi]

You wanna have another one?

Ah, you can have two.

[beeps] Get the hell outta here.

[Meherwan laughs] Alright.

Big budget. Should I go in?

Yeah. Go for it. Oh, mama.

Right?

It's like the best Kheer I've ever had.

It's like thickened rice pudding.

But the rice is so soft and broken down.

All the moisture's been absorbed by this.

So you've got soft

in the middle and then thicker instead of thicker.

Almost crunchier on the outside.

Yeah.

It says that perfect blend of flavors are being crunchy,

a little bit, and soft and mushy on the inside.

Here's the crazy part.

This is just a clay, Kullhad style.

Little dish that's unglazed.

So essentially when we're done,

we can just throw it on the ground.

The next rain, this thing melts in the mud.

I mean, this is about as biodegradable as it gets.

I mean, this is something you could probably serve

in a Michelin-star restaurant.

A hundred percent. Yeah.

And people will be losing their minds.

It has been an amazing evening on Mohammed Ali Road.

We hit some of the legends,

and still barely scratched the surface

of all the options that are available here.

But what's been the most remarkable

about eating out the street is the quality

of the food that we've had here today.

A hundred percent. This is elevated food,

served incredibly fresh,

incredible flavors, by people that are passionate.

It is where Mumbai comes to eat when they're hungry,

especially if you're a chef Hussain

and one of the most renowned chefs in the city.

If he comes here, it is worth all of us coming here.

Check out our places.

They're legendary.