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Best of 2024


Of the many meals in Mumbai and from my travels around the world, these were my favourite new discoveries last year. There were of course many others that we revisited from past years but I always like to sum up what the new aha moments of the year were. So here goes, the top new flavours of 2024:

1. The Swiss Rosti: As a vegetarian, food during my Switzerland summer trip largely comprised cheese and potatoes. The best thing that the Swiss folks do with a potato is a crisp potato cake called the rosti. I had several variations of these during my 10-day trip, topped with variations of cheese, tomato and vegetables. But none were better than this plain rosti at Cafe August in Zurich. The open air seating in the Swiss sunshine and their homemade gelato is an added bonus.

2. Apple Pie Latte: Zermatt was my favourite city in Switzerland. I instantly fell in love with the car free town with its boutique spa resorts and michelin star bistros. My absolute favourite though was Cafe Petit Royal on the main street, pretty close to the train station. I love making a meal of sandwiches and coffee confections; this particular coffee was the best I had this year with notes of caramel and nuts. They make a mean white chocolate too!

3. Poke Bowl: 2024 was the year I fell in love with poke bowls. A good poke bowl has so many different flavours intermingling, it's like a party in your mouth. This particular one was in the tiny Austrian town of Feldkirch. It might have been specially delicious, coming as I was from a week of Switzerland's cheesy food. We landed at Magma Cafe for a late lunch and ended up with this delightful tofu poke bowl, full of rice and vegetables and a lovely tangy dressing.

4. Guacamole Hummus: The secret to the creamiest hummus might be an avocado. This one was at Somewhere, a modern middle eastern cafe in the sprawling Dubai Mall. Nothing's easy to find in the largest mall in the world but Somewhere's variety of hummus with thin, crisp dipping bread is worth the hunt.

5. Ice cream night at Masque: For one night in September, Bombay's top rated restaurant Masque replaced its tables with dessert carts. They were celebrating Masque's birthday in style with my favourite pastry chef, Vinesh Johny flying in from Bangalore to create 8 special desserts. They were some crazy concoctions with cheese and truffle and even beef in the mix. My favourite was this soft serve cocktail: craft gin turned into ice cream in a special softie machine made for the night.

6. Benne Dosa: Benne was the biggest opening of the year. It's a standing room only dosa place, with literally 2 tables and it gets queues around the block even today, months after it opened. The secret is fresh made benne dosas, the thick Bangalore style dosas laced with butter. I also love their freshly fried medu vadas.

7. Tofu Katsu Curry: Bandra has many tiny nooks serving great food. Benne's standing-room only is extreme, but most others make do with 2-4 tables or bar stools. It's competitive, which means that only the best survive. One Japanese place that's standing strong is Tamari where you can get a great ramen. Or an awesome katsu curry. I won't recommend their okonomiyaki though.

8. Jam and Custard Donuts: I've technically had donuts at Toast Donut Shop before. But those were big brioche donuts at their now shut Worli cafe. The new Toast on Bandra's 16th Road (yes, the same road as Benne and Tamari and many others) is where I first tried the mini eggless donuts, a vast improvement in my view. The original - jam and custard - is my favourite though many folks prefer their chocolate and honeycomb.

9. Palak Paneer Quiche: This is a bit of a cheat entry since (i) it's not new and (ii) it's no longer available. But given that it was pretty much the best thing I ate all year, I had to put it on the list. When subko first opened, I quickly became of fan of this puff pastry quiche filled with creamy spinach and paneer. But they would always run out of it so you had to be very lucky to get one. Subko's now expanded and their menu items are pretty much always available, unlike those early days. Except they took this particular quiche off the menu. It came back, just for one day, when Subko did a birthday celebration putting all past favourites on the menu. This particular quiche was likely the best version I ever had, coming hot straight out of the oven.

That's a wrap for 2024 then! Here's wishing you encounter many many delicious new flavours in 2025.

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