A revisit to a quick-bites eatery known for it's easy-to-eat to desserts and bizzare dosas forces us to reconsider our presumptions about food
Pav bhaji dosa. Pics/Sneha Kharabe
We always believed that there are two kinds of people: those who like bizarre fare like cheese in a dosa and mayo with their momos, and those who consider it outright blasphemous. So, there’s your average food blogger on Instagram documenting their experiences on buzzing city roads with close-ups of weird eats. These usually feature lots of cheese, sauce or both and are accompanied with a thousand, and often irrelevant, hashtags.
And then, there is the nuanced food writer armed with research-proposal-worthy arguments against food like that. It’s highly probable that the latter has a faux blog called www.numbnutslikepineappleonpizza.in, or something along those lines. And for some reason, we have always associated ourselves with this clan, though perhaps we’d call our secret blog www.nomeatnobiryani.org. And then, a crossover happened.
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Paneer chilli dosa
On a breezy Sunday night, we set out to revisit The Junction, a hole-in-the-wall quick-bites joint in Mahim that we had reviewed in April this year. Close to midnight, the place is still serving patrons, even as delivery boys from three different food-delivery apps wait to collect their orders. The no-frills eatery sports a colourful-but-canteen-like vibe and offers nothing more than two granite slabs as long tables on either side with a few high stools. Outside, the overflowing dustbin indicates they’ve had a good day and as we switch glances between that and the menu, we are forced to wonder, what has caused the hype in the last eight months.
Eager to find out and playing it safe at the same time, we call for the gunpowder dosa (R120) and paneer chilli dosa (R150) — part of their sub-brand called D Rajnikhant Dosa — along with a blueberry cheesecake shake (R143). The thick and creamy shake arrives first, in all its sticky-sweetness that somehow isn’t off-putting and manages to maintain a balance between the dairy-based ingredients and a lingering blueberry flavour when most freakshake joints, that the city is currently teeming with, overdo it.
Maple syrup pancake
Despite our reservations regarding what otherwise sounds like an outrageous dish, the paneer chilli dosa surprises us in more than one way. For one, serving the filling separately and lining the dosa only with a thin spread of the masala proves to be ingenious. After many years of cribbing about them getting soggy, we finally know what to type out in the “special instructions” section of our food delivery app.
The dosas, both in case of the spicy gunpowder and its Marwari-goes-to-Shanghai cousin, is crisp and thin. The latter’s filling is best described as chatpata, a far cry from anything Chinese and yet the mashed paneer cooked in mostly-Indo and very-little-Asian masalas forces us to accede to its tastefulness. Pleased, we call for another dosa that arrives slightly faster, considering it’s just us and our partner they are serving now. While not lacklustre, the pav bhaji dosa (R150) isn’t as exciting as the paneer chilli. We enjoy the dark red and buttery mixture, but conclude that the foreign-return cousin has a bit more funk.
Blueberry cheesecake shake
Lastly, we call for the maple syrup pancake and seeing that it’s served as a set of six soft and bite-sized pieces drizzled with maple syrup and sprinkled with powdered sugar, choose to carry it with us on the ride back. We put a succulent piece in our mouth and it melts, making it the perfect sweet ending to an experimental outing. It’s even a little reminiscent of gulab jamun, making us wonder if pre-soaking them in sugar syrup was an extension of their fusion philosophy. That this was indeed a good meal dawns on us then and we realise, that just like the pancakes and dosas, we too, have passed over to the other side.
On 10 am to 1 am
At Jahangir Baug, Mahim West.
Call 7506360169
The Guide first reviewed The Junction in April 2018. We conduct select, anonymous follow-ups to assess maintenance of standards
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