Walking Versova, eating Japan

Mumbais first big encounter with Japanese cuisine came in 2001 when Wasabi by Morimoto opened at Apollo Bunderrsquos Taj Mahal Palace Hotel Now the cuisine is spilling onto the cityrsquos streetsLast week Instagram made a small cart in Versova called Ramen Bowl famous Since then Gagan Rai and his partner who prefers to call himself by his first name Micky have been enjoying the fruits of virality They open shop at 7 pm and run out of supplies in 15 hoursGagan Rai and Micky assemble fresh ramen bowls every evening in Versova and run out in 15 hoursSo when and why did a Chinese street food stall start serving noddlebroth ramen Rai says he heard about the instant ramen craze and how vendors were cooking and serving a variety of flavours of instant Korean noodles on the streets He thought why not cook a Japanesestyle ramen bowl from scratch and serve it fresh In May this year he began serving hot bowls of the Japanese noodle dish that some say is in fact of Chinese origin and brought to Japan in the late 19th century by Chinese immigrants Rai however replaced the traditional ramen noodles with hakka noodles to keep the price lowRai hails from Darjeeling and was a sous chef at Wok Express now shuttered where he learnt how to cook Chinese In 2018 he quit and set up a stall of streetstyle Chinese at Mira Road Later he moved to Versova but the pandemic followed For quite some time Rai was out of work ldquoI simply want to serve fresh and hygienic food Instead of instant noodles they can now eat fresh hot ramenrsquorsquo he saysPatrons queue up for ramen bowl in Versova out of curiosity and because the stall has gained virality on social media PicsShadab KhanRairsquos popularity in the neighbourhood has grown thanks to word of mouth A man of few words he credits his virality to his customers too ldquoThey helped merdquo he tells middayIn Kandivalirsquos Mahavir Nagar this delicious Japanese inquisition began a little earlier In November 2023 Varun Mehta founder of VDrsquos 91 Sushi House set up his stall Mehta was already serving shawarma subs and pasta out of carts in the locality He opened a separate stall just for sushi after he developed a taste for itA few shops away is the fivemonthold JusTaberu Cofounders Krunal Parmar and Meet Sarvaiya decided to bring sushi and ramen to the streets when they noticed that the khau gullies were missing Asian food As our street stalls begin to roll sushi and simmer broths for ramen they are making Japanrsquos food more affordable and easier for anyone to accessKOKO launched in 2016 at a time when there were very few restaurants in the premium casual space serving sushiBut our ties with Japanese culture are older In 1993 Ramayana The Legend of Prince Rama an anime version of the epic was coproduced by India and Japan It was dubbed in Hindi and brought to our television screens and kids across India would wait for every episode Later Shinchan Doraemon and Pokemon became big hits and were Indianised for regionspecific audiences Indians are now consuming more anime than ever before not just on OTT platforms but also on big screens When the anime Demon Slayer released its first theatrical film in 2020 Demon Slayer Mugen Train a Changeorg petition received over 47000 signatures This motivated PVR Cinemas to bring the film to the big screen by August 2021Japanrsquos culture though first came to India through trade and Buddhism In 1907 a Japanese cemetery called Nipponjin Bochi was built in Worli where the graves of Japanese businessmen and their geishas still stand Itrsquos perhaps the only one of its kind in India In the same neighbourhood right across Poddar Hospital you will find Nipponzan Myohoji a Japanese Buddhist temple built in 1956 A 13thcentury Japanese monk Maha Bodhisattva Nicherin made a prophecy stating that humanityrsquos ultimate salvation lay in India and that Buddhism would spread to the rest of the world from hereVarun Mehta Rahul Punjabi and Keenan ThamEventually the time for Japanrsquos culinary traditions to seep into India came in the 2000s And at first quite like Chinese food it came to posh hotels ldquoWasabi was and still is the gold standard for the cuisine in the city When it opened it was for the uberrich Sometime in the 2010s Kofuku in Bandra and SanQi now shuttered at the Four Season Hotel opened But it was still quite expensive to eat Japanese By around 2014 panAsian restaurants were becoming popular People were asking for Thai curries and satay and Khowsuey was having a momentrdquo says Chef Mitesh Rangras head chef at Tango Tamari Juhursquos Nikkei Japanese restaurant It was only after panAsian restaurants became popular that dedicated Japanese restaurants began to open Keenan Tham managing director and cofounder of Pebble Street Hospitality says ldquoWe launched KOKO in 2016 At the time there were very few products in the premium casual space serving sushi most in the 5star hotels We decided to take the plunge and add Japanese to our menu The response was fantastic and over the years the supply chain has improved allowing us to make more ingredients and dishes available on our menurdquoNow that both millennials and GenZ are fans of Japanese anime and Korean pop songs they are seeking cultures through food and travel According to the Japan National Tourism Organisation in March 2024 Japan saw over three million foreign visitors in a single month with recordbreaking tourists from India and the US among other countries ldquoFood is a big part of Japanese culture If you watch any anime food plays a big role I have been influenced by it since I was a kidrdquo says Chef Lakhan Jethani partner and head chef at Mizu Izakaya a casual Japanese restaurant in Bandra He adds that as more Indians travel to Japan ldquothey seek a small part of Japan once they return Then there is part of the population thatrsquos aspirational about travelling to Japan Thatrsquos where this boom of patrons took placerdquoChef Lakhan JethaniThatrsquos why this transition of Japanese food from gourmet to gully is only natural says Chef Rangras ldquoChinese food became big thanks to restaurants like Kemps Cornerrsquos China Garden Eventually more regionspecific and techniquedriven Chinese restaurants were launched Parallelly the cuisine grew on Indiarsquos streets and we heavily Indianised it Same with Japanese Itrsquos the logical progression for any cuisinerdquoMost vegetables and grains used at Mizu are locally sourced but ingredients crucial to Japanese cuisine still have to be imported making it capital intensiveIt was this thought that Mehta held on to too ldquoI love Japanese food and have tried it at many restaurants But itrsquos not affordable to eat regularlyrdquo he says Mehta first tried making sushi at home as hersquos admittedly a bit of a chef and has tried to enter competitions including MasterChef India He wanted to bring sushi with highquality ingredients to the streets for the middle class who would probably never visit a Japanese restaurant ldquoMy suppliers are the same as any of these bigger restaurants We serve sushi with wasabi fermented pink ginger and soy sauce And we make sushi with blue pea ricerdquo he says Mehta adds that it took him a couple of tries to get it right but he was most surprised to find that one of his staff a young man from Uttar Pradesh was aware of sushi and even had tips on how tight to roll it during trials Mehta says that selling sushi has been quite successful for him And that most customers who are unaware of what the dish is order it out of curiosityVDrsquos 91 Sushi House was one of the first to start serving sushi at the Mahavir Nagar khau galli and has found success among curious eatersOn the other hand Parmar says that educating some customers has been a challenge ldquoMy audience is anyone aged 18 to 50 Of course the younger generations know what sushi and ramen are but we have to educate the older audience They are clueless about the seaweed wrapper and think itrsquos nonvegetarian because it smells like the seardquo he says To make the sushi more adaptable to the Indian palate Parmar serves a California roll with paneer R300 The mayo has been Indianised and primarily added to mask the smell of seaweed For the ramen broth JusTaberu uses miso and vegetables that are common locally too But he also adds paneer as the protein source as he only serves vegetarian and Jain options It took six months of trials for Parmar and his cofounder Sarvaiya who is a trained chef to finalise the menu and to ensure that costs were lowThe stall offers sushi rolled with blue pea rice mayo and tempura crumbs giving street food eaters all the flavours and textures they usually craveRai too says that a lot of people have only heard of ramen but donrsquot know what it tastes like As they are curious to try they find themselves lining up for some at his stall Apart from educating patrons about the broth he says that every bowlrsquos assembly too takes up time and causes long queues But he has always been optimistic about his ramen bowls finding success on the streets ldquoJapan sells ramen on the streets so why canrsquot werdquo Krunal Parmar and Meet SarvaiyaIt is this ethos of Japanese food that has been missing in India says Chef Jethani ldquoWhen the Japanese want to celebrate or have an occasion they go to a sushi master Yakitori gyoza and ramen are not finedine food for the Japanese On most days in Japan people eat this on the streets or at izakayas informal Japanese bars So I think itrsquos very cool that we are now seeing ramen carts on our streets toordquo he says Chef Jethani feels that for decades Japanese cuisine has only meant fine dining in India The shift to casual has been gradual and is still underway But the other reason why the cuisine has always been associated as ldquoexpensiverdquo is because it is ldquoThe current trade regulations are such that we have to pay high import duties If I serve tuna sushi I have to use highgrade tuna from Japan which costs a lot to bring in I cannot use local tuna it simply wonrsquot work At Mizu 95 per cent of our vegetables and grains are local But some ingredients that are crucial to the cuisine we have to importrdquoJusTaberu in Kandivali offers vegetarian and Jain sushi and ramen and uses ingredients like paneer asparagus avocado and moreWith every chef we spoke to admitting that authenticity in cuisine is a farce we are now seeing many of them explore their creativity A lot of it comes in the form of how ingredients are used Head chef at Akina Rahul Punjabi says ldquoAuthenticity in food comes in through the techniques and the traditions of cookingrdquo Speaking on how Indian street vendors are Indianising Japanese cuisine he says ldquoIn Japan when you eat Italian or Indian food they use miso and dashi in the sauces and gravies Now we are taking Indian flavours and adapting Itrsquos the natural progression of a cuisine when it enters a country thatrsquos not its ownrdquo He adds that at Akina too they donrsquot use 100 per cent Japanese ingredients ldquoWe are developing a paneer miso and already use a spicy shoyu that is made with Kashmiri chillies for that extra kickrdquoRamen bowls at JusTaberu feature paneer and locally common ingredients The stall owners say this is done to Indianise the dishes for their patrons as well as to keep costs lowBut the streets are already ahead Stalls are using ingredients you once only saw at restaurants Sushi is rolled with ingredients like avocado and asparagus Itrsquos topped with tempura crumbs and comes with gari sweet pink pickled ginger Chicken is breaded fried and served in ramen just like katsu curry And the familiarity of soy sauce gives unaware patrons a nudge to not be afraid Chef Rangras who has tried the sushi stalls in Kandivali and the ramen in Versova says ldquoIt has all the flavours of sushi and the textures you would want in street food vinegary sushi rice seaweed wrapper crispy tempura crumbs and sauces You get soft creamy spicy crispy As for the ramen bowl in Versova he crumbs the chicken Of course itrsquos not panko and he uses hakka noodles but at Rs 190 whorsquos complainingrdquoChef Mitesh Rangras Nikkei Japanese restaurant Tango Tamari