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MUMBAI: CNNGo.com has announced its top picks for its first annual Mumbai ?Best Eats Awards?. Around 50 restaurants are recognized for their gastronomic excellence across a range of categories reflecting the diversity of cultural and culinary influences that have shaped the city and its food. These include ?Best Indian Chinese?, ?Best Parsi?, ?Best Indian seafood?, ?Best Gujarati thali?, ?Best biryani? and ?Best Goan? and ?Best desi dessert? amongst other exciting categories.
Selected by a panel of five experts from across the local dining scene, each of the 15 categories includes one definitive ?best? selection and two to three honorable mentions. The complete list of Mumbai?s ?Best Eats Awards? is available at http://www.cnngo.com/besteats where quotes, comments and information on each restaurant are included.
The joys of simple meals celebrating fresh ingredients and various culinary traditions in Mumbai were recognized in several categories across all ends of spectrum. These ranged from the exclusive Konkan Caf? (winner in ?Best Indian seafood? category), noted chef Anand Solomon?s labor of love which serves food based on secret recipes gleaned from old ladies all across the Konkan coast to Friends Union Joshi Club (winner in Best Gujarati thali category) a home style eatery in a century old building which in the words of Best Eats judge Vikram Doctor is an ?old-fashioned, simple eating place on the Kalbadevi road where you can still buy monthly meal tickets if you want."
"We are delighted to share with our global readers a list of Mumbai‘s Best Eats. A panel of experts voted for their favorite Mumbai meals and restaurants, ranging from specific street food stalls to gourmet dishes and regional specialties. From chaat to gold leaf chicken, from the best Gujarati thali, to crab, Parsi food and the ubiquitous vada pav, the winners of the CNNGo.com Mumbai Best Eats Awards define the city‘s palate and reflect the special ethnic diversity that makes Mumbai such a fun place to eat." says Sita Wadhwani, CNNGo.com Mumbai City Editor
CNNGo.com?s first annual ?Best Eats Awards? launched across six Asian cities and Mumbai is the sixth city announcing winners following Hong Kong, Tokyo, Shanghai, Bangkok and Singapore.
2010 CNNGo Mumbai Best Eats Awards:
Best Indian Chinese: China Garden
Best crab: Trishna
Best Indian seafood restaurant: Konkan Caf?
Best kebab: Sarvi
Best evening snack: Araam
Best Gujarati thali: Friends Union Joshi Club
Best pav bhaji: Juhu beach food stalls
Best Goan: New Martin Hotel
Best Parsi: Ideal Corner
Best dosa: Madras Caf?
Best biryani: Kakori House
Best chaat/street food: Anil?s outside J B Petit High School, Fort
Best new restaurant: Indian Harvest
Best gourmet meal: Ziya, The Oberoi
Best desi dessert: Soam
Judges of the 2010 CNNGo Mumbai Best Eats Awards:
Kunal Kapoor, ad filmmaker and Mumbai foodie
Ad filmmaker Kunal Kapoor is part of an extended family that is "extremely passionate about films and food." That‘s how he puts it. What he doesn‘t often say is that he‘s actor Shashi Kapoor‘s son, and Raj Kapoor‘s grandson. "Any meeting with a member of our family and you can bet your last dollar the topic of discussion will be food and film," Kapoor says. Over the last 15 years as a director of ads, Kapoor has traveled the world. While he‘s packing, family and friends give him lists of restaurants to try instead of sights to see.
Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal, food blogger
Blogger at A Perfect Bite, gastronomy columnist, "My Mumbai Cookbook" author, food stylist and food consultant -- Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal wears enough hats to put any chef (or writer for that matter) to shame. She also leads cooking classes and food tours in Mumbai, both of which she conducts while running a food consultancy service. She loves to make jams and jellies.
Vikram Doctor, well-known food critic/journalist with Times Group
A journalist with the "Economic Times" in Mumbai, Doctor has specialized in writing on food issues for the past 12 years. His "Economic Times" column, On My Plate, is nothing if not open-minded about food. His experience tasting goats? intestines prepared by his grandmother‘s cook proves it.
Sanjiv Khamgaonkar, CNNGo.com Mumbai contributor/food blogger
Khamgaonkar is a writer, award-winning ad film director and food blogger currently scripting his first Bollywood movie. He compiled Mumbai‘s Best Eats package while photographing and testing the dishes recommended by our expert panel. Khamgaonkar likes to write about small eateries that "put big restaurants to shame." His finds are recorded on his series for CNNGo and his blog, The Writes of Passage.
Shanky, food blogger
Sankarson Banerjee is a self-described "chubby, dedicated foodie who talks far too much for anyone‘s good except when eating." He cycles a lot when off duty from his job as a CIO in the financial sector. Even though most of that pedaling is from eatery to eatery, he doubts the chubby epithet is going away anytime soon. His excellent blog is Lotsafood.
