Chowpatty Kulfi and Matka Falooda Stalls

Girgaum Chowpatty is the short crescent of sand where the northern end of Marine Drive runs into the old neighbourhoods of Girgaum, and for generations its best-known draw has not been the sea at all but the row of food stalls that wakes up behind it each evening.

• Tucked among the griddles and chaat counters is a quieter speciality: the kulfi and matka falooda carts, where squat earthen pots sit buried to their necks in a slush of crushed ice and coarse salt.
• The salt pulls the temperature of the ice below freezing and the unglazed clay holds that cold; between them they set the kulfi slowly and without churning, which is exactly what gives it the dense, close-grained bite that sets it apart from whipped ice cream.
• Kulfi begins with milk simmered down for a long time until it thickens, darkens a shade and picks up a faintly caramelised note.
• It is then sweetened, often scented with cardamom or saffron, and frozen in moulds or in the matka itself.
• The Chowpatty standard is malai, plain and milky, served alongside pista and badam, and when the season turns, sitaphal made with custard apple pulp in the months after the monsoon and mango through the hot weather.
• Vendors knock the block out of its mould, slice it onto a steel plate or leave it on the stick, and the result is unapologetically rich for very little money.
• Falooda is the other half of the ritual, and the reason many people come at all.
• Fine vermicelli, soaked basil seeds, rose syrup and chilled milk are layered in a tall glass, then crowned with a slab of kulfi and a scatter of chopped nuts, so that each spoon carries something cold, something chewy and something perfumed.
• Come at dusk, when the light over the bay is at its best and the sands begin to fill; stalls generally open in the late afternoon and trade well into the night, busiest at weekends and on festival evenings.
• Carry small notes, pick a stall with brisk turnover, and treat the beach as a place to walk rather than to swim, because the water here is not clean.
• Kulfi and falooda are dairy sweets and are normally free of egg and alcohol, but preparations differ from cart to cart, so it is worth a quick word with the vendor if you avoid egg or gelatine.
• The same stall row also turns out pav bhaji, bhelpuri, pani puri, ragda pattice and grilled sandwiches; most of these counters work to a vegetarian menu, yet a few neighbouring carts add egg dishes, so read the board and confirm before you order rather than assuming the whole line is pure-veg.
• Inland, the lanes of Girgaum, Kalbadevi and Charni Road hold long-established Gujarati and Marwari thali houses and Udupi-style coffee shops, many of them run as pure-veg kitchens, though it is always worth asking at the door before you sit down.