Today afternoon, Neeti and I had to drive down to Churchgate for an appointment with our home mortgage provider.
The meeting was at 3PM. Keeping a sufficient margin, for delays in traffic, we left home at 1PM.
With the kind of randomness the traffic in the city has, unexpectedly we reached Churchgate at 1.45PM.
We needed to kill time, we needed to quench our thirst in the sweltering heat of 37 degrees and we were famished.
Eureka! Just as Archimedes discovered buoyancy in his tub, we figured out that we were headed to Stadium, despite having a choice of other decent eateries around.
Stadium is an Irani café by the side of Churchgate station.
I first visited Stadium way back in 2000. And that was just the beginning. I kept coming back for more and more of their delights.
This was the place that I used to come to enjoy the bun maskas, keema paos, bhurji paos, dhansaks, keema ghotalas, caramel custards, during those good old days when office was at Churchgate! I once forgot my handphone there after a late Sunday afternoon snack. We had reached Annie Besant Road in Worli when I realised what an ass I was to forget my lifeline there. We turned around and drove back to retrieve the gadget, which had been safely kept by the cashier! Thank God for such souls!
The place is quite old, but is airy, with a ceiling that is at least 7-8 metres high, with a large entrance and fairly big windows - that's the closest you can get to dining I.
The tables were small but neatly laid out diagonally with charming green check table cloths covered with a glass sheet.
But change comes, slowly but surely. The green check table cloths were sadly gone! They were all replaced with brown table cloths.
As was customary, we went straight to the point. The order was for pao-bhurjis. Pao is what Mumbaikars call buns - the word is derived from the way the first colonisers of this amazing called the bread way back in 1500s.
The Stadium bhurji, a spicy scrambled egg preparation, with chopped onions, chillies, tomatoes and spices was greasy to the last morsel.
The paos that Stadium serves are soft, flaky and smell fresh, as though they've just been taken out of the clay oven!
We went for it - impatiently tore open the paos into morsels larger than bite-sizes and scooped out the spicy steaming bhurji, going into our salivating mouths! What a sinful nirvana!
To get all the grease settled in our tummies, I went in for a black tea, while Neeti took a lemon soda! Wow, what a meal.
After we were done with our appointment, we headed home. Both of us fell asleep the moment we left HT Parekh Marg. I was just woken up by the driver, as the Bandra Worli Sealink toll plaza was approaching!
The sinful nirvana had done its magic!
