Call off the celebrations: I’m back.

I was not expecting to be gone this long from the blog when I announced a hiatus in January. My father had just passed away at the end of December and I had come back to Minnesota physically and mentally exhausted. And then the ICE assault on our state began. Even though we were not as badly affected in our town as people were in the Twin Cities, we were not insulated from it. With a low hum of worry at all times—especially for our boys—sitting down to blog in detail about whisky and food was not high on my list of priorities. Especially as I was also teaching and preparing for a 10-week off-campus program in the spring. By the time things eased in Minnesota I was off on that program and that kept me busy (and exhausted) through the first half of June. Through it all I kept meaning to get back to the blog but I couldn’t get the energy together. But I’ve been back now for 10 days and—the World Cup notwithstanding—am trying to get back into my old routines. And so, I’m back.

Now I was not blogging in the first half of the year but that doesn’t mean we weren’t eating out at all. And I also already had a large backlog of unreported-on meals eaten in 2025—a couple from Kyoto, a number from Delhi, a bunch from Los Angeles, and even a couple from New York/New Jersey. Heaped on that pile, from January and February of this year I have some unreported on meals from the Twin Cities. And then from March, April and the first half of June I have a lot of unreported-on meals from Bombay and Seoul (where my off-campus program was based in April and May respectively) and some more from Delhi (in March before the program started) and then from Hokkaido (where we took a week’s holiday after the program ended. It is my ambition to get each and every one of these reports done this summer (when we will also begin to eat out again in the Twin Cities).

So what you can expect for the next month or two is this: 3-4 restaurant reports a week. Starting today, I will aim to get the following out each week: a Delhi/Bombay report, a Twin Cities report, a NY/NJ/LA report, and a Japan/Seoul report. Most of these reports will be on the briefer side (exceptions made for some more elaborate meals) with a view towards just getting them all out. Weekly booze reports will start up again in July: I haven’t opened anything new in a long while and want to finish some open bottles before I do.

Alright, let’s get right to it with an account of a meal eaten in Bombay this April. Well, really it’s an account of a meal eaten at two neighbouring restaurants in Bombay in April: I took a few of my students for a seafood thali lunch to Pradeep Gomantak Bhojanalay in Fort and after we finished we crossed the narrow street to Ideal Corner—a Parsi restaurant—and ate some caramel custard for dessert.

As Pradeep Gomantak Bhojanalay’s name indicates, they serve Gomantak or Hindu Goan food (bhojan). Pradeep presumably was the name of the founder. I guess that might not be true; what is true is that the restaurant was founded in 1968 and is now an institution in South Bombay. But it’s not a very large institution. It comprises a small, narrow dining room and a kitchen behind it. It doesn’t take a lot of people to fill it up and there’s no air-conditioning, which is a meaningful thing in Bombay in April. Luckily, we arrived well before the lunch crowd (prime lunch time in India starts well after 1 pm) and got a table for five right away. The ceiling fan was on and it was really not uncomfortable.

What did we get? As you will see from the pictures below, Pradeep is decidedly a thali restaurant. Your primary choice is of fish or seafood to star on a thali (though you can also choose to get meat of one kind or the other). This thali will contain that fish/seafood, usually marinated and fried to a crisp, rice, a bowl of fish curry (without fish in it), a smaller bowl of solkadhi (the Konkani drink made with coconut milk, kokum etc.), a mound of rice, a choice of chapati, bhakri or vade to go with it, and some sliced onions. The smart thing to do is to look at the specials board to see what fish/shellfish they recommend on the day. We did not do this but had a very good meal anyway.

What did we get? I wanted my students to try some iconic Bombay fish and so we got thalis centered on the following: bangda (mackerel), rawas (Indian “salmon”), surmai  (king mackerel), bombil (Bombay duck) and mandeli (anchovies). To round out the thalis I also ordered a side of usal (sprouted beans cooked a la dal) for us to share. And because I can never get enough solkadhi when I am in Bombay, I got an extra, larger glass for myself. We all picked bhakris to go with the rice.

The food came out very quickly and I am very glad to tell you that it was excellent. You don’t come to a place like Pradeep for baroque frills or new advances in the culinary arts. You come for high quality fish, perfectly marinated and fried, and tasty curry and rice. And that’s just what we got. Everyone was very happy with their fish. My rawas—which turned out to be on the specials board, which I only noticed later—was very good indeed but I thought the best of the lot might have been the mandeli. The usal was good as well but not competing with the fish for attention.

After eating and paying a paltry amount (a fair bit less than $20 for the five of us; make sure to bring cash), we walked over to Ideal Corner. This is, by comparison, a far snazzier restaurant—which is not to say that it is air conditioned either—but we were not there very long. The menu comprises many of the greatest hits of the Parsi repertoire but we were there for just the caramel custard. This was of a very high quality and we were all satisfied (and paid just above $5 for the five of us). I highly recommend this meal+dessert combo across the two restaurants.

For a look at both places and what we ate there, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see what’s coming next.

My next meal report will be of a high-end meal eaten in the Twin Cities in January: dinner at Alma in Minneapolis. I might get that out as soon as tomorrow. Next week’s India report will probably be from Delhi. Let’s see how it goes.