IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS BOMBAY DUCK
From the Kolis, who have been fishing in the city's waters since much before recorded history, and early settlers such as the Pathare Prabhus, to the people who poured into the developing city in the centuries of British rule and those, like the Sindhis, who found a safe haven here during Partition, this is the first truly comprehensive food history of India's great metropolis. The city's nativists like to champion what they consider original cultures. But originality resides in the Mumbaikar's inventive impulse, a quality encapsulated in the nativist's favourite food, the vada pao: Were it not for the Portuguese, who transported the potato or batata to Bombay, and taught the Goans the art of baking bread, or pao, the vada pao may never have been conceived!