A-Z of Mumbai: I is for Iranian Cafes

Back in May, PJ and I signed up for a Mumbai cycling tour, which resulted in us waking up at 5am to be in South Mumbai at 6:30am for an early Sunday morning cycle. 

South Mumbai is where most of the city's businesses are located. It is also home to some of the most beautiful architecture built during the British years. On any working day, South Mumbai is a driver's (and in this context, a cyclist's) nightmare with congested streets and crawling traffic. But at 6:30am on a Sunday, the roads are peaceful and quiet, making South Mumbai stunning and fascinating. You can almost imagine how gorgeous Mumbai used to be; before the cars, traffic and pollution ruined. 

Anyway, I digressed. This entry is about "I is for Iranian Cafes".

According to Wikipedia, Iranian cafes were originally opened by Persian immigrants to India in the 19th century. Today, Mumbai boasts the largest number of Irani cafes, which are very popular for Irani chai (tea). 

As part of the cycling tour, we were brought to what is supposedly "an Iranian bakery that is at least a hundred years old" - Yazdani Restaurant & Bakery. Tucked into a tiny lane in the Fort Area, we would have completely missed it, if not for the bike tour. 

The exterior of the bakery 

Quirky & somewhat endearing quotes 

Old school everything 

It was head-scratching - pictures of bodybuilders? 

I later found out that Yazdani was actually established in 1951 (making it 51 years old) but the building/place it was housed in was indeed really, really old (early 20th century building). 

This Iranian restaurant started out serving staple Iranian fare but later focused on being a bakery. We had the maksa (butter) pav (pronounced as "pao", which means bun), which is kind of like a toasted white bread bun drowned in Amul butter (a popular local brand) and the chai; both of which are so good that I'm going to make this a "must-go" place for any friend who is visiting Mumbai. :) 

The fantastic brun maska and chai. Ginger biscuits were really not so good though. 

a cup. or two. and maybe three. or four. :)