Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

A laughing matter

We wonder what the joke is that Ananya Pandey and Kartik Aaryan are sharing after their dance rehearsal in Andheri on Saturday. Pic/Satej Shinde

Home away from home

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is Nikhil Chopra's home for nine days this month. And he is ensuring that his selection as an artist-in-residence for the MetLiveArts' 2019-20 season bears a stamp of his practice, which ranges between live art, theatre, painting, photography, sculpture and installations.

Pic courtesy/Chatterjee and Lal

The first day of his residency began at the steps of the iconic museum, following which he navigated the queues to enter the space with his gear. Next, the Mumbai-born artist settled in front of the Egyptian Temple of Dendur, the cotton canvas that he will use for painting also serving as a makeshift dwelling. So, New Yorkers are certainly in for an intriguing visual treat.

Pressing for a record

A global coffee-making competition, the World AeroPress Championship is divided into various chapters. The AeroPress is a coffee maker that was invented in 2005 by American engineer Alan Adler and is hailed for its portability and simplicity. Each season comprises a series of regional and national competitions, run by independent hosts across 60 countries. This culminates in the world championship being held in London.

The championship is a global coffee-making competition. Pic/Atul Kamble

The Mumbai chapter took place over the weekend at Coffee By Di Bella's Peddar Road outlet where baristas were required to prepare and brew their renditions of the jitter juice and present it to a panel of three judges. And it turned out to be a record-breaking event. "The biggest differentiator from any other edition or city was the overwhelming response. We had up to 60 participants - talented baristas giving their all to this competition, more than any other city has seen," Rahul Leekha, director of the coffee chain, told this diarist. With the competition starting at noon, it was a nail-biting fight, where Mahesh, a barista from Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters emerged victorious.

Hitting a 50

The Social Communications Media Department at Breach Candy's Sophia Polytechnic, a top-rated mass communications programme, is celebrating 50 years. And next week, they will organise an evening titled #Changemakers.

It will comprise interactive presentations by 10 influential alumni including actor Richa Chadha, director Reema Kagti and journalist Maya Mirchandani.

"Each alum will give a seven-minute presentation and P Sainath will deliver the keynote address on the challenges for future changemakers," Nirmita Gupta, head of department, told this diarist. This will be followed by the launch of the student book, Lives of Women that has been edited by author Jerry Pinto, who is also a faculty member.

Night-crawling through Byculla

On Friday night, chef Divesh Aswani of Magazine Street Kitchen turned into a food trail leader for Drew Nocente, the lauded chef from Singapore's Salted and Hung, and his demi chef Zueol Lu, as they embarked on a midnight hunt for Mumbai's best seekh kebabs. The search ended at Al Rehmania, a greasy spoon, near JJ flyover. At 1 am, the space was doing brisk business with waiters serving a flurry of preparations.

Perhaps Aswani's guests could have marvelled at these little oddities characteristic of Indian haunts a little longer had the food not blown them away. Your diarist witnessed a Singaporean and an Australian chef mop up seekh kebabs, bheja masala and chicken salli boti with parathas and rotis. The next stop, JJ Jalebi, made for a befitting choice. "The brain [bheja masala] blew my brains," Lu said, while Nocente added, "It was just downright yummy food. I loved how humble the joint was and how every dish was packed with flavours."

The ice on the Alps has melted

After places like Paradise and Kamling, another SoBo favourite has now shuttered. Alps in Colaba, a classic dive bar that has been a favourite among tipplers since 1974, has disappeared from the city's foodscape.

Sources claimed that it will be replaced by Suzette's Kitchen Garden, a swanky health café that's diametrically opposite to what this dive embodied. But the owners of the farm-to-fork establishment remained tight-lipped, saying it was too early to speak about their latest acquisition.

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