Mumbai Food: Friendship on toast

Neethi Isaac and Anushree Kapoor. Pic/Ashish Raje. Location courtesy/Salt Water Cafe

In addition to being her headhunter, her colleague, her former neighbour and her current bestie, Neethi Isaac is also Anushree Kapoor's barista. "I'm a tea person - I can have at least eight cups of tea in the day - but I can only have her filter coffee," says Kapoor. Isaac and Kapoor met in Bengaluru in 2010, when they were both burning the midnight oil at the design agency, Brand Union, led by Ray + Keshavan. Today, they both work at Open Strategy & Design in Mumbai, where Isaac, 32, is senior brand partner, and Kapoor, 34, is creative director. Isaac claims to "make the perfect south Indian filter coffee" and says, "There is no place in Mumbai that makes good filter coffee. I've tried a few times and burnt my fingers. [So, it's] my house or nothing." She takes it so seriously that she says laughingly, "I have a Pantone reference for my coffee. If it doesn't match Pantone 740C, I don't consume it."

Over the last two years, the duo has been meeting every Saturday morning with the aim of finding "the best eggs Benedict in Bandra," their present neighbourhood. Kapoor says, "Our thing was to try one new place every time, but we used to fall in love with the place." For instance, Isaac says, "We liked El Mercado so much that we went there three weeks in a row. It doesn't have the best food, but you have a really good experience. The lady who started it was a fashion designer, and she put her business on hold to start El Mercado. When people start talking about passion, you can feel the love in the food. And that really makes a huge difference." As people who eat with their eyes first, they also started an Instagram account called Bombay Breakfast Project, with its own sunny-side-up logo. "The whole documenting started because I'm a mad Instagram person," says Isaac. "I document everything no matter how irrelevant it is." Kapoor adds, "I'm the graphic designer, but she takes much better pictures. She captures the smell of the food."

Spinach shakshuka at LPQ; Granola chunks at Salt Water Caf; A doppio espresso at Soho House Mumbai. Pic/Ashish Raje

We join them at one of their regular haunts, Salt Water Cafe, where they order without really looking at the menu: homemade granola chunks, eggs florentine, bacon pancake, Earl Grey tea and two shots of Kalledevarapura espresso on ice with cold milk and sugar syrup. "You'll be surprised by how much we eat," says Isaac. Kapoor moved to the city in 2016, and Isaac in 2017. "She helped me find my flat and before we knew it, we were neighbours," says Isaac. "So, Saturday mornings became our way of [catching up]. It's so funny, you can live in the same building and just not see each other 'coz your lives get so busy." The first place they picnicked was La Folie Lab in 2017. To this day, they remember what they ate: Isaac had the mushroom omelette; Kapoor had the scramble. "We are crazy foodies. You have no idea," says Kapoor.

While both love to eat, their tastes naturally differ. Isaac says, "Anushree orders the healthiest food on the menu, and I order the cheesiest, baconiest, most extravagant thing. She's more likely to order salad, granola and cereal, and I call myself the cereal offender." Which is why one of her favourite places is Mavs Cakes & Bakes on Waroda Road. "But, you should order her food when you have 10 people coming over. It's great to feed the masses. Her ham and cheese roll-up is a heart attack on toast." Another duo favourite is Prakash Shakahari Upahar Kendra in Dadar. "It is as old school as it gets," says Kapoor. "The people are still in light-blue uniforms. It's just about 17 things on the menu. It's Maharashtrian with items from before the time of Portuguese influences. For example, they have the vada, but not the pav." The breakfast joints they haven't warmed up to, such as Kettle & Keg and Grandmama's Cafe, are labelled "Amul Cheese and Kissan Tomato" places. "Actually, a lot of people love Grandmama's Cafe," says Kapoor. "But, I think that's a food aesthetic, which is not ours. Because Grandmama's kind of breakfast you can easily make at home with very less effort."

The time they spend together has another cherry on the cake. "Enjoying food is a major part of being in the present," says Kapoor. "A lot of people who don't enjoy their food, eat just for the sake of eating. Our breakfasts work in very magical ways. We were discovering Bandra and Mumbai, but I think our conversations became very rich." Isaac says, "Both of us were in a certain phase in our lives when we moved here. We were living in the same city together after eight years, and our lives had taken all sorts of strange twists and turns. We used our breakfast time to go over all that stuff. To actually dig deep and figure out what we plan to do in the future." Kapoor says, "What we feel after that breakfast is like a day well spent." And, Isaac adds, "We feel like we've had a therapy session."

Your morning fix

Salt Water Cafe's omelettes and eggs Benedict
Kapoor's Review: "They get it right every time, which is very hard because in poaching, you can either overdo or under-do it."

The Nutcracker's Turkish eggs and truffle scrambled eggs
Kapoor's Review: "One of their waiters told me, 'Madam, we follow Nigella Lawson's recipe only.'"

Poetry by Love and Cheesecake's eggs blackstone and avocado croissant
Isaac's Review: "We were surprised. It was one of those places you walk in and not expect to have a great breakfast. But it was excellent."

Oye Kiddan's parathas
Kapoor's Review: "They are incredible: very fresh and not very thick."

The Village Shop's kheema pav and potato rosti
Isaac's Review: "[Those dishes] were outstanding. They had a strawberry granola that was really something you'd remember."

Koinonia's espresso, cortado and Vietnamese iced coffee
Isaac's Review: "I go to Koinonia every weekend because I know I will get a coffee that I love."

Cafe Condi has the "freshest crepes and pesto," says Isaac

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates