Ever since I can remember, I have been surrounded by books, of all shapes and sizes, on almost everything under the sun. My father was an addicted ‘bookoholic’ and had steadily built up an extensive personal mini library at home. Right from my childhood, he inculcated in me an immense love for books and introduced me to this magical world of rich words and even richer thoughts.

And when UpperCrust beckoned me to do a whirlwind tour of the food and wine sections of four of South Mumbai’s most select bookstores, I set forth with great zest and zeal.

While seeking out the culinary delights hidden behind racks, shelves and even some revolving stands, I was literally spellbound by the infinite variety on offer. So, gourmets and gourmands, and even the curious folks, do join me on this ‘armchair tour’ and discover new nuances about this subject.

STRAND BOOKSTALL
My first stop was the legendary Strand Bookstall on P.M. Road,started by the indefatigable and obsessively devoted T.N. Shanbhag at the good old Strand Cinema lobby in Colaba decades ago. Today, it is a landmark for all booklovers and is open from 10 to 8.

The cookery section is tucked away in a cosy nook on the first floor which itself resembles a homely loft. There is a rather largish rack with several shelves crammed with over 500 titles. What is amazing is how the world of food and drink has evolved from a generic form of writing into one with select specialties. I found here, apart from the wider categories like Indian, Chinese, Thai, Pan Asian, Mediterranean and Continental cooking, an excellent collection of Parsi cookery books by at least five well-known women authors, and recipes from royal households.

Rather different are new contributions on health foods and healing foods, subdivided by ‘kitchen doctors’, attracting those readers with individual problems like diabetes, high cholesterol, cancer, or others seeking low-carb diets and even ayurvedic solutions to better eating.

Then came another interesting observation: What with the rat race and severe time constraints, several clever writers have churned out slim booklets with ‘easy and quick recipes’ for the working couple, with the time span ranging from a mere
two to just over five minutes. How’s that for smartness!

Other titles include a tome titled What to Eat and What Not to Eat by two doctors from Delhi, the late Thangam Phillips’s Modern Cooking which is still on the stands in its sixth reprint. For wine aficionados, there is an excellent book on Malt Whiskey by Michael Jackson and another, The World of the Bartender by Kathy Hamlin. Wines of the World by Stuart Walker was also an excellent find. However, it sadly accounts for just a mere line on Indian wine, only mentioning the lesser known Omar Khayyam.... I looked in vain but could not find Shatbi Basu’s excellent cocktail creations.

The staff at Strand was as usual most courteous and the ever helpful store manager P. M. Shenvi assured me on departure that if any particular title was not on the racks, he would procure it within days.

CROSSWORD
My next stop was the very spacious Crossword on Hughes Road. It is open from 10 to 9, and provides plenty of private space, so you can immerse yourself in a book of your choice.

The cookery section has several racks all neatly categorized. And undoubtedly, the queen bee lording it all, is none other than Tarla Dalal, with more than eight large shelves spilling over with her prolific abundance of recipe books. Works of other popular Indian chefs/gourmets such as Sanjeev Kapoor, Nita Mehta and Jiggs Kalra also feature here. I also spotted a few copies by Madhur Jaffrey, Ismail Merchant, Karen Anand and Asha Khatau.

On inquiry I was told that next to Indian cuisine, there was a high demand for books on Chinese food, especially the BBC publications by Ken Horn, followed by an increasing interest in Italian cuisine.

Crossword has a special section earmarked for healthy eating and one of the more unusual titles seen here is the Fertility and Pregnancy Cookbook.

Store manager Manoj Jeswani or any of his affable colleagues can be approached if you are looking for anything specific.

NALANDA
My third halt was at Nalanda in the Taj Mahal Hotel, which was started over three decades ago by the erudite and suave R.V. Pandit. It is the faithful haunt of old customers and attracts several guests from the hotel as well, what with an attentive store manager like Gopi Nair.The timings here are the most flexible of all bookstores covered; the doors open at 8 a.m. and shut at midnight. While space is once again a constraint, Nalanda does have a very interesting cookery section.

Besides the usual stack of general books
on Indian cuisine, there is quite an enticing selection on regional cuisines from Goa and Bengal, but surprisingly nothing from Maharashtra’s rich and varied regions like Kolhapur, Konkan, or even Peshwari cuisine.

I would like to list four very interesting ‘new’ finds: a beautifully-illustrated book, The Encyclopedia of Food by Christine Ingram,
the absolutely marvellous Kitchen Miracles that has 500 recipes consisting of just ‘three ingredients only’, The Dance of Spices by Laxmi Hiremath of USA, and guess what — 64 ways of preparing Goan Fenny Cocktails by Francesco Gracias, now into its fifth reprint.

OXFORD BOOKSTORE
Not yet quite satiated with my cookbook search, I next wandered into the cheerful and expansive Oxford Bookstore at Dinshaw
Vatcha Road, sitting right next to KC and HR colleges. Here, the peppy Remma Almeida took me under her wing, and with a comfy stool to rest my weary limbs, I started browsing through Oxford’s rather largish collection of 400-plus titles on food. Here too, the three bestsellers mentioned earlier were right on top of the list.

Once again, I will dwell on some terrific new finds. I found
Silverdale Books’ Great Chilli Cookbook and Great Garlic Cookbook very absorbing. Then, Southwater Publications has a set of seven well-illustrated books on peppers, tomatoes, lemons, honey, apples, coriander and mustard. It even has
entire books devoted solely to potato- and onion-based recipes.
The Complete Wine Tasting Kit was displayed very tantalizingly on a separate counter. But the book that stole my heart was The Appetizer Atlas by Arthur Meyer and Jon M. Vann that dwelled on the tempting world of tiny bites. I am sorely tempted to
go back and add it to my personal collection of over a hundred books on food and drink from across 165 corners of the world.

So by now, thoroughly soaked in this heady atmosphere of unimaginable sublime food and drink possibilities, rather reluctantly, I retreated from these vicarious pleasures (seen more in the nature of a Shackabacks’s feast) and headed home, though body, mind and stomach longed to reach out for the delicacies of the Zodiac Grill.