Umar Pulaowala

At Umar Pulaowala, we are right in the thick of things at Masjid Bunder West. Specifically, we are at Shop No 141 on Saifee Jubilee Street in JB Nagar. This area is always moving. You can hear the carts and the people shouting all day long. We focus mostly on our pulao, which we cook in large batches. The smell of the spices usually fills up the small shop and drifts out onto the street. It is a small space, so we have to be very organized with how we store our rice and meat. There is not much room for sitting down, so a lot of people just take their food to go. We spend most of our time hovering over the big deghs, checking the heat. The heat from the burners makes the shop quite hot, especially in the summer months. We do not use any fancy machinery, just old-fashioned cooking methods that have worked for us for a long time. Saifee Jubilee Street is a crowded place, so deliveries can be a bit of a headache with the narrow lanes. We have been here long enough that we know all the other shopkeepers around us. It is a loud, busy, and tiring job, but it is what we do. We do not put on any acts; we just serve the food and keep the shop running as best as we can every day.