The news couldn’t have reached us at a better time. We smiled as our taxi halted at the busy Sena Bhavan signal near the Dadar landmark, Aaswad.

The eatery has always given us reason to smile for their Thalipeeth, Poha, Batata-Puri, and of course, the now-globally famous, Misal Pav. But this time, the wide smile was because, last week, a global food website announced the last mentioned dish as the world’s tastiest vegetarian dish at an awards ceremony in London. Finally, a Maharashtrian dish was being feted on a global platform. It called for a celebration, and a day later, we were tucking into the piping-hot spicy melee at the famous restaurant. That the crowds around me were wolfing down their food, oblivious to the recognition, made it even more worthy of its top-class rating, it being a popular hangout among Mumbai’s junta for decades.