Bhel puri is a cheap and delicious street food, ubiquitous in Mumbai and in other parts of India. It is a hodgepodge of different ingredients tossed together—puffed rice and fried sev or vermicelli, mixed in with small pieces of boiled potato and chutneys, and topped with onion and cilantro. The sweet-and-tangy date chutney, combined with the spicy green chutney is an explosion of flavor in the mouth when mixed with the rest of the savory ingredients.

But bhel puri is more than a beloved snack. It also serves as a metaphor for the city of Mumbai because it is a medley of diverse ingredients that come together to form a delicious mix. Mumbai is India’s financial and cultural capital, a multiethnic city that attracts strivers from across the nation, a genuine melting pot of different religions and castes and cultures and languages. Bhel puri is its signature dish, a reflection of the city itself because the Maximum City is itself the bhel puri of Indian cities.