Mumbai's Greatest Seafood Hits

Clams, squid, prawns, lobsters, crabs, and fish, rubbed with a spicy red masala or spiked with a green masala or simmered in a thick fragrant coconut gravy: this is what you'll find emanating from kitchens along the Konkan coast of India, stretching from Mumbai to Mangalore to Goa. If you love seafood, help make your Mumbai trip memorable by sampling the best of the local seafood cuisine.

Here's a list of what to look for on menus:

• Prawn gassi: small prawns simmered in a thick, tangy, spicy red coconut gravy
• Prawn curry: thinner than a gassi, also red, with kokum (a sour berry)
• Masala prawns: prawns marinated in garlic and spices and then panfried
• Teesri masala: tiny clams cooked in a dry coconut masala
• Bombay duck bombil: this Mumbai specialty has nothing to do with duck: Bombay duck is actually a type of fish that’s dried out in the open—it’s also extremely pungent and not for everybody. In this dish it's batter-fried with semolina, and is light and flaky
• Surmai, pomfret, and rawas: these three famous, fleshy fish of the region are either marinated and fried, baked in a tandoor, or cooked into a curry
• Masala crab: crab cooked in thick, almost dry, green or red masala
• Neer dosa: a light crumpled soft-rice dosa meant especially for eating with seafood
• Kori roti: a dry, crumbly rice roti
• Appam: a Kerala-style steamed rice cake available in some Konkan joints