According to a 2017 survey, it would take 22.7 years to eat at every restaurant in New York City.
After living here for so many years, that comes as no surprise. I am often torn whenever I have family or friends visiting on where to take them to dine. The options are quite literally endless. What makes deciding where to chow down even more difficult is, in New York, you can find cuisine at the level of authenticity that you’d find at night markets in Bangkok, late night eateries in Taipei, trattorias in Rome, patisseries in Paris, and in GupShup’s case, from the heart of Mumbai.
I finally made it to this hip eatery situated conveniently in Manhattan’s Union Square. Union Square is a popular area in New York City. It’s the sever between Manhattan’s business-savvy corporate Midtown/Flatiron District and hip dive-bar and cheap-eats filled Lower East Side/East Village. In Union Square, you can find restaurants of all sorts, but most come with a price tag. Since it is such a popular neighborhood, including: home to NYU and The New School; it is difficult to navigate the area without it leaving a dent on your wallet. For this reason, I don’t spend much time in Union Square, but for a stop at GupShup? It was well worth it.
The menu at GupShup has numerous enticing options: how to choose? Indian cuisine typically does not veer too far off track from traditional, but GupShup has found a way to incorporate modern takes on classic dishes: paneer cheese rolls, Amritsari soft-shell crab, and the innovative butter chicken wings.
The meal started with finely crafted cocktails that incorporated traditional Indian flavors such as Chai Masala, turmeric, and black cardamom. Masala Chai’s history shows it can be created in several different forms, but GupShup gives it a whole new meaning by mixing it into a warm welcoming martini.
Once settling in after a few sips of the inspiring drinks this eatery has to offer, GupShup takes you on a culinary tour around the Indian peninsula. Crabs thrive in cold water, so, based on India’s sweltering climate, it’s an unusual surprise to see crab on a Bombay menu. The most common crab in India, however, is khadi cha kekda, or mud crab. GupShup takes a lesser known ingredient and gives it a spin with a soft-shell crab version, deep fried, tossed in masala powder and speckled with flecks of coconut, quickly transporting you to the coastline of the Indian ocean.
