Alvida Dilli, I will be back

It’s been a week of eating, furlough-ing, and meeting people, apart from Xmas. Today I go back home, leaving with memories of a week spent well. Of lip-smacking food, cold days, freezing nights, foggy roads, warm people and a loving extended family.

I spent a few days as a tourist visiting some not so famous monuments( I did the more famous ones last year) and was once again awed by their grandiose. Its amazing how rich the Mughal emperors were and how much thought they gave to posterity.

I also spent time with friends, meeting people and  attending Xmas celebrations, apart from a trip to the famous Karol bagh to shop for auto parts and Nehru place for electronics,

What I enjoyed the most was the food. From aloo-tikki to seekh kabab, gaajar-ka-halwa to daal makhni, beef curry to jalebis, gol-gappe to cakes, this has been a trip that my tummy will not forget for a long time.

I loved every moment of it and never missed a chance to try something. Eating kachori in Nehru place when visiting the electronic market or driving to the nearest place from home for a fix of gol-gappe, with my wife; The whole trip was focused on food, in one way or another.

So what all did I eat in the last ten days

• ·      Gol-gappe/aaloo tikki: From 4 different places
• ·      Seekh kabab/chicken tikka/shammi kabab: from 4 different places
• ·      Jalebis/ Gaajar-ka-halwa/gulab jamun: from a couple of places, but the one from Chandni chowk was un-forgettable
• ·      Kachodi/Dahi bhalla
• ·      Sweet-potato chaat: Not a big fan
• ·      Dal makhni : I stopped having daal makhni in Mumbai/Pune, it doesn’t make any sense why they can’t make daal makhni like the ones in Delhi.
• ·      Shawarma: Really good ones from a shop called spice junction near IIT
• ·      Cakes: with real rum-soaked dry-fruits, about 5 different types. It’s Christmas you see J
• ·      Beef/chicken/fish curry (the spicy,blood-red one) with tapioca, appam and stew ( for Xmas breakfast) : a-la-MumInLaw

So I wasn’t exaggerating when I said at the start of this trip that the main focus would be food, It has been that way. And like I have said many times before, I have absolutely loved it.

My holiday ends today, it’s back to work now. I am glad for it, too much of a good thing is bad too. J

I have also enjoyed posting on the blog, it’s been rare for me to have time to do it when I am working. 

I am looking forward to enjoying food from other parts of our country and to be able to write about them. Let’s hope I get a chance soon enough.

Dilli 6: iske aage bhi dil hai iske peeche bhi dil hai

After having gone through all the food in the past days, I thought that I should slow down but that lasted for exactly 5 minutes till my wife reminded me of Al-Jawahar.

To recap (this is a very important) Al-Jawahar is where I discovered true mughai food last year. Food that confirmed once and for all that there isn’t any competition to Delhi when it comes to north Indian/Mughlai food. So you can imagine why my thoughts of slowing down vanished at the mention of the name.

We started off with a visit to Safdarjang’s tomb, one of the many tombs that are scattered all over the capital. This isn’t a great example though, so it’s worth a miss unless you have a week and have visited all the other famous ones. Enough, this isn’t a travel blog

Safdarjang's tomb

We also visited the Sisganj-saheb gurudwaara in Chandni chowk, my first in Delhi. You get halwa as prasad here, it’s tasty but seems as if it’s made for diabetics and people suffering from high BP.

Ok, enough background, lets get to the food.

We left the gurudwara to walk to Al-Jawahar which is about a km away. On the way we came across a shop which sells only jalebi and samosa.

He missed the "heavenly"

We bought a plate of their jalebis and to put it in one sentence. “It’s the best jalebi that I have ever eaten”. It was just too good to be true, it was so tasty that I wanted to kiss the cook. I could fall at his feet and marry his daughter if he taught me how to cook it, but sadly I am married already so decided to make sure to let everyone know about it and also to make more trips to Delhi. Yeah, it’s that awesome.

Drool maal!

I tried to find words to explain what it is that makes it so tasty but I can’t find any that is good enough. You bite into it and there is the slight crunch (just perfect) followed by the sweet and then comes the taste overdose, that mellow taste which takes you to sweet heaven. And then realization dawns, this is the best jalebi ever. Sigh! I miss it already.

As per my guide (also called wife) this store has been around for more than a hundred years, Thank you God!

Going back to our earlier destination, Al-Jawahar, which was interrupted by the tasty jalebis. We reached there, all the way discussing the jalebi that we had just consumed. Man! That was tasty. I will stop now, raving about the jalebi.

Jawahar is situated in a by-lane of Chandni chowk, right opposite gate no 1 of Jama masjid. Trip advisory: Club the visit to both

Al-Jawahar is the red board, amidst the hustle-bustle of Chandni Chowk

Anyways, it’s a simple clean restaurant which doesn’t have anything special to show off, except of course what matters, THE FOOD.

We ordered the shammi kabab, mutton/chicken seekh kabab and chicken burra.

Like I said earlier, I love the food at this place and that’s the reason I went again. I was proven right once again.

Shammi kabab

The shammi kabab were like two pillows each containing meat as soft as candy-floss. Can you imagine a shammi kabab as a pillow…no more problem of a midnight snack J . When it came to taste, they need to be given an award for spicing it perfectly, everything as needed but nothing overwhelmes you.  The meat is the hero. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the light crust. So when you bite into it, you are welcomed by that slight crunch before the soft-pillowy-perfectly spice-meat takes over. Perfect! is the word.

Seekh kabab

Coming to the seekh kabab, I had visited another restaurant a day before and had seekh kababs. I had decided then that it would be difficult to beat that but the next day I had this at Jawahar and it beat it hands-down. It was better spiced, more soft and melted-in-the-mouth better.

Chicken burra

I also had chicken burra which is a version of tandoori chicken: A really good one. If it had been ordered on a day when  the kababs were not, I would be going ga-ga over it but once you have the kababs on the plate this pales in comparison, much like Dravid whose 10000 runs in cricket would make him a hero except he played along-with Sachin Tendulkar (who I considered an avatar of God sent to the world to destroy everything that is wrong in cricket).

It’s with a heavy heart that I left the restaurant, promising myself to make this my personal pilgrimage, one to be done at least once a year.

On the way back we had two more plates of the yummy jalebis and I went into a sweet-induced coma. It can happen to anyone who has more than 300 gms of that sinful dessert. I know it’s not really healthy but I am on a gastric adventure anyways J

P.S. : 

The Jalebi-waala is on the road from the gurudwaara to red-fort, on the right-hand side.

Al-Jawahar is in the lane opposite Gate 1 of Jama masjid.

Khan chacha ko salaam

 I got bored of sitting at home yesterday so I got my beautiful wife to take me around Delhi today. The plan was to see Humayun’s tomb and Safdarjung tomb followed by lunch, the venue for which wasn’t decided in the morning.

So we went to see the Mughal emperors resting place and we came out very much impressed. Not only about the scale of things but also for the way it’s maintained by whichever government organization is doing it. Such places are a very rare exception to the rule so it’s always a pleasant surprise.

Worth a trip, most definitely. Enough said, this isn’t a travel blog.

We left the place for Khan market. As told to me by my navigator/ Delhi historian/ guide (also called wife) Khan market was the posh area of Delhi. The kind of place that was visited by the moneyed in Delhi. Frankly the place looks like Manish market in Mumbai (maybe not that bad) and I wasn’t impressed but there were a lot of international brands. Enough said, this isn’t a travel blog.

For lunch we went to a restaurant called Khan chacha which is in the Khan market itself.

You walk in and are greeted by a wall full of reports in the newspapers about the restaurant. Then by another wall full of photos of famous people who have visited them. There were also a lot of certificates from different websites which give such certificates. Good beginning.

The menu is a simple two page affair, not too much to confuse you. We started with Chicken Seekh kabab, Chicken tikka and Tropicana juice.

Both the starters were awesome, the chicken tikka was cooked just right with the edges of the flesh charred just enough to give you that additional texture when chomping on it. The seekh kabab meanwhile was marinated to perfection and then cooked brilliantly to create rolls of flesh that melt in the mouth and leave you wanting for more when the plate is licked clean.

This was followed by chicked seekh roll and chicken biryani. 

The roll wasn’t great. It’s like when Mallika Sherawat wears too many clothes, it just doesn’t feel right. So we did the best thing possible : got rid of the roti and cleaned up the seekh kabab. The chicken biryani was good too, we both loved the fragrant rice and the mellow spicing which made the biryani just perfect but I believe the chicken pieces themselves could have been better (nit-picking here) By this time, my stomach was nearly full so I could be a snob and find such small problems.

All in all, a satisfying meal. It was a tad too expensive by normal Delhi standard but it was a meal fit for Delhi and was better than expected.  I will be going there again whenever I get a chance.

In the night, I lose control

Today was a lazy morning spent talking, reading, sleeping and we left the house in the evening to go to DilliHaat. It’s a place of culture and food, a central location in South Delhi. It’s like all places promoted by the government, artificial and jaded, but then it’s about as close that you can get to re-creating something.

They had a handloom exhibition, where as usual everything was over-priced. We did some window-shopping and then met some friends and spent an evening chatting over momos, sev-puri, kutchi-dabeli, chai and pineapple (organically grown in North-east India)

The food was ok, nothing great, but the conversation was badhiya and it was an evening well spent.

Back home and we needed to go to the chemist nearby for picking up some dispirin. As chance would have it, we saw an aaloo tikki waala on the way. When an opportunity like this comes up it’s difficult to pass it up,  especially when food is main agenda for the trip.

And as I mentioned in my last post, the taste definitely comes from the person who makes it. One look at the guy and my brain did a somersault before I convinced myself that I need to be more adventurous if I am to go ahead with my plan.

So we ordered one, and the guy started at it with gusto. The tikki which was created with love and fried till kingdom come was mashed with utter ferociousness, some papdi added on top, before it was topped with a little bit of imli chutney (bhaiyya meetha kam daalna) and generous amount of dahi and green chutney (bhaiyaa teekha jyaada daalna).

it wasn’t the best aaloo tikki that I have had but there was that mix of sweet and sour which gave an indication of what is to be expected in the days ahead. For that I am glad. And I liked it that I didn’t miss eating the street food on the first day itself…

P.S.:It isn’t street food but I loved the beef that my mum-in-law made for us. Long time since I had it and even longer since I had one that was so tasty.