I know it’s a cliché, but it seems like only yesterday that I came to live in Delhi. I will miss my work colleagues who have been very kind to me. I will miss the historical sites of the capital, that I have come to know so well. I will miss the food. I won’t… Continue reading Going home
Category: Food
Blind Tasting
Yesterday, a colleague took me to a restaurant called “Ctaste”, run by blind and visually impaired people in Amsterdam. A recipe for disaster? Not at all. The strapline for Ctaste is “hear, feel, smell, talk, listen, imagine, experience, enjoy”. Diners eat a “surprise meal” completely in the dark. Before eating, we went on a virtual… Continue reading Blind Tasting
Paratha for breakfast
Street food is one of my guilty passions. I passed a young lad working on his food cart in Khanna Market. He worked the prepared wheat flour dough into a saucer shape, then pressed in some spicy cooked potato, sealed it up and rolled it out to the size of a side plate. He flapped… Continue reading Paratha for breakfast
Japani Samosa Wale
Tucked away in the labyrinth of stalls of Old Lajpat Rai Market in Chandni Chowk is Manohar Dhaba. Umesh Ji, the owner, has the best street food I have eaten in Old Delhi. And I have eaten a lot of street food; I have had the intestinal infections to prove it. The house speciality is… Continue reading Japani Samosa Wale
Street Market Scenes in Ardash Nagar
The wholesale fruit and vegetable market across the road from our clinic is the biggest in Asia. Trucks crammed full of produce unload in the open warehouses. The distributors divide up the produce into barrow loads for distribution across the city at formal and informal markets. There is an informal market along the side of… Continue reading Street Market Scenes in Ardash Nagar
Rabri Faluda I’m in love
In Chawri Bazar this afternoon I came across a food vendor with a queue of locals pestering him for attention. He was selling rabri faluda, a thick, creamy dessert with a basis of vermicelli made with corn starch (faluda seva). You need soaked sabja seeds (sweet basil), rose syrup, ice and cold milk. He added… Continue reading Rabri Faluda I’m in love
Milk-o
India is the world’s biggest producer of milk. The USA produces more cow’s milk, but when you consider cow and buffalo milk production, India leads the way. Buffalo milk contains more fat and milk solids, so it looks whiter and is slightly more viscous. My father was a milk deliveryman for most of his working… Continue reading Milk-o
Jashn-e-Rekhta
Recently, at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, there was a three-day extravaganza rejoicing in the “spirit and eloquence, the beauty and versatility of Urdu”. The festival celebrated everything Urdu – art, poetry, drama, music, cinema and literature. The ancient name for Urdu is Rekhta (which means scattered and mixed). Most people who… Continue reading Jashn-e-Rekhta
Palate Fest 2017
Over the weekend, dozens of fancy restaurants in Delhi set out their stalls at this annual festival in Nehru Park. I was impressed with the variety and quality of the food. It was rather pricey compared to my local South Indian restaurant, where I can get a masala dosa with all the trimmings for 65… Continue reading Palate Fest 2017
Breakfast at Karim’s
Just off the Urdu Bazar Road, on the south side of Delhi’s largest mosque, the Jama Masjid, the Matia Mahal Road runs south towards Daryaganj. On the left after 50 metres, there is a nondescript small lane which leads to Karim’s Restaurant. We had been cycling through the backstreets and galis of Old Delhi for three hours… Continue reading Breakfast at Karim’s