Following Delhi's Food Trail

If you find yourself traversing the roads of  Old Delhi and are someone who’s eternally hungry, keep your eyes open for a chaat outlet here or a sweetmeat shop there. Because, true to its gastronomic style, Delhi is one place that the hungry traveller will never be disappointed with.

Travel is incomplete without food. Every place in the world boasts of a cuisine that is unique and Delhi is no exception. Visitors from aboard come with a picture of a colourful city with bustling streets, the call of the muezzin from a nearby mosque or the triangular flag atop a mandir, peddlers hawking their wares on the streets and a kindly hotelier offering respite from the heat and the dust of an always-on-the-move city – not far from the truth, is it?

If you’re a first timer in Delhi, you will witness two unmistakable sights – one, throngs of phoren tourists angling hard for a bargain with street and retail vendors for souvenirs – shawls, bags, cheap sunglasses, handmade curios, and the like; two, the hungry Indian or Asian, not necessarily a traveller, looking for a place to rest his behind and ascend into taste bud nirvana. Known for its glorification of gluttony, wherever you might be in Delhi, chances are you are just a whiff away from the neighbourhood restaurant.

Delhi is a foodie haven – for the gourmet meal aficionado as well as the street-eats loving yuppie. And , as the unplanned half of Delhi is popularly called, is known for its inexpensive indulgences like the poor man’s thirst quencher, lassi (comes in many varieties, but keep your eyes open for the rich, creamy, with extra cream on top version) or short eats to help one survive those hungry hours between lunch and dinner.

If Old Delhi promises you rich returns for your rupee in terms of gastronomic value, Gurgaon is for the discerning gourmand. Unapologetically opulent in every sense of the word, Gurgaon, the meeting place of the three states of Delhi, Haryana and Punjab, demands a heavy price from your wallet, but if you can keep your senses about you, will give you value for the money you spend. Huge malls, housing/apartment complexes and business and technology parks dot the landscape here. You’ll find your customary food outlets in all of these malls, Subway, McDonalds, KFC, pizza outlets and their various international brethren, but if you want to get a taste of Delhi, head to the suburbs and seek out that which Delhi is famous for, its generosity with dairy products and sugar and nuts.

You can rest your tired feet in various food streets and mid-priced outlets for your customary lunch or dinner of paneer butter masala and piping hot parathas dripping with butter, but the real taste of Delhi is in the hotels on street corners and chowks, teeming with hungry people, tucking in plates of channa batura, gol gappas, parathas and ladlefuls of dal makhni. And for the non-vegetarian, the two famed chicken dishes of Delhi, chicken tikka and butter chicken, are said to be everything a bowl of dal makhni is not.

And in what can be seen as ample evidence of Delhi’s “live life king size” spirit, there are the sweetmeat shops, maybe a hop and half a skip away from tiredness or boredom, that line the city’s streets, selling pethas and halwas and malpuas and rabri and the piping hot jalebi, even late into the night. Look out for gajak, the north Indian cousin of the humble peanut chikki if you have a sweet tooth and like a sweet snack with bite. And with your evening cuppa masala chai, ask for matthis, a crispy, salty snack.

Some of the tried and tested vegetarian dishes that you must indulge in when in Delhi are:

• The Punjabi thali – they’re quite unlike what you’ll be accustomed to. For an authentic taste of North Indian cuisine, and if you like your lunch or dinner to be a generous meal, do not miss out on the thali.
• The rotis – If your stay is for at least 3-4 days or longer, you must try each and every roti there is on the menu. If you’re South Indian, forget rice for a while – rotis are where it’s at in Delhi.
• Street Food – From chaats to rabri to lassi to stuffed parathas to kulfi to kaju katli to hot jalebis to pakoras to bajiyas to khasta kachoris – you name it, you’ll find it here.
• The classic channa batura – The batura (large puri) in question here is indeed large and generous, and the channa is spicy, robustly flavoured and will keep you feeling full for hours. If you’re not too concerned about your calorie intake, this is something you must try.
• A la carte, for the adventurous foodie – Take a look at the extensive menu in front of you and order the sabzi or chicken dish of your choice!

And if all of this is a bit much after a hard day’s toil of meeting with clients and an evening’s worth of shopping for people back home, there’s that wonderful after-meal remedy that can lighten your load, literally – the ubiquitous paan. But Delhi restaurateurs are always one-up in this regard – your meal usually begins with a glass of jaljeera on the house, or comes strongly recommended by the waiter, in order to help your digestive system not get ahead of itself.

To those whose strongest relationship is with food, Delhi is a place to let your heart (stomach?) roam free, without guilt, without restraint and without fear.