Deliciously Delhi

What is patriotism but the love of the good things we ate in our childhood? - Lin Yutang

PS:

It is strange why this careful old wealth of Lahore still has better cars, better houses, better roads, better gyms and better life styles than the newly IT Rich Indians ...

I hear there is only one decent locality in Delhi called Golflinks ... which apparently compares to Allama Iqbal Town... perhaps the worst middle class locality of lahore.

Ras....

I suggest you read what Veeresh is saying closely...

According to a report... Delhi will be biggest slum known to man in another 10 years...
I take strong exception to your comment that a lively, developed and planned city like Lahore can have any thing in common with that Delhi of theirs...

Let us not make comparisons where there can`t ever be any.

Ras/30- well I guess the jalebis will have to wait for weight to come down, and the kababs will have to wait for someone to come down.

On the subject of Dilli being like Lahore, I beg to offer that this is a misconception going back centuries which is not valid anymore. I also don`t want to start any more Singapore comarisions.

Lahore is like any other vibrant Punjabi city in India especially on GT Road. Maybe Patiala. It is obvious that the last few decades have given the Indian Punjabi cities a newer class of people with greater disposable incomes while Lahore still gives off the aura of old wealth being in charge and spending carefully.

Think carefully:- how much Punjabi did you hear spoken in the backlanes of Old Delhi? Not much, I would hazard a guess unless you actually took the trouble to go seeking Punjabi speakers. And I shall like to state here that till 15-20 years ago, Punjabi was the down-to-earth language in old Delhi used by Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.

However, on to food again, and if you have not ``eaten`` the famous ``Chinese food`` of Delhi then you need to sweet-corn-chicken hot-and-sour mixed-fried-rice with chicken-manchurian and mixed-veg-sweet-and-sour yourself rapidly with tinned-litchee-in-ice-cream. Or go for American-Chop-Suey.

I long held this polite belief that if you want to eat tasty meat dishes in US, go to Pakistani, Afghani restaurants. And for tasty veggie dishes, go to Indian. Let me cast off this politeness and say it out loud: unless you go to some really top notch indian restaurant, even the Indian veggie dishes are below par compared to Pakistani veggie dishes.

Just the other day, due to a matter of convenience, i ended up going to an Indian ``Punjab Dhaba``. Keeping the above mentioned rule of thumb in mind, I ordered cholay with naan. One `burki` and I could tell that cholay in ANY pakistani restaurant were a 100 times tastier than the ones that were in front of me. Not to mention that the roti was small, thin, with hot air pressed out, and cut in pieces - compared to the gigantic fluffy right from the oven roti you get in Pakistani restaurants.

re: Roomaley roti
Anybody ever eaten in a place called Copper Chimney in Bombay (or Mumbai as they call it now). The food was delicious and roomaley roti was really good. This was many years ago. I do not know how it is now.
Sridhar

Re: # 48

Copper Chimney is alive and well. And three cheers for Malabar/Konkan cuisine - no Shan masala Hamidm but you`ll have to eat it to believe it. Think Thai - kind of.

Punjabi sambar brought the Madras Cafe in Green Park on Sunday mornings to mind when all the roly poly aunties, uncles and their offspring would descend on it clutching baltis to carry away the sambar. You think I`m kidding but I`m not - they take it away in baltis because they drink it!

What`s next? Ketchup on your idli? Oh, wait, they already do that! Jam on your dosa? Nah, they do that too. :)

re:#42 by hamidm2
You are right about the taste!
Right now, most Subcontinental cuisine basically means North Indian cuisine! And that usuallly again means Punjabi cuisine. I grew up in Delhi and learnt how to make most Punjabi dishes (along with south indian dishes) when i started out as a bachelor in US (Veggie items were uncommon 12 years ago, so i was forced to learn to cook!). The base is the same. That is why it tastes the same. Most North Indian restauratnts would add garam masala to sambhar also! So, now even the Sambhar tastes like anyother Punjabi dish.
A genuine subcontinental cuisine should include something from each region. Each region has special flavor and taste. Kerala dishes for eg are totally different from any North Indian dishes but one hardly gets to eat that kind of stuff in US.
Sridhar

#44 Nazar sahib aap kay liye history lesson:
According to legend Dum Pukht cuisine was discovered when Nawab Asaf-ud-Daulah decreed that the builders of the Bara Imam Bara Mosque should have access to food day and night. Street cooks assembled giant pots, filled them with rice, meat, vegetables and spices and placed them on gently simmering fires. The lids were sealed with dough and topped with hot coals to slow-cook the food and keep it warm around the clock. When the Nawab tasted the food during an inspection, he was most impressed and ordered his chefs to refine the cooking technique in the royal kitchens. ``Dum Pukht``, means `to breathe` and `to cook`. The cuisine owes its excellence to the fact that the food, sealed in a dish and slow-cooked in its own juices, retains all its natural aromas and flavours.

Btw Mess food say yaad aaya..old memories of the mess cook Fernandes..each recipe began with ``first pour 2 pegs of rum into the cook``..souffle to die for. Actually 20 years back when I was still an army brat some of the cooks in obscure cantonments were masters in their own rights.

#37 Farzana ``Subroto: Can`t you talk about anything else but food? ;) `` You mean there are other things to talk about? Ever had Parsi food in an obscure resturant in Khandala? Dragged my wife on a 6 km trek to just eat there. Then there is the establishment run by the Gandhi sisters in Mahabaleshwar..yOMmm. Any comments on Konkani seafood cooking?
As I mentioned before I had plans to stop interacting on this website but the scent of this article has reeled me in.

I say Hamidm old chap I can recall an establishment in the hill station of Kausali where the cook specialised in continental cooking on a wood fired oven, absolutely smashing I say.

Yummmmmm

Subroto Re: # 45

Thanks. So `Dum Pukht` is Nawab Asaf-ud-Daulah`s creation.

In fact, this `slow heat to cook within own juices` is my favourite as well. Especially, the vegetables come out farm fresh.

When there were Bars in military messes here, they did a social service as well. They taught beginners the etiquette & manners of drinking - and it seeped through to the society. (Now the people look at the bottle as an enemy & wish to gulp it down in shortest possible time)

Those good old Bar men had to make their jokes a litle more funny and a little less dirty - Now they had sane Coke drinkers as the audience.

nhk

FV`s mention of `Dum Pukht` reminded me of a certain Badaam Khan, our batman at Peshawar Mess.

He used to tell us his travels with the Historian Toynbee when he was in these areas.

Badaam Khan used to cook food for him. He told us his Recipies of `Chicken a la King` and `Chicken a la Kiev`.

He had book of Toynbee with his and Toynbee`s picture where Toynbee had good wards for Badaam Khan.

Whosoever chose this name `Dum Pukht` chose a very electrifying, delicious and dramatic name. How is Dum Pukht cooked? Anyone...

nhk

There are subtle differences... for example Indians are rather liberal in their usage of ``Masala`` and ``Spices``.... from the looks of it...

But generally I agree with Hamidm... that is why I don`t understand why people waste money on ``Subcontinental cuisine``...

rsridhar,

.... i agree with you ....... but regardless of whether it is indian or pakistani, sub-continental cusine is horrible because the spices are so overpowering ........... i am serious whan i say that a blind man wouldn`t notice the difference .......

.......... just last night i was ranting and raving about the tori (squash) gosht mrs hamidm had cooked up ( i must admit that i did stop by the bar for a couple of gin and tonics) ....... it is not often that she whips up a vegetable dish (or any dish for that matter), but everyone thinks she is a great cook ............. anyway, to cut a long story short, it turned out that i was eating baingan (egg plant) gosht !........... needless to say, mrs hamidm instead of being pleased by my compliments was quite upset and friday night, for which i had great expectations, turned out to be quite uneventful .............

.......... last week i ended up for lunch at the buffet at an indian buffet in manhattan with a bunch of white guys who kept on asking me for recommendations ......... i told them, ``guys, it doesn`t really matter, the texture might be the different, but it all tastes the same`` ............ ``rasam, dal, paneer saag, idlee, dosa, tandoori chicken - all same same, all very very good, no``, ( as i shook my head sideways for authencity) ......... shan is the great equalizer ...........

re:#36 by hamidm2
``Indian cuisine`` is a brand name that is recognized in UK, USA. Bangladeshis who are into the restaurant business in UK are forced to call the food Indian Cuisine. That is what sells. Actually, there is nothing like a Pakistani or Bangladeshi cuisine. Try selling that anywhere outside of these countries and you will know what i mean.
Many years ago, i used to frequent Jackson Heights (New York) with my Pakistani friend (both doing Residency together). Invariably, my friend would refuse my invitation to go into an Indian restaurant. We would end up going to a Pak restaurant. Food was always good but the ambience was poor and one felt like one was sitting in a Dhabha. I, of course, did not mind but it is not a place you would think of bringing your girl friend, if u know what i mean.
Some months ago i visited San Francisco for a conference. The nearest Indian restaurant that i checked out was atrociously costly for my taste. Nearer to heart was a Pak restaurant which was about 40% cheaper. Food was equally good. Again, the atmosphere and ambience of the place was below par and the crowd was a different kind of crowd. I saw mostly Pakistanis, few Amerincans while the Indian restaurant was frequented by many Americans regularly. Pakistanis feel that their pride is hurt when they call the subcontinental cuisine ``Indian Cuisine`` but that is what sells in US, UK and other places outside the subcontinent.
Sridhar

Ras:

While in Karachi at ``Bun`s`` Street, I too felt like I was at the Urdu Bazaar `eatries` near Jama Masjid. I suspect that Nihari you had was made of beef; you see, Burra meat is often a code-word for beef in that area of Delhi.

And while walking from Jama Masjid to Ghantawallah, you missed the jalebiwallah at the nukkad of Dariba and Chandni Chowk. That literal hole in the wall does more business with jalebis alone than most halwais do with their entire selection. And this is from someone who normally doesn`t even like jalebis.

Talking of food, I just came back from Halifax, Nova Scotia. It has some incomparable choice in sea food if any of you happens to go that way.

I think food is one of those unquenched passions in our life that creates a divide unlike any other ;) Sticky gulab jamuns to one are melt in your mouth meeti delicacies to another!