A Quick
Gourmet Ride through Delhi
By Ras H. Siddiqui
A visit to Delhi is
incomplete without visiting at least some of its
famed eateries. Food and history are something that
both Delhi and Lahore have in common, but since
Pakistanis or Pakistani-Americans do not often get
to visit India's capital city, it would be proper
to start this "gourmet" tour from there. And having
lived on some "Dilli cuisine" myself while growing
up in Karachi, a sense of curiosity as to its origins
became mandatory.
But before proceeding
here, the reader needs to know that this writing
just grazes the surface of Delhi food and that the
vegetarian route is not what is being described
in this writing (in spite of consuming some very
fine varieties of vegetarian cooking during the
trip). So let us move on to non-vegetarian India,
or specifically the area around Delhi and Aligarh
where the families of some of us "UP Muslim types"
originate. The Dhaba or roadside eatery near Bulandshahr
encountered while riding in a car from Delhi to
Aligarh, was a driver's stop and my first exposure
to bazaari Indian food.
I hesitantly asked
for a tandoori roti (2 Rupees) with my tea and was
pleasantly reminded of the same taste that I had
left behind in Pakistan several years ago. Having
family in India can also be a minus (just kidding)
since they feed you extremely well (the taste of
family foods is similar on both sides of the border)
leaving you with little room left to eat out. And
as we drove directly into the pre-marriage rituals
of relative and (it seems like) ate for four full
days till the valima was over (back in Delhi), I
must say that the food in India was off to a great
start. Chicken salan, chicken tandoori, mutton kormas,
all were quite good. The nans, rotis, puris and
kulchas were all excellent.
And the Indian version
of whipped French coffee that came along throughout
the trip was certainly a plus. No beef was served
even in the Muslim households visited, and obviously
not in the restaurants outside. But this was about
wedding and home food. The question arose: where
was the real stuff? I was in Delhi, the past capital
of the Mughal Empire and the epicenter of their
cuisine. So where was the best nihari, siri-paya,
seekh kabab's etc? To find this out all one needs
to do is to ask any young Muslim males around and
watch them smile (just like in Karachi and Lahore)
as they share with you the secrets of where the
REAL food is. And if there is an occasion where
male bonding takes place, it is over a huge plate
of dripping nihari and hot nan. And for that I was
asked to wait twice. For the best Delhi cuisine,
the words "Jama Masjid" and "Karim Hotel" kept coming
up. We arrived at the area around Jama Masjid at
around 6:30 PM on a cool Delhi December evening.
If there was ever a reminder of old Lahore or Burns
Road in Karachi, it was this area.
A mini-Pakistan was
very much alive and well here, or should one add
that maybe it is the mini-Delhis in Pakistan that
come to mind? In either case, you have to walk here
through numerous aromas, not all related to food
till you arrive at a very congested area of shops
in the shadow of the Jama Masjid. Stores selling
a variety of goods, and restaurants serving original
Muglai food, all appeared quite full. And as you
go through the main street and veer to the left,
a small and simple establishment called "Haji Shabbarati
Nihari Walay" (established 1957) can easily be overlooked
except by those that have eaten here before. The
taste of "Shabbarati's Nihari" is comparable to
the best that old Karachi and Lahore have to offer
on a good day. The accompanying "bheja" was simply
superb and the nans came piping hot.
The stress here was
on flavor and not just the hot pepper heat which
one does encounter often when venturing out to some
nihari establishments. And the company could not
have been better since our party of 6 ranged from
ages 10 to 50, all connoisseurs eating this well
prepared water buffalo meat! After you overeat here
and praise God for Haji Shabbarati Sahib's expertise,
you just have to go for a long walk to get some
dessert. And quite an interesting walk it is to
Chandni Chowk, through some of Delhi's oldest businesses.
When we got to Chandni Chowk, the first stop was
Ghantewala's (got a couple of kilograms of mithai
for Pakistan) and then wandered over to Haldiram's
and Annapoorna (which was closed). Dessert eventually
was rasgullas at Haldiram's Restaurant upstairs,
a final touch to a very satisfying evening. The
next day was my last one in Delhi and India on this
trip. In the late morning we visited the imposing
Lal Qila or Red Fort which seemed very drab in comparison
to the Amber Fort in Jaipur. But all was not lost.
We still had a chance
to shop at Delhi Haat, an outlet for regional handicrafts
and clothing and to congregate at "Karim Hotel"
for lunch at an area called ""Nizamuddin" that I
had heard a lot about. Nizamuddin is the other old
Muslim area of Delhi. Here, near the shrine of Hazrat
Nizamuddin Auliya, lie the remains of Amir Khusrau
and the man known as the finest Urdu language poet
that has ever lived, Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib.
And since man does not live by history and poetry
alone, we made our way to "Dastarkhwan-e-karim"
or "Karim Hotel" as it is known, offering the finest
Indian-Muslim cuisine in a semi-formal environment.
Karim's is well known for its "rumali roti" (thin
as a handkerchief), a variety of nan's saalans and
tikka-kebabs. Pakistanis will like its menu because
it reflects most of the good Karachi and Lahori
cuisine.
Food here is carefully
prepared and presented with style. The ambiance
is quite a few notches ahead of the Jama Masjid
area (where Karim's is also located). When we were
done with the Murgh Afghani and the Dil Pasand Seekh
Kabab, it was almost time to head for the airport
to catch the PIA flight to Lahore. But not before
we tried the "Kheer Benazir" for dessert, one which
would offer quite a bit of competition to the kheers
found in neighboring Pakistan. In closing, if General
Musharraf has been to Karim's on one of his India
trips and still has no dish named after him here,
then one can only ask how another famous Pakistani
and Karim's kheer get to share the same name?
