It was a scorching Delhi summer morning when 5 crazy as bat foodies descended upon Chandni chowk for Mission Delhi6. A food walk through the lanes and bylanes of the oldest part of Delhi to dissect through the food that was indigenous to Delhi before it got taken over by the MNC’s and the food chains. Most of the shops in these lanes are establishments with a clientele so loyal that it can match the ferocity of Mohun Bagan- East Bengal fan clubs.
People have been thronging here for decades as food has been rolled out in the delicious desi ghee since times immemorial. Generations of delhiites have grown eating from these shops. Some share their love stories, some their success.

Lotan ke chole kulche

Starting off, we get down at the end of Nai Sarak and travel inwards to get to the Lotan Kulche Vaala. A small non descript shop with a huge crowd already milling about.

Logan serves up his eclectic chole from the huge simmering pot. Some amul butter is bought beforehand as he ladles spoonfuls of chole into a dona with the required amount of spice mix. Follows it up with tossing some potato pieces in with some panache. He flips the pieces in the air before tossing them in.

The first bite that goes into the mouth sets of an explosion. Spicy chole mixed with the sourdough kulche. Heaven. You don’t really need other words to describe this.

Lotan serves up a chole kulche that you will never be able to taste anywhere else. A definite come by for a morning breakfast.

Bharat kachori

Bharat Kachori

Taste buds snaring from the spice assault at Lotan’s Cholekulche, we move along, a bottle of chilled mineral water our only saviour to the next battlefield.

Bharat serves up one of the most popular items on the north Indian breakfast menu, kachori subzi. Piping hot khasta kachori deep fried in desi ghee served with a spicy aloo subzi. The kachori is so hot that it will burn your fingers, literally. The combo gives you a nostalgic feel, sneaking out with your grandfather for a kachori. The spicy aloo combines perfectly with the puffy crispy kachori with it’s filling inside making for a super delectable treat.

Shyam sweets

The third stop on Mission Delhi 6 after

already having been dazzled by the chole kulchche of lotan and kachoris of bharat, we wandered over to the alluring smells emanating from Shyam’s sweet shop. We ordered up a plate of aloo bedmi and nagori halwa. Although the quantity may seem small, but the number of places in the waiting list precluded us from ordering crazy. The place was already packed in its outdoor eating area with early morning group of grown up friends gorging on the delicacies of shyam. People who have probably grown up eating here. The charms of old Delhi.

The bedmi was crispy fried piping hot with an explosive amount of spices. Accompanying the bedmi were two aloo subzis. One spicy and one sweet making for a different combo every time you put a bite into your mouth. Combine that with the sour pickled vegetables, your morning will be bliss. Each bite an experience, the amchur and the other masala dance a tune on your palate.

Moving onto another speciality of Delhi6, the nagori halwa. A self serve where a crisp desi ghee puri is cracked, filled with the golden yellow suji halwa again doused with desi ghee and top it over with the spicy aloo subzi. Take a bite and enjoy each morsel as the crispiness from the puri begins mating with the sweet halwa and the spicy aloo subzi. Foodgasm. Want to change up things a bit more, take up a kacha aloo from the pickled vegetables and add it on top and watch your tongue curl in absolute ecstasy.

All this for 90 bucks. Eat it to believe it.

Standard sweets

Standard sweets

Stop 4 of mission Delhi 6 as 5 food bloggers from Salt and Sandals, foodaholix and Zomato descend upon chandni chowk to dissect through its streets. After the spicy and hot assault on the palate, some respite was needed. So we headed off to the Standard sweet shop to satisfy the sweet tooth. It is

located in one of the bylanes as you move towards Chawri Bazaar from Nai Sarak.

We start off with a plate of the suji halwa. Layered with a freshly cooked malpua and topped off with badaam, makes for a delectable sweet dish. The suji has been stirred in desi ghee with sugar combined with the soft juicy malpua and crispy nutty badaam save our tongue for the spice assault a few momentsago.

P.S:

Surgeon general warning: Not recommended for diabetics, hypertensives and heat patients.

Foodie warning: Junk the surgeon’s warning, eat up and go back to him

Chaina ram

ChainaRam

Stop 5 of mission Delhi 6 as the bandwagon rolls through the streets of chandni chowk to find the best food that there is.

The stomachs were already pushing their limits as we ordered up a plate of chaina ram’s famous poori chole. Served up within moments and with a motto of eating first, payment later, they seriously redefine the laws of micro economics taught in business school. The pooris are two gigantic pieces of fluffy golden pieces of wonder deep fried in the omnipresent desi ghee. Accompanying it was a plate of chole cooked to perfection in a light curry. Spicy yet sour at the same time due to two pickled carrots, they range of chole across chandni chowk continues to amaze.

At 70 bucks a plate, one of the most tasty chole pooris in town.

It’s time for the cool down again. Stop 6 on mission Delhi 6 as bloggers from Saltandsandals, foodaholix and Zomato go all out in search for the best good to gorge on in the oldest part of Delhi. Alternating between spicy breakfast meals and sweet meats to cool off the tongues, we land up at the Amritsar  Lassi vaala for probably the last meal before we take our tired asses and stomachs home.

@legallyfoodie: Slurpppppp….

Serving up a multitude of lassis, this bloke has been doing brisk business at one of the busy corners in the economic nerve centre of the city. We dish out a couple of malai lassi.

Chilled to perfection and topped with a generous dollop of malai, this is a scrumptious cooler apt for the burning Delhi weather. Super thick but not overly sweetened, most of us live our childhood out by growing fake milk moustaches.

You can feed a foodie and he might still want more. Six places done on mission Delhi 6, sweating profusely in the worst Delhi summer,bellies bulging, belts loosening but the need togorge on food just increases.

So mission Delhi 6 changes to mission”let’s eat the nihari at karim”.

Jamamasjid welcomes us with all the squalor intact, people packed like sardines in a tin can as we follow our noses to Karim’s. Branching off from the biggest left turn from the Jamamasjid, you can find this place by turning on the first galli you see. It opens up to reveal our destination, the all famous old Delhi’s Karim’s. Host to a multitude of celebrities, this place has been dishing out lip smacking food for the last century. We are attended by the fifth generation as our simple order for nihari and rotisare placed. The place is simple with takes and chairs set out but this kind of place is not made for ambiance, it’s the food that draws people here like ants to honey.

Our order arrives within minutes. Steaming hot piping nihari with huge tyre sized khameenThe nihari is basically mutton cooked for so long that the bones melt and the marrow infuses into the gravy changing the complexities of the game totally. The mutton is cooked to a super tenderness, the thick heavy adorned with nothing but ginger and chillies but loaded up with saturated fat enough to stop the blood flowing in your vessels. Combine them with the khameeni roti and you have a combination to die for.

The heaviness of the dish leaves most of us gaspingfor breath and water. You really need an empty stomach before taking a nihari on.

P.S: This food is historical, nothing compared to what is found at the other outlets.
Post Authoured by : Suditpo De & Amogh Tiwari