aka Om Routray
Delhi food blog covering street food etc
Kolkata has a biryani that it is really proud of. I have never been to the city, so can’t say how good the dish is within the city boundaries. So, I have to go by the second best option – go to CR Park and pretend I am transported to the bong land like most bongs do. And, that’s how we landed at this small outlet in CR Park market number 1. It is more of a take away kind of place with few plastic…Continue Reading “Kolkata Biryani House, CR Park”
How many of you would really go to Malviya Nagar or Shivalik Road if I told you there is a good place there? None. Nor would I. Can’t blame you. The traffic and the parking are a mess. So, let this be a pleasure read. Pema’s is a small outlet next to a gift shop and a take away joint that you may not notice even on the most adventurous days. But the food is worth it. We ordered a pork momo, chicken shyapta and…Continue Reading “Pema’s, Himalayan Food, Malviya Nagar”
I have been running a series on the blog about food in office areas by the title and there have been a few installments. While the original idea was to let people pool in, people don’t easily pool in. So, it has remained a one man effort. Anyway, the scene has just become more exciting with this cool new place opening round the corner in Noida Sector 3 – the one with graffiti on the walls. It was interesting but the weather demanded something else,…Continue Reading “Office ke neeche kya hai – Part 4”
Dahi vada. One dish I can write poetry for. There are so many versions and I can never rank them. I just love all of them – the south Indian version in the photo, the east Indian version with spices in the dahi and on odisha served with dum alu, then there is the Old Delhi version with mithi chutney, pomegranates and bananas. Also, this is one dish I can have for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as an appetizer, main course and dessert.
If late at night, your guide car turns into a dark, dusty side lane in Gurgaon, you are probably in a gangster movie. If the car stops in front of a non-descript building with an ill-lit entrance with no one in sight, may be, you are the one that gets a bullet in the back. If you cut the over-imagination out, you may be at an interesting place that attracts people with word of mouth than billboards. Hachi ba is massive inside, must be seating…Continue Reading “Cafe Hachi Ba, Gurgaon”
The first two and a half decades of my life, I had only veg biryani. You may stop giving any credence to this post right here and stop reading. If you are still reading, let me pile more shame on myself. Apart from the biryani at the Hyderbad stall in Dilli Haat, I can’t remember a single other instance when the biryani was horrible, disgusting and offensive. I have been trying to grow a nose that smells the trashy ones from the one good biryani…Continue Reading “The unicornification of biryani”
Street food. Whatever you eat on the street is street food. If you don’t have to take it home, unpack and bring out the cutlery, it is street food. In our country, there is no life without it. Hygiene is something you notice after you have got jaundice. Germs are seen only in handwash ads. Baaki sab theek hai. 30 bucks for kadi chawal prepared by our bro from hinterland. Who else will add green chutney to the combo? But does it work? Yes. Where…Continue Reading “Office ke neeche kya hai – Part 3”
Nothing mumbaiya about it. It is a Delhi based chain, owned by a Delhite. But the food is good and they have an interesting menu. The sabu dana and the Standard vada pav were mathematically correct, the garlic chutney was accurate too. I rarely use the word precise to describe food but this was just that. Compared to Goli and a few other vada pav chains that have come up, this does not do all that badly. They have an extensive menu, they seem to…Continue Reading “WOW vada pav”
Some famous old places disappoint, some don’t. This one did not. If you reach early in the evening, you can beat the crowd that generally descends in the later hours. The menu is the typical Old Delhi kebab/tikka place menu and it is not expensive even compared to neighbourhood takeaways. We ordered a chicken malai tikka, which came with the Old Delhi style dahi and butter gravy. If you were sadly anticipating the general dry version, you would have to go back and order for…Continue Reading “MI Food Center, Lodhi Colony”
The concept of a mouth freshener is either unique to the sub-continent, South Asia at most, or, I am really ignorant. The mint is the only western substitute that I know of and it comes out of a packet. Within India, we have tens of kinds of stuff that serve as a mouth freshener, some double up as a digestive. Firstly, the paans, the cold meetha paan being a northern novelty, to the best of my limited knowledge. The paans in the east had just…Continue Reading “Is mouth freshener a South Asian concept?”
I don’t care what you call it. In different parts of the country, people call it by different names. The only name that’s correct is the one grandma used when she took the sputtering grains out of a sand filled earthen pot. That’s the origin story for me, it never came out of a packet. Ma would put the pot on fire with a little sand at the bottom and thrown in rice. We watched them puff and it was the best magic tricl for…Continue Reading “The thing about Mudhi”
Shahid Nagar, Bhubaneswar. In a market crowded with golgappas, chaats, rolls and roadside grilled sandwiches, I kept looking at this guy. During the half an hour I took to try everything else, he just stood there, arranging, rearranging stuff, I may have been the second guy in all that duration. Finally, gingerly, I approached. A plate came for 20 bucks. He made it with fingertip precision and it was tasteful. Should he do better? Ideally, yes. Do we generaly avoid food that’s healthy? Yes, nless…Continue Reading “Sprout chaat, Bhubaneswar”
Mutton Ghugni. Only a Bengali can come up with an idea like that. Take a simple veg dish and put some meat into it. I cursed my way to the stall as we turned the bend in the market number 1 in CR Park. The vegetarian one was for 20 bucks per plate, the meat one came for 30. How can he give mutton for 10 bucks? Must be beef, sorry, buff. Must be the sort of mutton that many unsuspecting foodies eat on the…Continue Reading “Mutton Ghugni, CR Park”
So, where do you get Swedish food in Delhi? Only at the Embassy, it seems. Fortunately, they mistook me for a food writer and invited me over to eat some. The chef was one with lethal humour and a beautiful Japanese knife – Nobel chef Mark Phoenix. He didn’t win the Nobel, he has been selected as a chef on the panel for Nobel Memorial Week. In between nuggets about Swedish food and life, he cooked a few simple dishes that hardly needed any cooking….Continue Reading “Lunch with Nobel chef Mark Phoenix at Swedish Embassy”
I had never been there in my 14 years in Delhi. Something about the whole market screamed Hyped Hyped Hyped. And, I stayed clear. Then a few evenings back, I became larger than my small biases, overcame the ego that hissed in my ears that you are better than butter chicken craving dilliwallas. So, like any other dilli ka aam admi, I smiled at the reservation staff outside, made a sad face which begged for his kindness and got a table, not out of turn,…Continue Reading “Havemore, Pandara Road”
I am all for food styling, but style over substance? Just does not work. The latest drive to make things quirky is already showing in presentations across restaurants. Last evening, we were at the Artful Baker and tried a few things. The lemon cheesecake was brilliant – light, not too sweet and the cheesy in all the right ways. There was a layer of lemon curd on top which beautifully balanced the sweetness of the cake. Then, we had the lemon tart. The lemon curd…Continue Reading “The Artful Baker, Khan Market”
That’s Japanese. Grilled food. Good to know Japanese learnt the use of fire. I was really getting tired of the sushis and sashimis. Anyway, Robatayaki originated in some fishing communities and was overwhelmingly about seafood. To my knowledge, in Delhi only places serve this – Akira Back and B Bar, Saket. B Bar just launched their Robatayaki menu with a fest that’s on till 30th September. Coming to the food, as is the case with such minimal cuisines, the meat is not marinated and is…Continue Reading “Robatayaki Festival, B Bar, Saket”
What do you expect when you order a chicken kali mirch? Something biting and spicy, no? What if it is mild, borderline sweet and the pepper is only a gentle, mischievous hint? This dish at Al Jawahar is one of my most favourite chicken dishes ever. It has tender meat, white gravy and none of the generic arrogance of a butter chicken. This dish is like that star performer who silently goes back to crease after scoring a century.
How do you look at food? Most kids these days see it as something that’s ordered from a restaurant. Having been raised in a village by grandparents with agricultural land, we were taken to the fields, made to dig out potatoes, smell fresh moong and bite a chunk of raw cauliflower. We were taught which vegetable is good when soft and which one is past its prime. On the weekly haats, I remember pointing fingers and asking what every one of these sacks contained. A…Continue Reading “Where does food come from?”