Delhi Street Food!

With the moot court competition turning out to be much less satisfactory than what we expected, my teammates and I were left with almost two and a half days in Delhi (well NOIDA actually) with nothing to do but explore its culinary delights.

Though like any true blue Mumbaikar I believe with all my heart that Bombay/Mumbai is the single most awesome city in the whole wide world, after a couple of days of sampling Delhi street food, I must admit that Delhi street food does hold its own or even slightly outdoes the VadaPav-PavBhaji-Bhel dominated Mumbai street savouries.

 

Chole-Kulcha / Chole Bhature

To start off with, Delhi has a lot more variety in even vegetarian street food. Apart from the samosa and pani-puri (which the Delhites call Gol-Gappas) vendors who are probably ubiquitous all over India, Delhi (and much of north India, I presume) also has a lot of paratha and chole-bhatura / chole-kulcha vendors everywhere. Every street that we travelled to had atleast one of these chole-kulcha carts with their unique copper (or brass maybe) vessel full of chole placed at an angle! 

Mr. SV and I sampled and completely enjoyed both the dishes! The chole served with the kulchas were mashed together with onions and chillis into a thick paste which managed to achieve that just right level of spicyness. Though I enjoyed the dish I do admit that I was hoping for the freshly baked type of kulchas (i.e. the type that restaurants in Bombay serve) and was disappointed to see that the roadside kulcha was simply a special bread heated on the tava and served. The chole bhature combo however was just perfect and left no room to complain. I am dreading the moment when I shall have to have the college mess chole again. I am sure they are going to fall way short of my increased expectations.

 

Connaught Place Momos!

Momos! This is another north and east Indian street food delicacy that you would be hardpressed to find on Mumbai streets. When we went to Connaught Place, which by the way no one can find on a metro map because it is officially called Rajiv Chowk (Read This if such things anger you). The momos were tasty and interestingly served with not just a a spicy red sauce but also with an additional mayonnaise dip! (unfortunately not photographed) While we waited for the steaming hot momos to get ready, Mr. SV also managed to get a bowl full of fried potatos and masala which is another simple dish which I haven’t seen on Mumbai streets. He also chose to have a bowl of bhel but that is an area in which, Delhi can’t match up with Bombay. We also had the Keventers Milkshake at CP which tasted pretty good. I am told that it isn’t as legendary anymore as it used to be in its heyday. I can only imagine how good it must have tasted then …

 

Rolls – Nizams and Rolls King

Since Ms. AM had raved about the place so much, Mr. SV and I also visited Nizams which in addition to their awesome tender soft mutton rolls also had this interesting sign saying -

Regional, Racial, Religious Discrimination, Apartheid & Outside Food is prohibited in the restaurant.

While Nizams rolls are delicious, I must say they are also slightly expensive and lacking in quantity. Value for money and awesome quantity we found at Rolls King in Noida!

 

      

Non Vegetarian Delights – Tangdi Tandoori and Gulati Kababs

Indirapuram’s famous Winsdor Market reminded me of Food Courts from Singapore with a lot of stalls/shops selling various delicacies. I opted for the Mutton Gulati Kababs and Ulte Tawe Ka Paratha, which is again something that I have never seen in Bombay. Watching the vendor make it was also very fascinating! Apart from it we ordered Tangdi Tandoori but due to some miscommunication we were served Tangdi Stuffed Tandoori which wasn’t bad either.

 

Good Food tastes better with good company!

The Delhi food hogging journey was especially fantastic because of the company that I had. In search of the best street food they travelled with me by air, rail and cycle rickshaw. Ms. AM and Mr. SV - you guys rock! Hope we get to go hog more often!

     

 

 

What Next!?

Delhi is so full of culinary delights that I am sure I haven’t tried even close to all of the good places yet… So please comment and do let me know which are the other great places in Delhi and I shall cover them the next time I go there!

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Highway Gomantak - A Quick Review

On 16th May, after several hours of simultasking between internship work and frenzied election result tracking and discussions across WhatsApp and Twitter, a hasty plan was put together to meet and have seafood. After a lot of confusion about which restaurant to patronise, I finally suggested Highway Gomantak, which I had often heard, dishes out the best maharashtrian seafood. Since I started eating seafood when I used to live in Singapore, I myself hardly know much of the local Maharashtrian delicasies and was eager to try out the place myself. 

 Decor & Service

Image Source : http://bandra.info/

The place derives its name from the fact that it is located right off the Western Express Highway in Bandra East. A simple board in Devnagri above a small door as pictured, welcomes you to the restaurant. Though I liked the simple setting, I was quite surprised by the lack of air conditioning.

Inside the restaurant, there is not much decor to speak of. The food is served in steel plates and bowls on a wooden table. While our group of four could comfortable manage on their table meant for six, the seating is rather cramped and we would have been uncomfortable had we been a larger party. The service also wasnt much impressive as we had to wait for a considerable amount of time before anyone bothered to come to take our orders and even then, the server wasnt very interested in helping us to make a choice.

 The Food

The food is where Highway Gomantak makes up for all its other (slight) lackings. When we went there, the system seemed to be that everyone orders a la carte starters i.e. fried fish and one of their many thalis as the main course. Though everyone around us seemed to be having fried bombil (bombay duck), we opted for a couple of plates of surmai fry (kingfish fry) which turned out to be fried with a deliciously crispy coating.

Mr. AA having surmai!

Each thali at Highway Gomantak comprises of rice, solkadi (a pinkish maharashtrian appetiser made from coconut milk), bits of onion, green chutney and chapati (or tandlachi (rice flour) bhakri) along with whichever seafood or chicken gravy you choose. While Mr. AA, was afraid of fishbones getting stuck in his throat and ordered surmai again, the rest of us opted for a different taste.

Ms. AM was surprised to find that the prawns in her prawn curry though plentiful, were tiny in comparison to what she was used to back home. However, even the Calcutta native admitted that the rich brown gravy was lipsmacking good.

Mr. AD ordered the Mori Masala thali, not because he knew what it entailed or had any idea of what it would taste like, but simply because he was excited seeing the dish described on the menu as Mori (SHARK) Masala. The idea of eating a sea monster enraptured him. 

I ordered teesrya (clams) masala thali which turned out to be a drier dish without much gravy compared to the rest. However, Highway Gomantak thoughtfully adds a small bowl of tangy orange gravy to have with the rice. I had to specifically ask for tandlachi bhakri because if you do not, the service staff simply presumes that you shall have the chapati. 

Highway Gomantak also offers the authentic maharashtrian dessert called kharvas which is a rare delicasy which not many restaurants carry on their menu. So we ended our meal at Highway Gomantak by sharing a plate of kharvas between us. 

Though all the main dishes in our thalis shared the masala nomenclature, each tasted disntinct and complemented the meat it accompanied. Everything that we ordered was delicious in its own way. So Highway Gomantak is not the sort of place where they have the same base gravy for any and every dish that you order.

Our meal which left us reasobnably fell set us back by only about Rs. 360 each which reflects very good and affordable pricing. Considering the rates, the slight lack of decor and service can be easily excused and this place is definitely the most value for money sea food restaurant that I have been to in Mumbai.

For anyone visiting Mumbai, and wanting to have good local seafood, I would definitely recommend this restaurant over its more famous (and much more costlier) counterparts such as Mahesh Lunch Home or Gajalee. Though after 8pm the heat did not bother us much, I might be much more apprehensive about visiting this place for lunch during the summer.

Overall I would rate this place : 8/10

P.S. - Despite my best efforts and photography overenthusiasm I often fail to capture the best moments. On the road to the rear of this building is an amazing icecream place where we polished off a few scoop of amazing tasting Litchee and Berry flavoured ice-creams while loudly debating and placing friendly wagers about who shall get what ministerial berths. Making several loud snide comments about several possible ministeral candidates, we were blissfully unaware about the surroundings and the fact that the others in the parlour could have been amongst the171,459,286 BJP voters. I do not even remember the name of the place. I hope I shall be able to find it again. :(

UPDATE (30/05/2014) : Anonymous commentor and Ms. AM have kindly let me know that the name of that really nice Ice Cream place is Kamath Icecream! Thanks folks!

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For my previous food and restaurant review posts see-

• Good Luck Cafe (Bandra)
• Pancham Puriwala

Emu Kheema! Good Luck Cafe - Review

A Vegetarian is a person who doesn’t eat meat and a Non-Vegetarian is a person who does. That is how I see it. I can never understand people who claim to love or require a hefty quantity of meat every week but still balk at the idea of having anything except chicken and mutton. As for me, if there is something exotic, I want to try it!

Literally months having passed since I had snake meat soup in Taiwan, when Mr. GP told me that Emu meat is now available in Mumbai I had to have it! So on one overcast Saturday evening, Mr. GP and I headed to the old Iranian Good Luck Cafe in Bandra West (Mumbai). The place is pretty easy to find and only a short autorikshaw ride away from the Bandra station. Mehboob studio opposite the cafe is a well known landmark in the area.

The Emu !
We wasted no time and immediately ordered Emu Kheema which was no surprise at all and we were served in a jiffy. Apart from being slightly lighter in colour it looked no different than regular mutton kheema and we were disappointed moments later to find out that it tasted the same too! On take the first few bites we both thought it might just be mutton but soon we realised that it leaves a different aftertaste and has a stronger smell. However, Kheema seems to be a poor choice of dish to exhibit the qualities of this meat unless the point being made was that it isn't really very different from mutton because all in all we didn’t feel like we were having something different and exotic.

Chicken Biryani !
Though the Rs. 100 emu kheema is more costly than a usual plate of kheema, the quantity is nowhere enough to be filling for anybody and we went on to order the Chicken Tikka Biryani since the cafe does not offer any other emu meat dishes. The Chicken Biryani was rather satisfying, fragrant and the chikken tikka in it weren’t burnt or overdone in anyway. It was enjoyable enough but I have tendency to get annoyed with places that do not serve raita along with the Biryani by default. Also, as Mr. GP rightly pointed out to me, the Biryani was slightly less spicy than it is at other eateries and we would have enjoyed more, a slightly spicier version.

Irani Chai !
Any true Mumbaikar knows that it is blasphemy to leave an Iranian Cafe without having the chai so we ordered “broom maska and chai” as the last course in our dinner. They served us ‘bun maska’ (on being asked they claimed kadak pav is available only in the mornings) and tea in paper cups! Why they serve tea in paper cups to customers dining inside the restaurant is beyond me but the quality made up for the lack of presentation and I had another cup before leaving.



The Emus are from Gujarat !
Right outside the cafe is this huge board advertising the main attraction, “Emu Kheema”. The claim is that Emu meat is 98% fat free and thus healthier than other meats. Interestingly enough, it is advertised as ‘red meat’, and not ‘poultry’ as I imagined it would be. On talking to the person at the counter, I learnt that their supplier runs an emu farm with 40000 birds in Gujarat! Gujarat, the land of vegetarianism of all places. Most of the meat is sent abroad and very little to Mumbai I was told. He mentioned about it being expensive at Rs. 600 a kilo for him perhaps as an explanation for the tiny quantity they serve. I hope some Infocity entrepreneur, Gandhinagar makes good use of this locally available meat to relieve the craving of meat hungry GNLUites.

The cafe is very clean, spacious, well lit and modern looking meaning that it is more of a middle range restaurant than the stereo typical Irani Cafe in Mumbai. So if you are looking for that kind of rickety wooden seating then this is not it. We saw at least three four families who had come for dinner apart from the usual Irani cafe crowd of men looking for special chai.

There were many more tasty looking items (such as Chicken Shawarma) on the Good Luck Cafe menu that we didn’t try. At the end of the day, despite the underwhelming emu, it was a satisfying meal which cost us less than Rs. 200 per head. I wouldn’t go there again or recommend anyone to go there just for the emu unless the come up with items like emu tikka which shall let us appreciate the meat better than kheema.

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Pancham Puriwala

I came to know of the place when a friend of mine recommended it to me. Since I am a fan of almost all cuisines and dishes I made up my mind to give it a try at the earliest opportunity. The opportunity arose rather quickly when I had to go to GPO on Wednesday. The restaurant was rather easy to find as it is literally at a stone’s throw from both the CST station and GPO.

The rather small and dimly lit place was full of activity when I arrived at around 1300 hours and the old wodden tables seemed all taken up by nearby