The "Chaat" trail on the streets of Old Delhi

Past few weeks, my home looked as if i am running some papad-achaar business. Thanks to my Mother-in-law who had come for a short visit and left teaching me all the good-old days activities of women. The arrival of summers and women in those days would get ready to make all different kinds of pickles, chutneys, papads, wafers etc etc. Though some of it's process is tedious and lengthy and would invite boredom if making all alone, i would post pictures and recipes of each of them one by one. The pickles are surely worth making, as they were a specialty of the nani's and dadi's of my husband.

During their stay here, we went to visit Chandni Chowk - one of the oldest markets in New Delhi and the largest wholesale market in India. Chandni Chowk, though crowded has it's own charm, not only for the shopoholics but also for foodies like us. Chandni Chowk was a market visited once by merchants from China, Turkey and even Holland. You think of a type of fabric, or a book, or some household or lifestyle item, or a spice or cooking ingredient and you have it all here! During my 2 year stay in Delhi, this was my 4th visit to Chandni Chowk, and i feel there is still so much more to explore.

For food lovers, this place literally awakens your senses. The aroma of the food when you walk around is so inviting, that you can't miss eating some food that has retained their taste all over the years. Going beyond the regular Karim's and Moti Mahal or Al-jawahar, this time we ditched non-vegetarian food and decided to head on a chaat-walk. The first stop was :

Natraj DahiBhalle wale : Imagine the month of may, sweat rolling all over your body, tired legs from shopping, and crowds of people till your eyes can see. Suddenly a plate of some tangy tamarind chutney floating on some rich, creamy, smooth curd arrives in front of you! You take a dip in that curd with your spoon and you find a soft bhalla inside loaded with masala. You take a bite of that Dahi-bhalla and an ocean explodes in your mouth. Suddenly you no more feel the scorching heat or smell the sweat-marks. Priced at INR 50, this dahi-bhalla is a must-try if you visit Chandni-chowk. They serve bhalle since 1940, hence ask any person where the "bhallewala" is, and you will get the right address!

Our next stop was the Jung Bahadur Kachori wala : Located just near the parathe wali galli, this is a roadside stand serving some crispy kachoris with some hot and spicy aloo sabzi. Just thinking about the urad daal kachoris is making my mouth water right now. Served just at INR 20 for 1 kachori with sabzi, you can't afford to miss this place if you love some spicy stuff.

Just a small walk towards the metro station and we found a tiny looking shop of the famous Shri Balaji Chaat Bhandar : We tried the Kalmi bada as the name sounded interesting. Kalmi vadas are basically deep fried gram dal crispies. Here, they were topped with some awesome chaat. The guy serving us (Raju bhai) was one interesting guy who gave us water to wash our hands and insisted that we eat with our hands. He feels that a "chaat" tastes best when you literally lick your fingers clean. True to his opinion, we simply licked our fingers and plate clean. Their papdi chaat is must-try too. But we had Gol-gappe (again on Raju's insistence that the gol-gappe water is made from bisleri and that he serves it the best in town). Again, we will second his opinion that the green water was one of the best we have tasted in a long long time! It had the perfect flavours of sour, sweet and tangy. What more! It was cold - perfect for the season! 

On our way to Khari Baoli - the wholesale spice market, we came across Bishan Swaroop chaat bhandaar : who has been running the place since 1920. His aloo chaat is very famous, but we were too full to stuff ourselves with carbohydrates, so we tried the Fruit chaat. Reluctant to tell me what his secret spices were, he mentioned he adds chaat masala and chutney to the fruits. Priced at INR 40, this chaat adds a nice zing to your regular fruits and worth a try if you like a little spice to your fruits. I personally prefer my fruits plain, so i would avoid this the next time!

After stuffing so much of food in our stomachs in a span of 1 hour, we definitely needed some medicine for the stomach!!! What better way than to have a glass (rather kullad) of Lassi. This lassi was fresh, sweet and refreshed us, preparing us for our journey back home in all that hustle bustle. Running the shop since 1981, Pandit Gyan Prasad Madan Mohan 's Lassi priced at INR 45 is a hit amongst the travellers. Their Malai cake is delicious too, so grab a parcel of it back home!

There are many other places we have missed, but were too full to try more! So until next time!!!

Happy travelling :)

 

The one month!!!

It's almost a month i wrote my last post (my 1st Blog-versary), and that's taking too much time to writing back again!!! I have been busy and lazy, both! I wanted to write only when i felt like, and not because i had to! After all, that's what the fun of a blog is about, right? You write your heart out, and not just type words!!! This remains as a memory in the web world for us to see years later of what we did/felt today.

Ahh, am i getting too sentimental here? Well, leaving that apart, i decided to let you all know of what i have been upto in the last month (apart from lazying around, playing games, reading lot of books and spending a lot of time with myself). Not that the kitchen was out-of-order... Infact i have been cooking a lot, but just the daily stuff! So, after my Blog-versary, i started with the Diwali cleaning spree of home, some shopping of the usual rangoli-diyas-lights and of course making sweets! This year i didn't make our traditional Faraal (The snacks and sweets we normally make for Diwali - Chakli, ladoo, Chiwda, sev, Shankarpale etc) and instead made methi puris, nankhatais and kuchu nimki. I had been wanting to take pictures of them to post recipes later, but for some reason i didn't.. so, i will make them again and do so.

A pic of  Diwali celebrations from back home

And then, we went home for 10 days!!! I was so looking forward to this vacation as this time we were going to visit my husband's hometown-Akola for the very first time after marraige. And i was really happy that i got a chance to meet my extended in-laws family and get all the blessings and love from them. Traditionally, our homes had "Aangan" (kind of courtyard) and there would always be a Tulsi tree in between. And retaining the culture, i saw just that, with the lady of the home doing Pooja (Lighting a diya in evening along with incense stick and putting water and drawing rangoli each morning) of the tree. These small traditions imbibe a lot of virtues inside oneself.

Tulsi tree with rangoli in our aangan at Akola

We also got to visit the "almost-calculated" 100 year old home of my husband's where his great-grandfather grew up. Lots of trees, and the home surrounded with dogs and cats, it looked liked just the place for our vacation from the concrete jungles. 

The 100 year old home of hubby's great-grandfather

I also learnt a lot of traditional Vidarban recipes, of which some i am definitely going to try soon. Majorly from my hubby's Uncle who runs a catering business with his wife succesfully in Akola, and is himself a great cook. (I can vouch for it, as i lip-smacked curries made by him) My bag back home was full of gifts and most of it, the masalas that i carried back :)

Hubby's uncle making Karela-curry

This time the Pune visit was all about spending time with the family, so we didn't venture eating-out much. But we surely satisfied our sandwich cravings, the still-feel-the-taste-in-my-mouth Dabeli, and of course the ever famous Good luck cafe which we visited even last time for their famous Bun-maska Chai. The iranian cafe has a different charm to it, and just going to that place makes you walk back in time. 

The famous dabeli

This time, we also visited the "Konkan express", as husband wanted to gorge on some sea-food. The malvani-konkani style food was fingerliscious. Me, being a vegetarian ordered their green thali (the veg xacuti and solkadhi being the speciality) and i almost finished the whole thali alone :) Fairly priced, this place is must visit in Kothrud area of Pune for sea-food. 

At the Konkan express relishing sea-food

One thing which i would specially like to mention in the post is the Diwali fort making by children, where miniature versions of actual forts are made by kids with the help of mud, stones, and some readily available accessories. India has a lot of forts, and especially the Deccan region has a major of them being built by Shivaji Maharaj. Since decades, children make forts of mud in an open space outside their homes or colonies which acts as a source of learning for them in their Diwali-vacations. A lot of workshops and competitions are arranged these days and awards are given to the best fort built. We visited 2 of such exhibitions of which i am posting pictures. 

Note: Sorry for the quality of images, as all pictures are taken by phone and in low-light.

Beautiful, ain't they? 

Back home and got back to work (Pet-sitting) wherein i am sitting one handsome Tom-cat these days. Odin, as he is called, he communicates with his meows and loves jumping all over!!

Meanwhile, a friend came over to eat "mere-haath-ka-khana" and gave a pat on my back after relishing all the food i cooked for 3 days! Feels really great when someone really licks a plate clean even if you have made a simple "Varan-bhaat" (Daal-chawal).

Winters have started here and now all i have to do is cosy-up-in-the-bed with a warm cup of coffee or green tea! So hopefully i will do more of writing now :)

Happy winters everyone :)