The walk from the metro station to office takes me down Parliament Street towards Palika Bazar. The first stretch is quite sterile as it in front of the police station and is rather close to the public protest site near Jantar Mantar. Apart from a guy selling miscellaneous savouries, there is nothing there. But once I cross Jantar Mantar itself, suddenly the road becomes more active and the street vendors abound!
My favourite is pattywala – vegetarian (read potato) and paneer. He also sells veg burgers and allied stuff and has some device which keeps things hot which I have not quite cracked. Patties for me is comfort food. It was the only food one could buy in school at break-time and was especially a life-saver when the ubiquitous cheel swooped down and grabbed your sandwich which Mom had packed. I paid 4 annas then (that is 25 paise to the uninitiated) but inflation has taken its toll and it now comes in exchange for ₹ 15! The pattywala is 15 bucks richer on many evening walks from my office to the metro station.
Then there is the whole range of snacks. There is bhel puri, muri, chaat (the whole nine yards including gol gappas, aaloo chaat, tiki…) – normal stuff and not part of my beat. But some unusuals have taken root. There is a guy who sells vadas, which comes in 2 flavours. I haven’t quite figured out its origins – it certainly isn’t your South Indian medu vada or the even rarer and delicious masala vada, thought they share a strange likeness. This guy shows up typically in the evening when people are on the way back home. Opposite him is the sprouted dal guy, who shows up at lunchtime and stays on in the evening. This is really tasty, especially after it has been spiked with the onions and green chillies with a dash of lemon. And healthy too, which is not really hallmark of Delhi street food where taste absolutely trumps nutrition! Funnily, I have always seen these two folks together – like some jugalbandi – and haven’t quite figured out the connection.
The relatively new kid on this snack block – which has a real fan following with the younger generation – is of course momos. When I was growing up, Tibetan food was defined by momos and thukpas but you had to literally look for them – near Chanakya cinema (Mohan Singh Place?) and Tibdabs in DU (trust the Stephanites (sorry, Stephanians!) and their ilk to rename the rather drab-sounding Tibetan Dhaba! Now, you can’t throw a stone anywhere without hitting a momo guy and CP is no different! And the variety I am sure, takes the breath away of every Tibetan; I am sure the paneer momo is strictly a Delhi invention! Not my cup of tea, though. Momos remind me too much of a southie sweet called kozhukattais which I associate with the nicest human being I have known in all my life – my grandmother!
Then there are the seasonal ones. Winter brings the mungphalliwala with that little pot of fire to keep the phallis warm. Some of the bigger folks also sell that absolutely delightful range of mithai – gazaks of different kinds, revadis, chikis – all the stuff designed to sit in Delhi’s winter sun and believe there is a jannat on this earth and it is not only in Kashmir! The first sign of monsoon for me is not the met report but the sudden appearance of the bhuttawala. But a new variant of the bhuttawala has suddenly made an appearance in the last couple of years. This is the boiled – as opposed to the roasted – bhutta which seems to be available even off-season! It took me a while to figure this out because for some reason, these are kept shadily in a bag and hence not visible unless you know what you are looking for!
Lunchtime is when the street food bursts into life. If it’s Delhi, it has to be chole bhature and kulchche chole. The really famous one near office is behind Scindia House called Bhogal, not to be confused with the place Bhogal near Lodi Road! If you don’t know Bhogal, you will never find it, as it is tucked away from the mainstream in one hole-in-the wall near a travel agency, a mechanic shop and what, intriguingly, looks like a bulk bookseller. Bhogal’s wears are to die for, even though the surroundings might suggest you will die from that! There is the
brass pathila which has the mouth-watering chole, a container of hot oil for the bhature and crudely made-up flat
surfaces that serve as tables for those who want to eat in. You can see that Bhogal’s wears don’t sell on ambience
– its sheer taste, value-for-money and quick!
There are other big lunch things that I personally don’t favour but one can certainly smell as one makes ones way
to Bhogal, There is of course rajma chawal and even the kadhi chawal both of which seem to find favour with
Delhi-ites, though I had my life-time fill of the former in the hostel and my system can’t take any more. There is
also a paratha guy but, surprisingly, I haven’t spotted a puriwala in the wild as yet – perhaps they prefer railway
stations! Near these lunch places also hang around the purveyors of desserts (a diabetics poison and so I have not
tried these) but there are guys selling kulfi, kheer and the like.
So, what is it about street food that makes it so divine? It can’t be the ambience! So it must be the dirt and dust
that undoubtedly gives it character. And it makes life worth living!