E-Notes

So you landed, got to a hotel and had a meal.....and then wrote almost 3000 words about it...not only have you unneccesarily worn out your fingers on the keyboard but also my eyesight as I read through this....sheer waste!

Subroto/47 - new foodie joints in Delhi, well for desi chink try Tao in Lodi Colony Market and for decent Oriental food try Chilli Season right across. Yes, in this day and age, secure and available parking is important, it doesn`t get better than Lodi Colony Market. Much of the other new eating joint stuff is high-value property low-value food. I mean, lounge bars and things like that. But there are some decent restaurants within the India Habitat Centre.

In Pune, do take time out for Mangalorean seafood at Coconut Grove (Maaldhaka, off railway Station)

+++

Shehlah/46 - on Delhi and Karachi people - well, going back in history and tradition again, my enemy`s enemy is my friend, we welcome you and whatever views you have . . .so where does that place the little provincial town called Lahore, other than smack in the middle?

See, we in Delhi don`t want much from cleavage-surplus chanda-box rampant Lahore, except that it should agree to become a sister city to, say, Sonepat? Or Mandi Gobindgarh. Maybe even Rajpura.

+++

Stuka/42 - boss, can`t you read a triple depth pun when you see it shouting EPDP in front of you?

Array Veeresh the key was ``naya`` as is new new foodie joints. Been to all those other places. I now prefer going to Karims in Nizamuddin as parking is easier (in a manner of speaking). Last time I went there on Monday forgetting that it is closed on that day! Fortunately Mr Siddique ka dhaba was an adequate replacement. The Karims next to the Jama Masjid? Well long long ago when I was a little kiddie my dad was the CO of this vehicles unit in Red Fort - guess where the kebabs came from?
There is this place in Vasant Place market where you get really good Avadhi food (i am sorry the name eludes me) but his kakori kebabs are a delight. Actually I can probably write a 10000 word post about food but will restrain myself. So again any new joints?

Jang - you not like Indian Chinese? My wife craves Indian Chinese being not satisfied with the authentic version. Actually some of the thela wallas (chinese gadi to u bombayites)make a mean chow mein. But the Irani joints are great no?

And if I make it to Pune this time then Cake`N Counter here I come (in more ways than one) - the best black forest cake and mud cake in the whole wide world.

V ji. Am from karachi. What do you do with the karachi-types?
Yes had abt 4 visits to India around 2001 and after that the dear border was closed! Had to then conduct business thereafter with Indian friends in SriLanka and Dubai (not that I am complaining!). However, would love to visit Delhi again. Btw, was thrown out of one of the hotels because it happened to be in Gurgaon and I had a visa for Delhi... and I thought I was just making a right turn from the airport!!!!

Re suchetapotnis: thanks for the praise and the offer... am looking forward to the ambience and food already...

bro subro

``that kebab wala next to Taj? ``

Bade Miya..but there is a really good one in the nebulous naz cinema (kamathipura-ish) area but i cant give directions..i always get lost. also, i got offended in those lanes last time..i was called rajesh khanna by some lovely ladies, and that made me feel really old.

dilli darbar on the famous foras road was also a big disappointment. this was a serious institution for mutton-biryani and dabba-gosht, and due to its premier locale, it kept the burger riff-raff out. the water lamented that they are not able to raise the prices, the customers who can afford the higher prices have moved to bandra and andheri. upon further investigation and talking to chefs, the biggest change is apparently the shooting up of the price of cloves. once you remove cloves from masala (or reduce it), the delicate balance is disturbed.

e.g for 10 rs, you will get like 4 cloves. now, a 50 rs mutton dish cannot afford 4-5 cloves it needs. 120 rs can start to afford.

i recall some halwai ka doodh and chat kind of stuff in the karol baug-ajaml khan rd. that was a bit rich for me..i was little shocked by dry date in the glass or milk. i thought for a moment that its a roach.

one thing that absolutely sucks in india is the chinese. i mean, its awful, salty, with a gooey brown gravy thrown over everything. i know many desis swear by indian-chinese, but cummon..its one of the most offensive foods invented. i can do the fried rice, but that is about it. this darned thing is availabel absolutely everywhere..i had a misfortune of recently having camel-dung flavores hakka noodles in udaipur, and Rs 400 a bowl, yet no better, at a relatively plush place called Mainland China at Saki Naka. and what the hell is veg. manchurian? is it a really bad joke on kardhi-pakora? Only good chinese in whole of Mumbai is a place behind Taj ..i think its called Lings.

thats my rant for the day..

Dear Shehla,

Just browsing through the Chowk archives when I stumbled across this.

I wish I hadn`t - I mean, not when I am trying to limit the intake of food. :-)

I always tend to feel guilty when faced with any authority - police, customs and immigration, traffic cops - you name it!

Your food descriptions are wonderfully delicious - I am fighing hunger pangs. You should seriously consider writing a food column.

Indeed as some have pointed out, Delhi lives far too much out of its super deluxe hotels. Mumbai has many more `stand alone` independent restaurants in addition to the street food.

But the ambience of eating with your feet digging deeper into the cooling sand post sunset at a beach shack is truly unique.

Try it the next time - my treat if it is in Goa.

Thanks for a great read.

``EPDP (East Pakistan Displaced Punjabis) Colony``

EPDP has been known for many years as Chittranjan Park. It is East Pakistan Displaced Persons colony and not Punjabis. It is a Bengali area, as u would expect East Pakistanis to be, though nearby GK etc are Punjabi areas.

Shehlah ji, I am pulling your leg. I was pulling your leg, I mean.

At one time, that was a favourite game in Delhi, pulling legs of Lahore type peoples. Like this, between some Lalajis and Mianjis getting bored while chatting at Company Bagh oppposite Delhi Station circa say 1945. . . ``Lalaji, aaj bore ho rahein hein, war bhee khatam ho gayee hai, aur kirkut bhee fixed hai, kya karein`` . . . ``Mianji, Chalo, Frontier Mail mein baith kar Lahore jayenge, kuch cleavage dekhenge, kuch chanda ke dabon mein donation dalenge aur kuch Lahore walon kee leg pull kar ke ek ek Gul-Burger khaa ke vaapas aayenge``. ``Achha, main to chal riyaa hoon, too bhee aa riyaa hai kyaa?`` ``Haan, without baith jayenge trainva mein, Manto kee kitaab padh lenge?``

Now I shall not. Though I dream of the old days.

Was that your last visit?

Subroto, eating in Delhi has gone honky tonk, so bring your wimen along. Most restaurants have bars now which remain open till 1am legally and ? ? ? There is one often more in EVERY part of Delhi now. Some even have ``pole dance`` shows . . . stay with tandoori chicken served whole and mutton chops at these places, can`t go wrong.

For food of the meat and roti and gravy curry sort, nothing beats even now the best behind Jama Masjid/off Daryaganj (choose from Jawahar, Moti Mahal or Flora, Karim`s gone upmarket). Around Hazrat Nizamuddin you got much crackling low-cost buffalo/beef kabab. The city is flooded with Punjabi-Chinese hot sauce type everything, every neighbourhood has a few which are as good as the pretentious 5-star ones.

Pizzas, burgers, et al have gone desi with a vengeance, spicy/tangy everything not just the toppings but also including the cheese and the bread/base. Nobody laughs anymore if you ask for pickle (achar, not that gherkin stuff . . .) with ``American`` food.

Chaat, Shah Jahan Road, next to UPSC. Or Bazaar Sitaram for stuffed potatoes.

Fish, off you go to East of Kailash market or EPDP (East Pakistan Displaced Punjabis) Colony. (Yes, we have one, now also called Chittaranjan Park). Served Bong ishtyle ghhotee/non-ghotee options with deep multiple fried stuffed with meat kind of atrocious but tasty ``Mughlai`` parathas.

Let me know when you are in Delhi next, Shehlah and Subroto? Bukhara et al are fine, too, but not the same thing.

#33 Jang - Oye! Koliwada fish balle balle. This was as much an institution as Ramakant kay batate vade on the Bom-Pune highway and who was that kebab wala next to Taj?

And you get Amritsari fish in Delhi sold by thela wallas (there was one in C-block market in VV).

And I think I`ll restrain myself here before I start talking about where to go for food in diff cities..drooling on the keyboard is not someting I want to do right now.

Veeresh if you are reading - any naya food joints in Sadde dilli? Only 2 weeks visit but then I am going to the gym daily and eating salads in anticipation of the visit.....

Veeresh ji, just for you have dug into my passport! The year of visit was 2001. The flight was a PIA Lhr-Del and it arrived in the evening. Surely West side and The Rad had to exist then otherwise I must give myself credit for an extremely well irrigated imagination!

Hi Shehlah . . . do visit Delhi again and as far as street food is concerned, let me know please?

Of course you have all rights to an imagination licence! However, were the Indo-Pak flights operating 3 years ago? And was the Lahore-Delhi PIA flight before that a morning flight or an evening arrival DEL? Was the Radisson in operation 3 years ago? And most of all, when did Maurya start West Side? Think think . . . caught out?

Hey, once again, good read.

shehlah,

i guess (bovine) actress saima is sexy?

the best sentence was

``She stood near my window for a moment, and I half expected her to extend her foot to ask for alms.``

i can imagine a cartoon from the famous animal cartoonist.

also liked the juxtaposition of the cow and the qasai, you and the immigration.

Intimation over email of publication still remains pathetic!!! tsk...tsk.... chowk editors yaar bata tau diya karo!!!!!

To all those who liked the article `thank you`
To all those who dint `thank you`

Given that not many people want to give me the `imagination license`, let me clarify... the cow incident was real, so was the food at sheraton, so was the incident with the immigration officers! However the entire episode is approx 3 years old!

btw, a cow is sexy... havent you seen our film actress Saima?

Dilli waloon ka qasoor hai that they dint take me to some place more `culturally entrenched`, although Mumbai food was ``tiffin`` and ``thaali fast food`` and pretty much everything at Juhu chopatty.... Btw, ref to ``client ko bill mara ho ga...``.... i was the client!!! :)

t ji... waqai barri mehnat hoti hai itna saara khana hazam karnay mein! magar retire ho gaey tau khayein gay kahan say???

ras:Here`s another option for you:
The Times: What`s new in India

We shared breakfast with a Bollywood hero
Stephen McClarence relished his homestays in Jaipur and Goa, although he did have to steer clear of the pickled pig’s brains and liver. On page 3, Will Hide joins a maiden voyage up the mighty Brahumatra




Magnificent sights such as the Palace of Winds will always mesmerise tourists in Jaipur (AP)

BEGUM FAUZIA Ahmad Khan beams graciously. “We will all lunch together on the terrace at 2pm,” she says. “And we have a famous Indian film star staying with us.”
My wife and I smile politely. We have a sketchy knowledge of Bollywood and have only just arrived in Jaipur to stay in a family home and “see India through the eyes of Indians”. But these are rather grander Indians, by the look of it, than we’d anticipated.

We unpack, admire the Art Deco suite in the bedroom, and come down to the terrace at the appointed time. A large and distinguished-looking man is sitting at the head of the table. He holds out his hand. “Hello,” he says in a voice of thespian resonance, “I’m Shashi Kapoor.”

Which is how we come to share lunch, dinner and the next morning’s breakfast with one of India’s best known actors.

Not all the family homes in Indian “homestay” schemes are as upmarket as this. Not all can offer their guests after-dinner chit-chat about Merchant Ivory, Heat and Dust and the Kendal family’s Shakespeare tours around the sub-continent (Kapoor was married to the late Jennifer Kendal, Felicity’s sister).

But all aim to give a more personal experience of Indian life than you find at hotels on the tourist merry-go-round. You don’t, after all, generally find yourself discussing the dowry system or the care of elderly relatives with the average room service waiter.

Most Indian tourist centres have homestay houses. Their owners set aside a bedroom or two for paying guests, who share their meals and, if they want to, their day-to-day lives.

Woking-based Munjeeta Travel, for instance, has a network of 50 Indian families who play host for about £20 a night. “They will meet the guests at the railway station or airport and take them round and show them the sights and the culture,” says Jogi Sohal, the retired engineer who set up the company.

“And they’ll also take them to the market, show them how to cook and generally show them their way of life. It’s a chance to see India through the eyes of Indians.”

Inevitably most of the hosts are middle-class — teachers, doctors or civil servants — but the range is wide.



Other places, charging as little as £5 a night, make no great claims in their adverts, which show spotless rooms with enormously wide beds and thin mattresses. You can also stay in villages and sleep on charpoy rope-beds for about £100 a night. The self-consciously simple life never comes cheap.

We have booked into two “homestay” houses — here in Jaipur and farther south in Goa, both offering fresh perspectives on familiar places.

In Goa, we’ll be staying far from the tacky resorts, in a 16th-century village house with rocking chairs on the veranda and hammocks in a garden that merges into a palm grove. But for the moment we are in Jaipur.

Loharu House, a spacious villa on an avenue occupied mostly by rich politicians, is a haven in one of India’s busiest cities. Built shortly after Independence in Art Deco style, it’s the home of Durru, grandson of the last Nawab of Loharu, and his welcoming wife, Begum Fauzia, who runs a Montessori school next door. For the past 20 years, the couple have set aside 12 of their 16 bedrooms for paying guests.

“People say: ‘How can you share your house with complete strangers?’” says the Begum. “I say: ‘They’re not strangers. They come from our friends.’ We get writers, politicians, film stars, people from all over the world, but we don’t advertise; it’s all by personal recommendation, by word of mouth. One guest said it was just like being at home, except that you get a bill at the end.”

As we’ve seen the sights of Jaipur on previous visits, we pay brief visits to her recommended jewellery shops and shoemakers’ bazaars, and then hurry back to the house. We sit on the veranda, which overlooks one of the most beautiful gardens I’ve seen in India, with guava and lemon trees, beds of roses and marigolds.

In true house-guest style, we have a late-afternoon siesta and then come down to explore the house. It is grand but charming, full of old princely Rajiana. A gummy stuffed tiger stalks the lounge, with four mounted heads, caught mid-roar, to keep him company. Sepia rajahs and maharajahs stare out of photographs. There are potted plants, fresh flowers, Rajasthani textiles, and old-world refinement.


Over dinner — a delicately cooked meal ending with bread and butter pudding and jasmine tea — the Begum explains that her husband, an MP, is away campaigning in the state elections.

“He had Mark with him on the campaign trail yesterday,” she says. “And he was getting as many garlands as my husband, who had to say: ‘Mark, I’m the politician, you know, not you’. ” She need hardly explain that she is talking about Sir Mark Tully, India’s Greatest Living Englishman.

The guests at breakfast next morning include a member of the Indian P. G. Wodehouse Society and an American crafts importer who makes the dubious claim that “Tents are fun!” We move on to Goa: it is lush, green, with marvellous beaches, friendly people, and, in Prashant Maurya, a guide keen to show it all off.

Maurya, who runs the India Invites travel company, gives us an exemplary tour of Good-Time Goa’s attractions. We see vast, dazzling white churches and old towns that could be Tennessee Williams stage sets. We have a sunset beer at Fat Willy’s Beach Shack. We see a spice plantation, but give the prawn cultivation farm a miss.