Old Delhi is still seems to be one of the favorite place for food freaks. One can visit any day here and enjoy tremendous variety of savories. Some of the famous eatery joints belongs to this place. Ordinarily, you would find this place full of crowd and busy, but there is something contrasting here during Ramadan days. I have seen and heard a lot about the Food walks by various Foodies during these days. Keeping that excitement with me and out of curiosity I happened to visit here along with my friend to relish the non-vegetarian delicacies and felt it to be little over hauled in Ramadan Days. I must give credit to many food bloggers of sharing their feast's experience during Ramadan days, which might looks appealing and attractive to many foodies. You will find numbers of outstanding eatery joints but still unknown to most of us. To name few of them which I visited this Ramadan are Haji Mohd Hussain, famous of Fried Chicken, Aslams Chicken for Cream chicken tikka, Cool Point for Shahi Tukda, Pahalwaan Biryani for chicken and buff biryani, Taufeeq Biryani for Buff Biryani. There are many more eateries but these are some of the selective places, listed on almost most of the food blogs and websites.
My first Iftaar food walk at Jama Masjid, Old Delhi proved to be an admirable and satisfactory experience, however you can enjoy the food here at any part of the year, but the decoration and festive excitement of Ramadan makes it all together a different experience. I thoroughly loved everything I had here starting from chicken dry, biryanis to local sweet savories.
We started our food walk and took first halt at Lalu
kebabs, unfortunately kebabs were finished that time, so I tried buff
boti Kebab. It was nicely marinated and juicy served with chutney and
onion rings but was undercooked. It was overall nice but should be
properly cooked.
Moving forward, we noticed a crowded place, people were waiting for their turn to order the food. The place looks to be famous for the chicken fry as 3-4 people were engaged starting from marinating the chicken then frying it on one big vessel and then other person cutting it into pieces and again putting it in another big vessel for another round of frying and then finally the last man sprinkles the chaat masala and serves it with onion and chutney to you. We opted for
chicken fry quarter for Rs. 90 and because the sitting was already occupied, thus decided to stand next to the shop and had this hot and spicy chicken fry delicacy. Believe me guys, it was one of the best chicken fry I ever had in my life. Everything related to it was perfect, properly marinated, juicy, crunchy and super spicy. And the best thing was the chicken was amazingly cooked, it was so soft that we didn't find issues eating it while standing and holding the plate on one hand on a secluded lane.
 |
| Chicken Fry at Haji Mohd. Hussain |
After finishing it, we looked back and noticed a place name Cool point and decided to try Shahi Tukda price rs. 30 per plate a sweet dish made of bread, Loads of butter, almonds and cashewnuts . Though it was served hot, but the sweetness and taste was simply divine. This is the first time we had this sweet dish and found it really worth trying it. Later, we also tried Phirni Rs.20 at this place but was not convinced at all with the taste. It was not something which can blew your mind. I was looking for the phirni served with hot milk, but unfortunately didn't find it anywhere.
Moving forward to try something new and different, we landed to Aslam Chicken corner, again full crowded and hard to find a place to sit and even order for take away. From the setup outside the shop, this place looks to be good in serving the chicken tikkas and we ordered a quarter plate of chicken tikkas. It comes out as a all together different item. They used to fry the chicken first and then cut it into small pieces and place into iron rods for charcoal grill. After roasting, they put plenty of cream and Amul butter into it and serves along with raita and onion rings. The flavor and taste of it turned out to be a complete surprise to us. The masala sprinkled, cream and butter once got mixed, makes it a delight to eat. But make sure you order rumali roti along with it. Then only you can enjoy the butter and cream of the chicken. Another fine thing to be remembered for long time.
You cannot forget the variety of biryani here and keeping that in mind, we started hunting for best biryanis at Matia mahal. Pehalwaan Biryani is one re known name for biryanis, they offer both chicken and buff biryani. We tried the
chicken biryani for Rs 70 per plate here and didn't find it upto the mark or say as per the popularity of pehalwan biryani. I must highlight the chicken in the biryani which was very tender and can be easily cut from the spoon, but overall it failed to impress and fascinate us.
While searching for Pehalwan Biryaniwale, we came to know about the popularity of taufeeq's biryani and hence decided to try it once. After having tough time finding the place, known to be as Dil Pasand Biryani Point. They only offers Buff biryani and we were not in the mood to try it and opted to skip it at the end. But manage to click its picture for reference. One more thing to higlight that this place was crowded however we didn't saw anybody aprt from us eating in Pehalwan's biryani point. So, as per me no place here who sells exceptional biryani.
After eating so much chicken varieties and sweets. We were craving for mutton and wanted to try it somewhere other than
Karim's and Al-Jawahar.
The reason for that was we already tried these twp places many times in
the past and wanted to keep this food walk completely distinctive from
past experiences. There is a small food point next to
Al-Jawahar, its name was Old Jawahar hotel. We went inside and ordered
Mutton Korma and Tandoori roti Cost Rs. 160.
To be honest, there is nothing worth mentioning about it because it
didn't click our taste buds. Mutton was perfectly cooked, but the
curry's taste was bland and not tempting at all. It might be because by
this time we both were over stuffed and bit tired, but still that's the
quality of good food which changes your mood and it was not like that in
any ways.
You would notice a variety of food while roaming on the streets, some would attract you or some may not. Best thing is to take things in small portions so that you can try/taste many options. Last thing to mention was the Watermelon and Apple shake. You would find it at one corner of Matia Mahal. The glass cost Rs15 and it is definitely worth trying, very refreshing and chilled, necessary when you are walking so much and that too at a busy and hot n humid day.
 |
| water melon shake |
 |
| Seller- Water melon/Apple shake |
Tips/Suggestions:
- Try to visit after 10 PM to avoid rush.
- You can park your car 500 mtrs before JamaMasjid gateno.4
- Take food in small proportions, then only you can afford to taste many options
- Haji Mohd. hussain's Fried chicken and Aslams's cream chicken is a must try.
- Take care of your belongings and do not get so much involved in the food.
Baker's Cafe, Gangtok Sikkim, India-----------
