'A wonderfully evocative book on Delhi and its food combining decades of scholarship with personal experiences and memories
by one of our greatest food writers.'-Vir Sanghvi, journalist and author, Rude Food
'Pushpesh Pant weaves a magical mosaic in his inimitable style about his personal, and Delhi's, food journey, spiced with anecdotes and tales. A mustread book.'-Rocky Mohan,
food connoisseur, author and custodian of Old Monk rum
Who is an 'asli Dilliwala'-a true-blue Delhizen-and what is his cuisine?
To answer this question, Pushpesh Pant, food historian and raconteur
par excellence, takes us on a culinary journey from the Mahabharata's
Indraprastha-the first city of Delhi-to the present day, through the
Sultanate, the Mughal Empire and the British Raj.
On this fascinating food trip, we savour the rich qormas and kebabs of
Shahjahanabad and the Shepherd's Pie and mutton cutlets of 'angrezon ki
Dilli', with a light snack in between of papri or undiya, washed down with bael
ka sherbet in a good Baniya home. But that is not all. As Delhi's population
grew to include migrants from across the country, so did its culinary
repertoire. The Dilliwala of today is as likely to enjoy Calcutta-style street
food-chops, cutlets, puchka and jhaalmuri-in the south Delhi colony of C.R.
Park, as he is to relish a berry pulao and dhansak at the Parsi Anjuman. And
what better tiffin than idli-dosa-sambar from the South Indian outlets that dot
the city? From a city identified largely with Punjabi and Mughlai food-butter
chicken and biryani-Delhi is now a melting pot of cuisines ranging from
Kashmiri, Bengali and Bihari, to Andhra, Naga and 'Indian-Chinese'.
Pushpesh Pant also tracks the growth of the city's restaurant culture, from
wayside dhabas and McDonalds to high-end restaurants that can compete with
the best in the world-justifying its claim to being a global food capital where
virtually every cuisine can be found, including Japanese, Thai, Mediterranean
and Korean.
Drawing on a wealth of historical records and literary sources, Pushpesh Pant
has written a delightful, anecdotal account of the life and food habits of each
period of Delhi's history, that is as much a feast to be enjoyed, as the food he
describes.
