New Delhi:
A food festival here has recreated the sweet and sour, hot and tangy flavours of old Delhi, sans the crowd and the fear of the coronavirus.
The 11th edition of “Dilli 6” food festival is serving tender ‘galouti kebabs’, and the popular ‘Daulat ki chaat’, alongside jalebis and ‘shahi tukda’, in the sanitised environment of Crowne Plaza Today in Okhla, with all COVID-19 protocols in place.
The two-week-long festival that takes foodies on a Mughlai-Anglo Indian food trail starting from ‘Ghalib’s Dilli’ and all the way to Lutyen’s New Delhi’, covers the two most gastronomically significant eras in the history of the city — ‘The Last Mughal Emperor’ and ‘The Emergence of British Raj’.
The menu, a mix of the best street delicacies and Anglo-Indian specials, boasts of lip-smacking dishes like chicken pakoda’, kachori chaat’, fruit sandwich, matar kulcha’, railway mutton curry, Calcutta devil egg, daak bungalow mutton curry’ and country captain chicken.
A stall serving the much relished deep-fried breads from Chandni Chowk’s iconic “paranthe wali gali is also part of the spread.
“I went to Chandni Chowk to source all masalas and other ingredients to prepare the feast. This was done to ensure that there is no compromise on authenticity as well as safety.
Everything you see in the menu is prepared in-house from scratch. For some stalls, like for a chat counter, we have vendors from Chandni Chowk serving here,” said chef Dev Raj Sharma.
To showcase a true culinary and cultural ‘jugalbandi’ of Ghalib’s Delhi and Lutyens’ New Delhi, the organisers have put up unique dining experiences in the form of “Shayari Durbar” and “Viceroy’s House”.
Highlights include a ‘Dilli Junction’ (1864) station created to offer a dine inside the train experience, and a private dining experience at Namak Haram Ki Haveli , themed after Bhawani Shankar Khatri who is said to have betrayed the Marathas by siding with the British.
The beverage menu is equally innovative, with the Kadha Station’ serving immunity booster shots, alongside a wide range of quirky concoctions like “Bunty Aur Bubbly”, “Mohabbat Ke Sherbat Ka Payala”, “Lalpari Gulab Jal Santre Ki” and “Rum Coke Aur Masti .
“Our in-house mixologists have concocted two special drinks inspired from the personalities of Mirza Ghalib and Edwards Lutyens to showcase their love for wine and champagnes,” said the organisers.
The feast goes off the table on Saturday.
