City Food – Roadside Chai, Around Town Food by The Delhi Walla - October 17, 2011October 17, 20117 King of brews. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] As Delhi acquires the trappings of a modern metropolis, the carts dedicated exclusively to serving tea are becoming fewer. But it is still possible to stop in the middle of a busy road and quench one’s thirst for tea for just a couple of rupees. Until early 2011, each morning, be it winter or summer, an old sari-clad woman – a migrant from Bihar – would pull in her chai cart at the entrance of Hauz Khas Village, south Delhi. As the tea boiled on her kerosene stove, morning walkers from the adjacent Rose Garden and Deer Park arrived to sit on cement blocks placed beside the cart where they read the newspapers and discussed the day’s headlines. Apart from the stove and kettle, the tea cart had plastic jars of fen and rusks, the classic chai accompaniments. Yet the chai was perfect on its own. With a hint of of crushed ginger, it was not too strong, too milky or too sugary. Sometimes a leaf from the neem tree above fell into the kettle. Unfortunately, that tea woman has vanished. Perhaps she has returned to her village in Bihar. The more boisterous experience can be lived at Ballimaran in Shahjahanabad. The Firdaus Mithai Shop, near Mughal-era poet Mirza Ghalib’s haveli, has been brewing sweet, milky chai for 60 years. When a customer wishes to be generous to his friend, he asks the waiter for the chai to be topped with malai (cream). A curious feature of chai-drinking in Shahjahanabad is that it is drunk from a glass tumbler fitted inside a china cup. The cup’s handle protects the bare hands from the chai’s burning heat. The park above the Palika Bazaar parking lot in the center of the colonial-era Connaught Place is a popular gay cruising joint. There, chai vendors are the only welcoming interference in the quests for love and sex. Moving with thermos flasks and plastic cups, these bhayyas are perhaps the only friends to the park’s lonely regulars. If Delhi were a country, roadside chai would be its national drink. Chai for the chicken? High tea with nuts Energy drink Starting the day Ginger-flavoured I want your chai, and smile Chai stall Steaming kettle Tea labour The city is going to dogs Pavement refresher Just a job Steam engine Too milky? Waiting Chai hour over Chai buddies So Shahjahanabad Zen and the art of chai drinking On the boil Less burning this way A life of chai Chai sighting Careful Chai trade Chai in the park Chai chat Chai street Chai companionship Hindoo holiday Tea House Chaikhana evening Perfect No school? Tea please Ginger chai Beggar’s addiction That’s the flow Readymade chai Daily life Kettle war Too strong? Proust and chai Pondering over tea Full protocols Beginning to end Basic infrastructure About to boil Tea snacks Chai corner Tea-time loners It’s hot The old Hauz Khas tea mornings The tea woman of Hauz Khas Village Good day, sir No milk? Cheating! FacebookX Related Related posts: City Hangout – 20 Hyperlocal Chai Spots, Around Town City Food – Lallan’s Chai, Galli Choori Wallan, Old Delhi Mission Delhi – Shanti Devi, Hauz Khas Village City Food – Railway Station Chai, Gurgaon City Food – Bhai Subhan’s Chai Stall, Turkman Gate
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If you could stop hating, and start reading, you would know that it is a reference to the way the Britishers used t….Aah! Never mind. As the old Poorvanchali saying goes, Bhains ke aage been bajaana..
Chai is really Delhi’s national drink. Thanks for this wonderful post and turning ordinary into extraordinary.