City Food – Gular Leaves, Around Town

City Food – Gular Leaves, Around Town

Food of Delhi

The secret of the mutton.

[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]

If you love mutton curry, you cannot ignore gular. The leaves of this tree are the food of goats. Gular, the common fig (Ficus carica) native to West Asia, is cultivated in North India. Delhi gets its supply from the farmlands of western Uttar Pradesh.

The truck carrying gular leaves from Bulandshahar arrives in Delhi shortly after midnight. It stops at the traffic light outside Turkman Gate, one of the four surviving Mughal-era gateways leading to the walled city of Shahjahanabad. The waiting traders crowd around the truck; the leaves are priced at 700 Rs for a quintal and sold on for 10 Rs per keg.

Most gular leaf stalls are located in Delhi’s Muslim localities like Matia Mahal and Mehrauli, where goats are reared as pets. Bought for as little as 1,000 Rs, a kid in a Shahajahanabad home is brought up with as much indulgence as a pug in a Defence Colony apartment. The only difference being that after a few years the goat ends up in the mother’s cooking pot.

In Shahjahanabad, the unnamed shop selling gular leaves at Matia Mahal Chowk is open daily from 7 am to 3 am. “We sell about seven quintals daily,” says Nawabuddin, the man sitting at the counter. He runs the store with his brother, who takes over the night-shift duties.

A few steps away pavement butchers sell goat meat. Every eatery in Matia Mahal bazaar makes dishes from every part of the goat, including the head. Brain curry, ginger-flavoured chhote ka paya (toes), aloo salan (rib), fried kaleji (liver), gurda keema (kidney) and kapura masala (testicles) are some popular delicacies. Since gular is the source of these dishes, I nibbled on a leaf to ascertain its taste. I’ll prefer mutton curry.

The essence of goat curry

City Food – Gular Leaves, Around Town

Food for the flesh

City Food – Gular Leaves, Around Town

10 Rs per keg

City Food – Gular Leaves, Around Town

For my kid

City Food – Gular Leaves, Around Town

No bargaining

City Food – Gular Leaves, Around Town

To the last gram

City Food – Gular Leaves, Around Town

Another goat owner

City Food – Gular Leaves, Around Town

Food of Delhi

City Food – Gular Leaves, Around Town

Goats won’t mind

City Food – Gular Leaves, Around Town

Feast

Bakra-Eid!

It’s a party tonight

Fodder

It’s a party tonight

At Work

Thank you, gular

Food of Delhi