City Food - Sadia Dehvi's Iftar Fast Food, Hazrat Nizamuddin East

City Food – Sadia Dehvi’s Iftar Fast Food, Hazrat Nizamuddin East

City Food - Sadia Dehvi's Iftar Fast Food, Hazrat Nizamuddin East

The evening meal.

[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Ramzan is the month when the Quran is believed to have been sent down from heaven and revealed to Prophet Muhammad. It is also the best opportunity for believers to get chubby. While the day is devoted to keeping the roza, or fast, the nights are made of ghee-rich khajlas, cream-soaked shahi tukdas and delicious milky coconut parathas.

But Iftari snacks that break the fast at sunset is a healthier story up to a point.

On the first day of Ramzan, The Delhi Walla witnessed the Iftar meal at author Sadia Dehlvi’s drawing room in Hazrat Nizamuddin East. Ms Dehlvi, who is writing a book on Delhi’s traditional cuisine, was surrounded by son, singer Arman Ali Reza, and family friends, Shabana Rahman and Aleena Hashmi. She laid out the dastarkhan on the carpet in front of the TV. These were the items:

1) Dates
2) Spiced fruit salad
3) Water melon (sliced)
4) Boondi raita
5) Chicken samosa
6) Kakori kebabs stuffed inside roomali roti rolls
7) Fresh bel juice

The snacking began as soon as the siren from a nearby mosque signaled the end of roza.

Later that night the Dehlvi household dined on kathi roll, channa-lauki dal, matar keema and rotis.

That time of the year

1. (Sadia Dehlvi)

City Food - Sadia Dehvi's Iftar Fast Food, Hazrat Nizamuddin East

2.

City Food - Sadia Dehvi's Iftar Fast Food, Hazrat Nizamuddin East

3. (Shabana Rahman)

City Food - Sadia Dehvi's Iftar Fast Food, Hazrat Nizamuddin East

4.

City Food - Sadia Dehvi's Iftar Fast Food, Hazrat Nizamuddin East

5. (Arman Ali Reza)

City Food - Sadia Dehvi's Iftar Fast Food, Hazrat Nizamuddin East

6.

City Food - Sadia Dehvi's Iftar Fast Food, Hazrat Nizamuddin East

7. (Aleena Hashmi)

City Food - Sadia Dehvi's Iftar Fast Food, Hazrat Nizamuddin East

8.

City Food - Sadia Dehvi's Iftar Fast Food, Hazrat Nizamuddin East

9.

City Food - Sadia Dehvi's Iftar Fast Food, Hazrat Nizamuddin East