A vanishing bread out of a vanishing architecture [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] During sunny noons, the cobwebbed strands veiling the door-latch would glisten like silken gossamers. The door itself lay padlocked, its wooden surface laden with decades of grime. Whatever, for a long time, the arched doorway has been evoking a disappearing style of residential architecture. (Although it must be said that the hurry-hurry locals rarely pause to admire the beautiful doorway, an everyday sight to them). Nestled within the historic enclave of Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti, the darwaza is adorned on both sides by an arched taak, itself a disappearing architectural element. The central Delhi locality in fact bears a good number of monuments that are significant to Delhi’s architectural

Paradise regained [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Taj Mahal is white, and gajar halwa is red. But gajar halwa can also be white. White carrot halwa annually makes its winter debut at the landmark Sheeren Bhawan. The rare dessert is in fact sighted only at this pre-partition mithai shop in Old Delhi’s Chitli Qabar Chowk. This rainy afternoon, the sky is gloomy grey, the cold air is smoggy, but fragrant steam is rising enthusiastically from the halwa platter atop the shop counter. “We launched the halwa four-five days ago,” says attendant Mansoor in a nonchalant tone. A burner below the gigantic brass platter is keeping the halwa tongue-searing hot. Decorated on one corner with generous endowments of kaaju-pista, the dish is looking

Good gur guide [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Street-stall owner Aqeel in Purani Dilli’s Pahari Imli administers his modest establishment of jaggery sherbet almost throughout the year, winding it down only during the brief Delhi winter. He then replaces the gur ka sherbet with a totally different thing—diaper! Now the ironic part. It is during this same brief Delhi winter when scores of groceries in the two Sadar Bazars of Delhi and Gurugram respectively start to stock many kinds of sweet-tasting jaggery. The fresh gur regularly arrive in Delhi around this period of the year mostly from western UP villages, currently overseeing the harvest of sugarcane crop from which gur is made: Each gur variety, per a shopkeeper, has its

A stall is born [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] “Chai/Coffee. Garma-garam poori. Aloo ki subzi. Garam-garam parathe.” It is all handwritten in black. The white A4 sheets are taped across the stall’s street-facing side. A woman is standing behind the counter. Her one arm is managing the agitated chai in the pan, the other arm is adjusting the stack of puffy pooris on an adjacent plate. The handwriting on the sheets belongs to this woman. “This is my stall,” she says. Neetu founded Ambey Tea Stall 15 days ago, here in south Delhi’s Lado Sarai. Her entire family is at the stall this evening. Mother Geeta, bhabhi Pooja, bhabhi’s two little girls Prisha and Nisha, and Neetu’s husband Ajay, who has slipped

The sweet potato civilisation [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] His face is exuding as much affectionate calmness as the great tree of this three-way tiraha. Both are area’s landmarks. The tree, it seems, has been here at Old Delhi’s Tiraha Behram Khan since the beginning of time. The middle-aged Raju too has become an element of the locality’s lived memory. He has been manning a corner of the tiraha for three decades, his modest cart bearing the season’s changing fruits all through the year. And with the arrival of the cold season, Raju has switched to shakarkandi. The fruit is a part of Delhi’s distinctive wintertime ambiance. Indeed, scores of street vendors across the city shift their loyalty to shakarkandi

Ode to some cookbook writers. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Such profound consolation when a fellow Delhi wala brings fresh international prestige to our smoggy unliveable city. Delhi-born gourmand Madhur Jaffrey’s book on Dilli ka khana has been distinguished this week by New York Times as among “the 25 most influential cookbooks from the last 100 years.” The list includes classics such as Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Claudia Roden’s A Book of Middle Eastern Food. Published in 1973, An Invitation to Indian Cooking was subtitled as “Mostly the subtle, spicy cooking of Delhi.” The introduction claimed to give “Indian recipes completely adapted to the American kitchen.” Maybe that’s why the book is unintentionally funny

Taste of winter. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is the land of Pan Singh Tomar. The dacoit was further immortalised by award-winning actor Irrfan Khan in an acclaimed biopic. As any Chambal Valley aficionado will tell you, Pan Singh was born in Morena. Indeed, the Madhya Pradesh district, due to its location in the legendary valley, is commonly identified for its complicated past with dacoits. (The lawless brigands themselves fancied themselves as baghi, the rebel.) Morena is also home to historic temples. However, the gourmands among us must not be derided for celebrating Morena purely for its enduring links to a robust dessert. Said to inject instant life-giving warmth into the body, the crispy gajak annually returns to the capital

Chai by the Qutub. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Founded 12 years ago, this has to be Delhi’s most picturesque roadside chai stall. It shares its wide-screen panorama with the centuries-old tower of Qutub Minar. See left photo. After completing the evening’s routine chai delivery to his regulars, who work in nearby offices, here in Mehrauli, Manikchand returns to his stall. Sitting down on the chair, beside the tea kettle, the milk pan, and a plastic jar filled with crispy crumbly mathhis, he tells the history of his monument. Not the Qutub Minar, but his beloved Om Sai Ram Allahabadi Tea & Coffee Stall (no coffee served though). To Manikchand, the most important aspect of his establishment is the story of

The winter season street dessert. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] It is looking like fistfuls of soft ice scooped out of a melting glacier. And it is embedded with freshly plucked dark red roses. Mubarak. The season’s first sighting of the frothy-white daulat ki chaat took place this Friday, close to the remnants of the Walled City’s stone walls, near Ansari Road, outside the Hindi Park. This wintertime dessert is made of milk, cream and dew. Each daulat ki chaat vendor has his own version of the making of the dish, but the core of each story is structured around the same plot. Undiluted buffalo milk is whisked with cream (which too is obtained from buffalo milk) under the