City Food – Chole Bhathure, Civil Line Walla
Cricketer’s choice. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The angrez types spell it as wallah, as in Merchant-Ivory film Shakespeare Wallah. But we desis pronounce it as walla, no ‘h.’ Walla is a super-endearing word that instantly resonates with…
City Food – Mango Ice-Cream, Shahi Cool Point
Taste of the season. [By Mayank Austen Soofi] A resort near Gurgaon’s Bhawani Mandir has a mango tree so inspiring that the place is called The Mango Tree. While a restaurant there, in Golf Course Extension, is simply called Mango….
City Food – Jamun Berries, Around Town
Year’s consolation. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] They are dropping from the tree, hitting the ground—plop! Some of them burst, squirting their purple juice. Some lie whole, waiting for an unsuspecting person to step on them and slip….
City Food – Crossword Chai, Sirajuddin’s Tea Stall
A tea house too unique. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The yellow walls are gone. They are now blue. “I painted it myself, some weeks ago, before the beginning of the Ramzan,” says the tea stall man. Fortunately,…
City Food – Summertime Roller Ice-Cream, Gurgaon
Heatwave’s consolation. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] A vision in pink, so pale you fear it might vaporise under the moonlight. This mass of pink is currently a blur, moving round and round like a factory turbine. And…
City Food – Ghalib Street, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti
On poet’s trail. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is the only Delhi lane named after Delhi’s greatest poet. Ghalib Street starts from Lodhi Road and terminates towards his deserted tomb, here in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti. It has…
City Food – Nafees Bhai’s Bel Sherbet Stand, Gali Sui Walan
A hyoerlocal icon. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] Evergreen Sweet House has been a Green Park Market icon since 1963. Jama Masjid too hasn’t budged from its Old Delhi GPS since 1656. Ditto for the derelict Kaman Sarai…
City Food – “Hate Sherbet”, Somewhere in Delhi
A drink with an odd name. [Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] The noon is white hot, and the tempting stall on the rutty pave is hawking more than one kind of cool summertime sherbet. The cloth banner behind…
City Food – Shikanji, Matia Mahal & Elsewhere
The machine lemonade. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He fills up the glass with “machine ka thanda paani.” Flicks into it a chammach-full of cheeni. Squeezes a lemon. Tosses in ice cubes. Salt too. Stirs. Your shikanji please….
City Food – Bel Juice, Ashram & Elsewhere
Brief and intense. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] A chunk of the sunset scooped out of the evening sky, put into a platter, softened with a cupful of creamy milk, kneaded into a dough of very viscous consistency….
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