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….
City Food – Amir Khusro’s Chai, Near Amir Khusro’s Tomb
His state-by-state chai. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He has to be Delhi’s most exceptional chai man. Not because he is wearing a stunningly eye-catching shirt this afternoon. Not because he shares his name with one of Delhi’s…
City Food – Rasgulla Sandwich, RM Vats Marg
A dish less celebrated. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The blinding white April afternoon is hinting of the looming heat waves. Auto rickshaw driver Sajid stops by a pavement stall, here on south Delhi’s RM Vats Marg, close…
City Food – Ramzan Khajla, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti & Elsewhere
The fasting snack. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] An almost fully round moon is hanging in the 10pm sky. But its enigmatic majesty has been hijacked by a handful of similarly rounded things. They are hanging much lower,…
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