At the heart of my heart

A few weeks back, me & my father found ourselves in North Delhi with a few hours to kill and we were completely at a loss for ideas. North Delhi isn't exactly someplace we'd go willfully. For the uninformed, its where the famous DU North Campus is situated. The sprawling university campus is dominated by student cafes, hostels and low-budget joints which aren't my Dad's sort of place at all. My Das isn't a fan of shady, small, cheap places and neither does he like teenagers. I had to come up with a plan & quick. That's when I remembered that we were also in the vicinity of the legendary Chandni Chowk, although I didn't know If I was upto the heat & crowd on a Sunday.

I'm fairly ashamed of this fact, but in my 21 years in Delhi, I've never been to Chandni Chowk before this & it literally makes me want to slap my elitist, stuck-up face. Chandni Chowk is where the epic Paranthe Wali Galli is situated. It is also where you get some of the best damn food and a feel of Dilli and not Delhi.

I know I'm not supposed to write a food blog but then I've purposedly never given a theme to the blog. I'm also going to  pull a cliche and write about Paranthe Wali Galli and no, I'm not sorry. Firstly, its a really hard job to get a car parked in Chandni Chowk so I would recommend that you take the metro. I think parts of Chandni Chowk are shut on Sunday, so we were lucky to beat the crowds. We were also lucky because most of the food places were open.

First on the agenda was Jalebi. Jalebi is always first on the agenda in our house. There's a corner house right before SheeshGanj Sahib Gurudwara where this fellow was frying saucer-sized Jalebis in a wok. I don't think I've ever seen such humongous Jalebis in my entire life. They also make samosas. So obviously we told him to fry as many that could fit in a pan & wrap it up in brown paper. Brown paper is so amazing. I freakin' love brown paper. You know how happy it makes me when you open brown paper & it contains Jalebi? I even pretended to be surprised, later.

We stashed the Jalebis and samosas in the car and headed to Paranthe Wali Galli. So this galli is literally a galli. Tiny, narrow passages with parantha shops flanking the entire length of the by-lane? I don't think you need any other definition of "my happy place". Its insanely quaint, monochrome brushed structures are any Instagram-ers paradise. The corroding paint and discoloured sign boards behind braids of electric wires and cobwebs is like looking into a world long lost.

But back to the food. You should ask one of the completely jobless locals standing around, about which Parantha place to pick.  The parantha menu is just completely ridiculous. I don't think there is any condiment/vegetable/edible food item that they haven't stuffed in bread and fried. There's dry fruits, pulses, cheese and even Poppadums. Its completely maddening. We ordered the punjabi staple- Aloo Paranthe, Dal ke paranthe and Pea paranthas with lassi. It was served with some Pumpkin vegetable and 300 kinds of achaar and a potato vegetable. So ideally, 1 person can eat a meal to last 3 days in Rs. 35/-. Dad asked if we wanted to get 1 of each paratha packed for the peeps at home. Our family doesn't know how to not order everything on the menu. But I put my foot down and said no. The damn things were being cooked in enough oil to attract America's attention. I'd only nibbled on the little oil suckers and I was in no mood to be tempted to try each one out at home. So we took just 7 types of paranthas back. I never said I'm good at ordering proportionate amounts of food either. 7 out of 40 varieties was good restraint, I'd say.

This food blog is probably a rarity, so I should let it be known that I can't be best friends with people who don't bring the menu down. My family and all of my best friends have no control over their menu lust. I don't get people who measure out their orders. I'm sure the portion of pasta is enough for 2 people but do you not notice the bruschetta on the side? And there's always another Main that's begging to be at the table, right?

Anyway, back to Chandni Chowk. We got done with our lunch (and dinner) and headed to Chainaram Sweets. Don't ask me. My father is obviously over the edge happy with Old Delhi at this point, but we have this rule about how there's always supposed to be a dessert stock in the house. He got some mithai packed and I did not even have the strength to look at food anymore so I tried on some juttis but they were all uncomfortable and I just wanted to go back to the car and pass out in front of the air conditioner.

Chandni Chowk was pretty darn fancy in a completely austere way. I'm intending a good, long visit sometime during the winter, when Delhi is gorgeous and the weather is a complete beauty. That's also going to be a good time to swing by Paharganj, as well. I know that the Old Dilli/ Paranthe Wali Galli posts and reviews have been done to death but I think it deserves every one of those posts. Its like nothing else in the world. Each and every little tribute to Purani Dilli is justified, so here's mine.