Tigers Experience at Jama Masjid for Ramadan

"Make an Effort to learn about the other Cultures of India - the only way to increase brotherhood , and no better to connect than FOOD ". -Tiger

The Sad part of Delhi is that we don't have much exposure to other Cultures of India - we hardly have any Muslim , Parsi, Gujju,Tamil friends - whereas other cities like Mumbai , Kolkata ,Bangalore have all the cultures as apart of their daily life .. wonder why ? .Hence our exposure to Cultures , Cuisines , Festivals , Rituals are very limited in Delhi. Things are changing with the corporate sector growing more and more cross culture hiring is going on and hopefully we delhites shall be familiar with India and its diverse cultural family. 

I could be wrong but as per me the oldest cuisine belonging to India was the Mughal Cuisine of the Rajas Maharajs of India . The cuisine has come a long way - it caters to the riches , the commoners , the poor and the Army . The only cuisine which doesnt use external masalas to cook - it cooks in the natural extracts of  each ingredient .. what could be better . The cuisine which encourages families to sit together and eat at all times from one plate , a cuisine which believes in slow cooking, Dum cooking , Dhuandar cooking... and trust me Mughal cuisine is not loaded with vegetable cooking oil EVER. 

Well keeping this is in mind Three foodies volunteered to do a Food walk at Jama Masjid during the holy period of Ramzan . Ok let me take you through  a little build up before the walk - Date Decided 10th July, Time of meeting 7.30 at gate no 1 ... the plan was to go by metro from green park on the yellow line - get off at Chawri Bazar  and head to ashok chaat bhandar  and then move on to the land of kebabs and curries on rickshaws... i was reluctant and offered to take my car driver but co walkers wouldn agree for the reason that it will too crowded etc etc and we wont reach jama Masjid in less than two hours  , but some how i convinced them and we scheduled departure at 6.30 by my car n driver . Trust me we were in Jama Masjid at 7.15 and right infront of Meena Bazar which is like right der and the driver got enuf parking space also ..  don't get scared by the choices of reaching der - you have to walk in either case . So the gear has to be Sports Shoes , tracks , camera, hand towel , hand sanitizer , 1000 rupees in change (you cud even do with 500) - Two big thumb rules of entering Jama masjid , No Tips to the beggars and be prepared to eat Bade ka Meat (Buff) .

Right side the Jama Masjid left side the Food Gully ... the place had the buzz - people breaking fast , drinking sharbat  eating khajoor , kebabs etc etc .. very very festive spirit  - all dressed in fresh white kurtas , yes one thing is der you hardly see any women on the streets - im sure there's some logic in that . The people are so warm and welcoming - they insist you sit and eat and its like almost eating out of their hands . What an Experience.

Jama Masjid Greets You 

Not so crowded , may be our timing was right , shops all set up , the bar b q pits glowing all smoked up , the neons just getting turned on - people breaking fast with sharbat and Khajoor .. huge number of dates and dry fruit stalls op the masjid .. and its festive time . I fell in love with the top two pictures - sunset , pink walls of the masjid ,surrounded by bougainvillea trees with beautiful pink flowers , we were there to capture the right moment  as the light were switched on at the masjid. People had just finished their evening prayer and now it was iftaar time .

So we decided - Kebabs / Curries /Biryani and Desert to be sampled. and the walk begins .....

Lalu Kebabee

The Walk starts .. one of the foodies with me had been here before - so it was Lalu Kebabi - Mr Lalu is no more but his descendants tun the show now ..... the aroma of kebabs being is divine , just love it . We ordered buff kebabs - seekhs , boti tikkas and shammi - garam garam kuch bhi chelga ..  On top of the seekhs and tikkas he pours some special melted butter which makes the flavors so divine .. i need to figure this one out - pouring butter is it a new thingy or has it been done from before  - will go again and find out .. stay tuned , til then enjoy the Hot Smoky kebabs , even if it was buff the boti was not that hard , easy to chew  . 
There is another kebab/curry / Roast chicken joint called Anmol chicken corner which is yet another favorite of a number foodies and yes he good - but we wanted to try out newer guys hence lalu , not bad at all - you wil love the way he warms his kebabs and serves them to you .the noise they make while tossing around the seekhs is delightful.

Sharbats

The Sharabat , The coolers - much deserved after the long sweaty walk down the lanes of the world famous Jama Masjid . Roof Afza / Watermelon and milk and Apple , Kesar and milk  sharbat  - actually so refreshing we drank up two glasses each . phenomenal cold shakes - and now we understand why this is served after the community breaks their fast every evening . this is no particular shop but we had it opp Rahim or nadeem  cycle wala . can u see the freshness on the foodies faces lol 

Nadeem- Cycle wale

Rahim / Nadeem - (hope i got the name right) he has been around for the last 12 years - he used to come on a cycle and sell his food, today the place is the same but more organised and his twin brother also helps him with the roaring business . He specialises in Keema , Mirchi keema , brain curry, Daal Ghosht and one shalgum wali sabzi which was not ready at that time .Most of it is Buff . They want to make us comfortable and insisited that we sit and eat but since we had more places to attack we stood relished the dishes . We ordered all the four dishes .. Trust me All four were killers , yes they were Buff and Rahim challenged us to get any meat eater and if they can guess the difference in his food - its free for life , you want to take it on let me know . :) The Keema well pounded with aloo and matar , the mirch keema nice and spicy , the brain was makhan malai .. the yellow  daal ghost was mild but awesome - we polished al the plates with four roomalis.

Pehelwan Biryani

Further  down the row from the Chitli Kabar Chowk keep to the left and walk on ,peeping into all the gullys - on the left  , you will see this big man sitting with even a bigger Degh infront of him called Phelwan Miya .I would go back again and again for this mans chicken biryani - Achari , Light masala - each strand of rice separate , not greasy , light BUT SO FLAVORFUL  it did not have that strong kewra wali smell, amazing Briyani for 50 /- only a plate  and to top it he serves with so much love . The Biryani Degh was huge and was totally full up  , he  said it will be empty by morning ... amazing . A must must do he beats them all so far . This is Pehelwan Biryani. 

Haji Sharbati 

Since 1957 , sells Brain , Nihari and kahmeeri roti thats it . Haji Sharbati - the shops name is Sharabti Nihari . A very dear friend and big time foodie goes there twice a week only to eat nihari by the kilo , wat an animal ... trust me if i describe the whole meal you will never go - so i leave it you to check out personally. But the Brain Mutton , Buff nihari are too die for  . Such nice people insisted in eating more , insisted that we sit and eat - really loved their hospitality . The brain was beautifully cooked separately , topped with gravy and a bit of ghee adrak and chilly , the buff nihari was soft thick  flowy gravy - both have been designed to be eaten with the soft khameeri roti . Truly divine  . Ok time to turn back and eat more heheheheheheh.

Aslam Chicken

Aslam Bhai Ka roast chicken , Bismillah. This man is famous and only for one dish - Roast chicken .. which when deconstructed is tandoori or barbecued chicken with loads of butter thats it , To be eaten with roomali / khameri roti . Break roti dip and soak the butter , tear a bit of chicken and go ummmmmmmm. It is fingerlicious - please leave the blood report at home . 

Karim - The First One

1913 is when Karim came into existence .. wow truly historic . the place remains just the same but with modern looks . I have personally been here twice before once to eat their raan and the second time to eat the full bakhra .. and both were just amazing experiences . Karim is iconic and is spreading  in Delhi NCr like wild fire . At this juncture we were joined by two more foodies doing what we were doing ,so now we had a table of five and each sharing their food adventures of Jama masjid like tourist meting in the evening to recap , they had bought cooking masalas from Noori - who apparently supply the masala to all the restaurants in Jama Masjid - acha jee, not sure about this  . Anyways we landed up here becos my fellow foodie said coming to jama masjid and not eating in karim is a shame so we went in ... heheeheh

Well hate to say this but the experience was BAD ,we ordered mutton seekhs which were dry , pre cooked just warmed and served so unlike a kebabee place ; our co partners ordered a chicken stew - sweet gravy ..not happening, my buddies ordered two plates of nihari (now this is a funda you must be clear about - Nihari is an early morning dish in Jama Masjod - but just because is was ramadan time they serve it all night and we got lucky) man they were awful - full of red chilies and bad gravy , normally you get the nice sticky gravy of the marrow but none here totally commercial and bad , all the above were eaten with khameri Roti and naan - full of extra soda just bad  and then to end it i ordered a Phirni thinking it would be nice flavored with saffron etc - nothing like that sugary and awful one bite and we wasted three portions - we spoke to the manager on duty - he said it was out sourced , i was like hain ..... Overall experience was terrible .  And the foodies who insisted on taking us there also agreed with the bad food experience . Never again . I believe all the franchises of Karim are as bad . I never write like this but i am compelled to do so , tried reaching the owner but in vain , wrote a comment hope they read it .. they need to go back to the 1913 recipes and treat people to original authentic mughal cuisine and not commercial master gravies .

You could try Rehmatullah and Al Jawahar if you feel like .They are better.

The Foodies in Action

The true story of a foody is - Enthu about eating , jumps around everywhere in search for food , eats like a pig , gets exhausted eating , sits down for a break , drinks a Kaali wali aerated drink and then yet again wants to eat meetha, for a true foody eating is like there is no tomor , actually when you come jama masjid there is no tomor - you dont know when u wil come next , so kill it guys  ....  Foody and Im Lovin It . 

Expressions of Jama Masjid

Expressions of Jama masjid ... could have spent and evening taking pictures of people on the streets ... beautiful expressions , the streets always engage me . 

Over all Tigers Experience : The Food At Jama Masjid is total - Khana Dil Se , have the guts to experiment , trust the server , dont doubt them , eat what they serve becos they think its the best , eat small portions , meet people , greet them , hug them and cherish being right der . To my surprise - clean roads specially the by lanes we felt guilty throwing tissue on the street ... no spit , no paan , no water - wonder how .   Yes beggars but no eye contact is the name of the game . Besides the regular eateries please try whatever you want to , food doesn't bite .

Food : What amazes me is the fact that each of the establishments we visited specialized in One or Two dishes - and thats it . Chef Driven i would say LOL. 

The above is totally my opinion, my taste my experience , my ideology , sorry for not mentioning any names of the streets or places - for me it was one long road thats it . I did get a bit breathless with all the shops people etc but its ok keep sipping water , yes that reminds me the only place where u can find a loo is Karim . 

Going back again for Anmol , Gur ka Sharbat , Double ka meetha , mango Ice cream,sutli kebab, Sheermal and qorma and to find more places inthe lanes of Jama Masjid . Foodies Never GIVE UP.

The recommended Route: Kebabs: Lalu/ Anmol/Qureshi ; Aslam Chicken/ Nadeem  - Keema/ Pehelwan Biryani/ Sharabti Bihari and Brain … rehmatullah or Al Jwahar But NOT KARIM EVER till they dont change their attitude and food quality.