Category: DHABA

Maharashtrian street food comes to Delhi: Vada Pav

Indian street food never fails to impress. Skeeter tries to record whatever she eats and one of her street food favourite is featuring in Delhi restaurants these days. It is the mighty VADA PAV from Maharashtra. 
For the uninitiated this fuss-free snack is made using a pav(bun) from the ladi pav which is slathered with a red chilli-garlic chutney and a piping hot vada is placed in it. Something as simple as that, served with a fried green chilly tossed in salt. The accompanying green chilly is a MUST. The vada pav is incomplete without it. It is Maharashtra’s answer to all the crappy, tasteless frozen burger patties used in international chain of restaurants.

vada pav in delhi
(On the right: Vada Pav seated in an aluminum pan at Soda Bottle Opener Wala, Gurgaon)
Have the vada pav for breakfast or a meal on the go when in a hurry or as an evening snack. It is simple, tasty and not healthy but worth every bite. It used to cost something as low as Rs 5 in Maharashtra quite a few years ago. 
Skeeter bumped into old pal, the Vada Pav, one afternoon when she went for a very quick lone lunch at Dhaba by Claridges (DLF Place, Saket) and was impressed. It tasted very well but not like the one she used to eat in Maharashtra. The Dhaba Vada Pav costed a bomb (Rs 195) and came with the chef’s special chutney. They serve two Vada Pavs in one portion. So a portion of the Vada Pav plus a soft drink set Skeeter back by nearly 500 bucks, which is a lot, but for want of her favourite snack in the comfort of a mall and sitting in the hometown it was forgiven.
Next, Skeeter came across the old pal again at the swanky Cyber Hub of Gurgaon at a Parsi eatery called Soda Bottle Opener Wala(will write more about it soon). This one stunned the senses and was a winner hands down! For one, it tasted JUST LIKE the one Skeeter was used to having during her days in Maharashtra. The fried green chilli on the side, rolled in salt was perfectly done. It costed Rs 65. There was one pav as opposed to two at Dhaba by Claridges. It came seated in an aluminium pan and just that. An innovative take on plating as rivalled to all the fancy stuff we are used to these days. They did not fancy it up, nor did they provide some innovative chutney, they simply let the food do the talking. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. 
Oh and if you ever go to Maharashtra, do try the Joshi vada pav. 🙂

Not Just Paranthas

One can see many ‘Dhaba-theme’ restaurants coming up all over Delhi these days; NJP is another such place. ‘Not Just Paranthas’, is a cute little eatery tucked away in a bylane of West Delhi’s Rajouri Garden. The food is good; the ambience, cute; the menu card, innovatively designed to take the form of a newspaper.

Food

We ordered Chur Chur paranthas which are their speciality, having an extra dose of butter and crushed with hands giving it a unique touch; aloo pyaz parantha; gobi paranatha; mooli parantha; Dal makhmali (balck lentils); kabul chana masala and Dal sukhi chatpati (Yellow lentils for dad). I just had a small bite from each of the paranthas, all were ‘ok’ barring mooli which was ‘bad’. Personally, I prefer mom-made paranthas anyday, so I had ordered a plain Naan to go with Dal Makhmali. Dal Makhmali which is the dearest to my heart was excellent; Kabuli chanas were nice but the fact that they had bits of paneer in it did not go well down my mind and tastebuds. Dal Sukhi Chatpati was liked by the elders; I did not even touch it so can’t say much. The chuski bar (serving Indian style flavoured ice-lollies) is an attraction for the kids.


Fun

Having seen too many ‘Dhaba-theme’ restaurants, the charm of visiting them is fading away. Still I liked this one. It was nice to see sweet li’l soemthings decorated all over the place. At NJP, all the seats are made of rassi (jute rope) and wood. There are knick knacks like small models of cycle-rickshaws, lanterns hung here and there, old vessels placed all over the restaurant. The loos have ‘Shreemaan’ and ‘Shreemati’ written over the doors to differentiate the one for men from that for women. What I liked best was a signboard saying -Kripya bhojan ke liye hathon ka prayong karein’ i.e. please use hands to eat your food. And what was even better was the spoons that were laid neatly over all the tables :D…pooooohhh