(Thane) One of the great joys of living in a big city is the incredible diversity and creativity of the food that’s just available on the street. Many of the best meals I had in New York were prepared by street vendors, and Delhi is certainly no slouch in this department either. You could eat your way comfortably across the city without ever setting foot indoors. I realized recently that I should start cataloguing some of these places, so here are a few from my neighborhood (apologies for the low-quality images, as these are just cell-phone snaps.
Coupel’s Point: Chineese Momo’s: You have to love the fact that this guy manages to misspell both “couple” and “Chinese,” two of the four words in his establishment’s title. Also, what’s with the name? Is he trying to get the first-date romantic dinner crowd? It doesn’t get more simple than this: The guy has a small platform with a gas-powered steamer to prepare three types of momos (Tibetan-style dumplings), a plastic tub of spicy sauce, and that’s it. And they’re delicious.
Street Pizza: This establishment is much more elaborate. Order a pizza, and they will prepare it almost from scratch. They actually take a block of cheese and grate it in front of your eyes. Then they bake it in a makeshift oven. And they have a nice array of topping selections, although only vegetarian unfortunately. The only downside is that it takes at least fifteen minutes to prepare your pizza.
Taste Drive: A Car Kitchen: Delhi street food is going upscale here. This place converted an old car into a street restaurant. They’ve got a pre-printed sign and the employees have uniforms, which makes me think it might be a chain. But they make kathi rolls (India’s version of a burrito), with lamb or chicken, that are succulent, spicy, and irresistible. I’d be curious to know the back-story on this car–it appears to be American, to judge from the steering wheel on the left side instead of the right.
Afterword: I’m not sure what it says that my familiarity with Delhi’s street food increases significantly when Audrey is out of town. I guess I revert to bachelor-hood very quickly.
Tags: Delhi, Indian food, street food, typos
July 18, 2010 at 11:20 am |
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