Karim's [Old Delhi]

This is somewhat dated - I never did post earlier like i had planned. Karim's was the first in a series of eating adventures on my last trip to India. I was experimenting with putting the pics in a slideshow format so I would have an easier time commenting and less formatting for posting as I have hundreds of pictures from the trip.
At any rate - Karim's reputation goes back a long time. It was included in the list of Time's world's 100 places to eat (as posted on their walls, don't recall the date of that list - perhaps late nineties).

One of the amazing dishes - kadai goshth (kadai = pot, 'wok'; 'goshth' = meat; goat in this case) was eye-opening in the use of grated fresh tomatoes to finish the dish (which has a long simmered tomato based 'sauce'). [Tomatoes are 'in season' in winter in India]. The fresh tomato sweet and tartness with the rich, deep umami simmered tomato sauce was magnificent - a special way to beat jetlag and start readjusting one's clock for sure.


Many thanks to germuska for enabling this feature
the pictures that appear above are on flickr as well



Perhaps, next time I can order ahead and get the tandoori raan (leg of lamb). Rupees 275 works out to about $7... (approx 40 rupees to an US dollar)

Thank you, sazerac, for this virtual excursion. I can practically smell and taste it!

Wow!... Many thanks for that, sazerac!

I love the slogan: "Secret of good mood, taste of Karim's food"... looks like the food there would put me in a great mood... until I realised it would be hard to be a repeat customer...

The bread alone looks like it would be worth the trip...

A

Sazerac,

Great post. I'm going to India in a few weeks and will be spending some time in Delhi. Luckily I have some local friends so I plan on eating well, but I will do my best to include a trip to Karim's. I'll be by Jama Masjid, so hopefully it won't be too hard to find.

Any other Delhi recs?

Habibi wrote:Sazerac,

Great post. I'm going to India in a few weeks and will be spending some time in Delhi. Luckily I have some local friends so I plan on eating well, but I will do my best to include a trip to Karim's. I'll be by Jama Masjid, so hopefully it won't be too hard to find.

Any other Delhi recs?

everybody knows where Karim's is, don't worry about finding it. the problem is that it can be crowded and uncomfrtable getting there. get used to crowds.

other recs in Delhi? lets see. in general, remember that india is a great deal more dirty than pretty much anyplace else, things I would do in thailand or south america, I would never do in India. so be careful of street food, very careful.

a couple of high end places - there is the kabab factory in the Radison hotel, very good northern non-veg. in the Claridge hotel is "Dhaba" which is sort of like "diner" - a dhaba is a half outdoor resteraunt with the kitchen in a truck that is traditional in north india. this is a high end version, very good food, very clean. also, the sheraton has a great place called Bhukhara, this is one of those places that most indians will tell you in the best resteraunt in the country.

most of the best places to eat in Delhi are in hotels. there are a handfull of high end places around connoaght place, let me see if I can find the details of some of them. also, there is a place called "gulati" but I might have the spelling wrong. it is very close to the khan market in Delhi. very good place, dirt cheap. clean, old. your hotel should be able to direct you there.


be sure to eat at an indian chinese resturaound. not an authentic chinese place, there are a few of those now in delhi but that won't be anythng remarkable. the indian take on chinese food is spectacular. it can be cheap, but it is good and very spicy. try the salt and petter corn, the chicken in spicy honey,


if you are going to be in tother cities or have specific questions let me know

globetrotter wrote:other recs in Delhi? lets see. in general, remember that india is a great deal more dirty than pretty much anyplace else, things I would do in thailand or south america, I would never do in India. so be careful of street food, very careful.

How bad is the street food in India - specifically Mumbai/Delhi. I have no problem with places that look dirty, I just don't want to get cholera (don't mind mild stomach discomfort).

I've eaten street food (for months) in Cairo, Phnom Penh and for a few weeks in La Paz, Bolivia. Not saying its the same, but I fared well in those cities. Other than avoiding places with few patrons and ones that are obviously unsanitary, is there anything else I should do? Or more fundamentally, should I be eating street food in India at all?

I realize this is a hard question to answer, so any experiences would be helpful.

Habibi wrote:

globetrotter wrote:other recs in Delhi? lets see. in general, remember that india is a great deal more dirty than pretty much anyplace else, things I would do in thailand or south america, I would never do in India. so be careful of street food, very careful.

How bad is the street food in India - specifically Mumbai/Delhi. I have no problem with places that look dirty, I just don't want to get cholera (don't mind mild stomach discomfort).

I've eaten street food (for months) in Cairo, Phnom Penh and for a few weeks in La Paz, Bolivia. Not saying its the same, but I fared well in those cities. Other than avoiding places with few patrons and ones that are obviously unsanitary, is there anything else I should do? Or more fundamentally, should I be eating street food in India at all?

I realize this is a hard question to answer, so any experiences would be helpful.

I've been to India numerous times, and have an easily-irritated stomach...yet even I think "be careful of street food, very careful" is overly-cautious advice.

Honestly, if you make sure you only eat hot, fresh foods (which describes most of the street foods you'd want to eat anyway), and avoid anything that contains unboiled water (such as pani puri) or uncooked items (such as green chutney), you'll be totally fine. Fresh-from-the-oil samosas, pakoras, jalebis, parathas, etc. are not only delicious, but should generally be okay.

In Delhi, I would definitely recommend going to Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi, wandering around, and eating anything and everything that looks good to you (again, as long as it's hot and you can avoid the green chutney). I especially love going to Parantha Gali and stuffing myself with fresh-from-the-oil parathe and hot, all-you-can-eat sabjis, then being told that I owe a whopping 50 rupees for my meal. In Mumbai, definitely try to find a pav bhaji stand.

Definitely don't feel like you have to eat your meals at expensive hotel restaurants "just to be safe" - the food might be good, but it will be expensive (think upscale-NYC prices), and you'll feel like you're eating at fancy versions of India House all the time.

Also, disregard any claims about food being prepared strictly with bottled water at all but the nicest of hotels (Taj, Sheraton, JW Marriott, etc.) & their restaurants. I was once told that the pani for the pani puri at a "four star" restaurant in Gurgaon (an upscale suburb outside New Delhi) was made with bottled water, so I went to town on it. I briefly noticed that my parents, sister and then-fiancée had all eschewed it and were watching me slurp down the pani with looks of horror on their faces...I paid for my naivete with three days of, to put it delicately, "stomach issues".

Oh yeah, it's also a good idea to order a bottle of soda (Coke, Thums Up, Limca, Fanta, etc.) to go with your street food rather than bottled water, or bring your own bottle of water from the hotel or a trustworthy-looking drug store/convenience store...you remember the scene in Slumdog Millionaire where the brothers are working in a restaurant kitchen and the one is refilling a bottled of water from the sink faucet, then supergluing the tamper-proof ring to the bottlecap? That's not an unheard of thing to do

Thanks Khaopaat,

My alarmist friends (Indian and non) all urged me to stay away from street food. I basically told them to go suck an egg and that we would be eating separately 99% of the time. I'm gonna be there for almost four weeks, a few days of stomach pain will be worth getting acclimated and eating (nearly) whatever I fancy. I mean it's India, how can one go there and NOT eat street food. It's like going to eastern Afghanistan and not eating Romanischistekan.

Habibi, I do hope you enjoy your trip. Going and not partaking of the street food would be silly. However, do take precautions - if you have not been vaccinated for Hepatitis A, please get it (at least the first dose) before you go. I would avoid (even at places like Karim's - which is not street food) any uncooked items - like the raw tomatoes and radishes.
I did get a case of Delhi Belly on my trip (24 hrs of agony), my wife managed to get hep A (jaundice). She did not eat at Karim's and was generally more careful than I (or so we thought), as we had a nursing infant at the time.

Other Delhi recs - I don't have too many specifics. There are some 'standard' places (Moti Mahal, Kake da dhaba) but I hear standards have slipped and my data points are now a couple of yrs old.
If you are going to Calcutta, Madras (Chennai) and Kerala I can offer some tips (my posting may not be in a useful time frame). Chittaranjan Park in Delhi has a large Bengali population so you could get a flavor of Calcutta while in Delhi - especially the sweet offerings.

Habibi wrote:

globetrotter wrote:other recs in Delhi? lets see. in general, remember that india is a great deal more dirty than pretty much anyplace else, things I would do in thailand or south america, I would never do in India. so be careful of street food, very careful.

How bad is the street food in India - specifically Mumbai/Delhi. I have no problem with places that look dirty, I just don't want to get cholera (don't mind mild stomach discomfort).

I've eaten street food (for months) in Cairo, Phnom Penh and for a few weeks in La Paz, Bolivia. Not saying its the same, but I fared well in those cities. Other than avoiding places with few patrons and ones that are obviously unsanitary, is there anything else I should do? Or more fundamentally, should I be eating street food in India at all?

I realize this is a hard question to answer, so any experiences would be helpful.

I've spent long periods in south america, the middle east and south east asia, as well as living in india. nothing, aside from some parts of africa, is as dirty as india.

seriously, treat it as much worse than, say, thailand or egypt

Habibi wrote:Thanks Khaopaat,

My alarmist friends (Indian and non) all urged me to stay away from street food. I basically told them to go suck an egg and that we would be eating separately 99% of the time. I'm gonna be there for almost four weeks, a few days of stomach pain will be worth getting acclimated and eating (nearly) whatever I fancy. I mean it's India, how can one go there and NOT eat street food. It's like going to eastern Afghanistan and not eating Romanischistekan.

I lived 3 years in india. I have almost 100 pages added to my 5 year old passport. seriously, I know what I am talking about. I have seen people get very very sick, not as in a little sore belly, but really sick. keep in mind that less than half of the city has access to running water in their homes, and most people don't use toilet paper.

that doesn't mean not to enjoy the food, there are plenty of places that aren't too fancy to eat.

anyway, good luck.

globetrotter wrote:I've spent long periods in south america, the middle east and south east asia, as well as living in india. nothing, aside from some parts of africa, is as dirty as india.

seriously, treat it as much worse than, say, thailand or egypt

globetrotter wrote:I lived 3 years in india. I have almost 100 pages added to my 5 year old passport. seriously, I know what I am talking about. I have seen people get very very sick, not as in a little sore belly, but really sick. keep in mind that less than half of the city has access to running water in their homes, and most people don't use toilet paper.

I'm sure you've seen a lot, both in India and around the world, but respectfully, I feel the doom & gloom is seriously misplaced. First of all, a huge chunk of the world's population does not use toilet paper; this doesn't mean that 1.2 billion people are walking around smeared with feces and spreading disease left and right - the very inclusion of that little "tidbit" is wholly unnecessary and off-topic. For the record, soap and water in place of toilet paper is the norm there (however, all hotels, "Western-style" restaurants and even nicer stores have commode toilets and toilet paper).

Second, I've seen people get "very very sick" all over the world, not just India. You've got more of a chance getting sick from steak tartare in Brussels than you do from fresh aloo bonda from a street vendor in Delhi.

Incidentally, my experience with India comes from a lifetime of annual three-week trips to visit relatives (both sets of grandparents and almost all of my aunts, uncles & cousins) in Mumbai, except for the period from 1995 to to 2002 when I went four times a year to visit my parents (about two months per year, in total), who lived in New Delhi and Gurgaon during that time.

Out of all of those trips, I've been memorably sick twice: once when I was very young (I think I was 9 or 10), and once in 2004 during the aforementioned pani puri debacle (which made shopping for all the crap for my wedding a pain). Both times, my "illness" was comprised of having to stay within easy reach of a bathroom and making sure to keep hydrated for a few days. I'm sure I took some Immodium Advanced (which I always keep on hand, even in Chicago. Needless to say, I'm still alive & kicking, and I have never been at all paranoid about what I eat (other than the basic common sense stuff that both sazerac and I mentioned upthread).

Seriously Habibi, don't sweat it - it sounds like you've already got plenty of experience exercising basic common sense when it comes to adventurous eating. Could you get unlucky and find yourself laid out in your hotel room feeling miserable? Sure, that's always a risk. But hell, that risk is present anywhere you go (even here at home), no matter how "dirty" or "clean" people think the place looks.

I think you'll be surprised - India's got one of the world's largest middle classes now, and they're not that different than their socio-economic counterparts anywhere else (including here). Trendy restaurants, bars, clubs, boutiques and malls are popping up everywhere, and are packed with young professional hipsters, especially in Delhi & Mumbai. You'd better seek out & enjoy all the street food you can while you still have the chance, before the stands are torn down and replaced with Indo-Brazilian fusion restaurants that turn into overpriced, velvet-roped lounges at night.

Khaopaat wrote:

globetrotter wrote: You'd better seek out & enjoy all the street food you can while you still have the chance, before the stands are torn down and replaced with Indo-Brazilian fusion restaurants that turn into overpriced, velvet-roped lounges at night.

yeah, the last time I was in town friends dragged me to a, no kidding, african themed brazilian steak house style resteraunt, with korean style table barbques. of course, no beef was served, making the whole brazilian/korean part a little funny. but they loved it.

I don't mean to spread gloom and doom. I would suggest that treating new delhi street food like singapore street food would be a huge mistake. and, in my opinion, it is related to the differences in how hygine works in each place. very often I have been in a position to have people from the US and Europe visit me in Asia, in work settings. twice I have had people so sick that they spent a week or so in a hospital because of food poisining in india. never happened to me anyplace else. a third person got some type of stomach worm that took her months to get clear of.

there are tens of thousands of pretty good small resteraunts in delhi. I think that you can eat very well without putting yourself at risk.

by the way, kingfisher and time out delhi both put out very good guides to the resteraunts and food stores of delhi.

Habibi wrote:Thanks Khaopaat,

My alarmist friends (Indian and non) all urged me to stay away from street food. I basically told them to go suck an egg and that we would be eating separately 99% of the time. I'm gonna be there for almost four weeks, a few days of stomach pain will be worth getting acclimated and eating (nearly) whatever I fancy. I mean it's India, how can one go there and NOT eat street food. It's like going to eastern Afghanistan and not eating Romanischistekan.

Iam probably the wrong person to talk to in terms of "getting sick" - grew up there, and have a pretty strong immunity as a result. And, being an LTH-er, am plenty adventurous.. so I go all over the place and eat, in places where even friends who were born and have spent every minute of their lives in India dont want to go to And Ive never really been sick from it. Have eaten a lot of food at roadside-dhabas, and they can be completely oustanding sometimes too (ie a real dhaba, not a "pretend" one named "whatisnames dhaba" in the city

There is one absolutely iron-clad rule, though, that I always follow - eat food that is hot (temperature-wise), and do not ever, ever, drink the water. Ive gone to Noor Mohammadi in Bombay (ordinary area, near Minara Masjid, outstanding food, looks quite hole-in-the-wall-ish).. and with my nehari and kheema for breakfast, I drank Coke OK, you can occasionally drink tea - the tea is steaming hot, after all. But never drink anything other than softdrinks at hole-in-the-wall restaurants (dont always trust the bottled-water either). Personally I dont do things like pani-puri etc much either - my consumption of food is more meat-oriented anyway - so that kind of street-food doesnt enter the picture for me. Chowpatty is famous for street-food in Bombay, but I never really was a huge fan even back in the day, and dont really partake now (its much more likely to get you sick too, BTW). "My" style of streetfood in Bombay would be more the Borimohallah area type.. ie street-food that is various kinds of kababs etc (which I dont really hesitate to eat, since they fit into the "hot food just off the coals" category - safe enough, IMHO).

Are you going to just Delhi, or Bombay too? If its Bombay I can provide the odd rec, let me know... (BTW, for Delhi, dont worry in the slightest about finding Karim's - if you ask a random guy at the airport where Karim's is, he'll be able to direct you Karim's is *old*.. really really old... its been around a hundred-odd years (and the hype is that the ancestors of the family were the personal cooks for the Mughal emperors in Delhi). Everyone but everyone knows Karim's.

Anyway. I wouldnt neccessarily agree with all the opinions expressed above - ie that the hotels always have the best food in the country (in my view they often dont; but some of them can have pretty damn decent food, even the kabab/biryani stuff, theyre not all bad. However, what Ive found is that Ive enjoyed the actual *food* at places like Noor Mohammadi more, just for the taste and flavour, than in the better hotels... of course the hotels are much cleaner and more comfortable.. you'll also, BTW, end up paying 2k per person rather than 200 rupees per person, with the food being a touch better for the 200 rupees But, if you want to be completely safe, there *are* a lot of upscale hotels that have good restaurants in them, with some pretty good food, in both Bombay and Delhi. (I second the Time-Out rec - there is a Time-Out-Bombay too, in addition to Time-Out-Delhi, which will make your search easier).

Oh, and make sure to go at least once to a South-Indian-veggie restaurant (I do once every trip , and if possible a Kerala-style or Goan-style restaurant (ie spicy South-Indian non-veg)... you'll find decent versions of these in both Delhi and Bombay.

And make sure to go for desserts in both places - ie actual dessert places, not just restaurants (these places offer "chaat" stuff, samosas etc, and make their desserts from scratch - gulab jamuns, jalebis fresh out of the fryer, brilliantly awesome ras malais. And the Muslim places will also offer things like barfi and Malai khaja - with fresh cream, and thus something that has to be consumed within 12 hours of being made).

And I second the rec for Indian-Chinese - make sure to ask around for a good place (there are many ordinary ones).. but a great Indian-chinese meal can be something truly special.

And make sure to have a malai-kulfi somewhere, in a "handi" - those are special things, and cant be replicated in Chicago sadly

c8w

Khaopaat wrote:I think you'll be surprised - India's got one of the world's largest middle classes now, and they're not that different than their socio-economic counterparts anywhere else (including here). Trendy restaurants, bars, clubs, boutiques and malls are popping up everywhere, and are packed with young professional hipsters, especially in Delhi & Mumbai. You'd better seek out & enjoy all the street food you can while you still have the chance, before the stands are torn down and replaced with Indo-Brazilian fusion restaurants that turn into overpriced, velvet-roped lounges at night.

I agree with this, BTW - there are *tons* of trendy/hipsterish places now. Avoid the obviously-not-worth-trying ones of these (ie the "fusion Asian" spots etc).. but surprisingly some of these can have pretty decent food The hot dance spot in town, for instance, will be wall-to-wall hipsters and impossibly beautiful women wearing very little... but will also, surprisingly, often offer a quite terrific chicken tikka and sheek kabab to go with the drinks. The malls all have food courts - but some of these are actually quite decent too (one of Bombay's top 2 or 3 chinese restaurants is actually located in a mall - it predated the mall and was considered the best in town, but when the mall opened they actually shut down and moved their entire operation there

And, like Karim's, most places stay open very late - both the veggie and non-veggie food joints are accessible well past midnight.. it is a society that stays up late in general, and often seems to wake up late as a result

c8w

Khaopaat, c8w, globetrotter

Thanks for all the recs and diversity of opinions/advice. I will be in Mumbai, Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Goa. I have some local friends accompanying me, so I trust I will be in good hands food-wise in addition to your recs. At least one of my friends lived in Delhi for a while and like me, is an adventurous eater.

I love meat. I'm an Arab, how could I not? The problem is, when it comes to South Asian food, I am completely enamored with chutneys, raitas, and chaats - basically the stuff people say you shouldn't eat from the street. I've got my Hep A though, as well as typhoid. I also plan on carrying a flask of whiskey around with me (no, I'm not a great Muslim) to sterilize my stomach after suspect meals.

One question. Is "Karim's" pronounced like Kareem (with long vowel) or Karim (short)? Obviously spelling points to the latter but with sub-continental transliteration, you never know. I'll definitely be going there.

I'll do my best to document my eating (and possibly hospital) adventures with photos and start a new post. Old Karim's needs to be left alone from my LTH India food-travel guide questions.

if you are going to mumbai, you have to go to kybber - that's my favorite place. the social equivilent to a good chicago steak place. extremly good food, but its where a huge amount of the business in india takes place.

also, hit a parsi place downtown. the number of places is shrinking, so I won't recomend a specific place, but in the area of "fort" you can find a dozen or more. and a south indian lunch place is always a good choice.

if you will be in mumbai, I would go to the chinese place at the Taj, if its re-opened. that may be the best example of indian chinese food.

there is a good Goan place in Mumbia, everyone knows it, its been around since the 50's. the name escapes me but your hotel should be able to get you there.

habibi,

if you are traveling around and the itinarary is flexible, you might want to hit Hyderabad. sort of the equivelent of Bologna in italy - a city with simply spectacular food. if so, I can give you some recs.

globetrotter wrote:if you are going to mumbai, you have to go to kybber - that's my favorite place. the social equivilent to a good chicago steak place.
....
also, hit a parsi place downtown.
....
if you will be in mumbai, I would go to the chinese place at the Taj, if its re-opened. that may be the best example of indian chinese food.
....
there is a good Goan place in Mumbia, everyone knows it, its been around since the 50's. the name escapes me but your hotel should be able to get you there.

Iam not sure which Goan place youre referring to "from the 50s"... but the consensus for "best Goan-style food in town" nowadays is, IIRC, a place called "Goa Portuguesa" in Mahim (which has been around since the late 80s or 90s I believe). This is a place very much worth going to, IMHO, should be at or near the top of any list (though, if youre going to be in Goa, you'll obviously get *great* Goan/Portuguese food there too The reichades, the vindaloo's (pork), the Goan sausages, the very fresh fish at the smaller places near the sea...you'll enjoy Goa.

In Bombay.. I'll second the rec of a Parsi restaurant - a must-go, simply because you wont experience that kind of food anywhere else (there are basically no Parsi restaurants in the USA, and barely any in India outside of Bombay Id guess). I too wont rec one particular restaurant - ask around for the Fort area as you suggested (though I do remember good things said about "Jimmy Boy Restaurant", "Brittania" etc (I havent been to either in years - Brittania has been around for ages and I can definitely say it used to be good). The best thing would be to cadge an invitation to a Parsi wedding if you can The dishes to definitely try would be "dhansak" (the top Parsi dish), "patra-ni-macchi" (fish cooked in banana leaves), salli-boti (goat with potatoe), the farcha chicken, definitely a lagan-nu-custard for dessert (wedding custard, a quite famous dessert). I hear Jimmy Boy does "wedding style Parsi food" sometimes...

Oh, a tangent.. you must make sure to ask about a place called "Parsi Dairy Farm" (probably a few branches in town), and have their malai-kulfi (or any kulfi, really). You wont be sorry. (If you dont get PDF.. have a "handi kulfi" someplace - comes in a little earthen pot, quite spectacular. But Parsi Dairy is by consensus the best in town, for the past 50 years

The "Khyber" is a fine place to go to as well - upscale kabab-style place, very good food (and, as mentioned above, a Chicago-steakhouse type place in terms of the business community).

Id specifically recommend 3 or 4 other spots (and dishes) for very good food of this style too.. though far more downscale (places more like Khan's on Devon, but with far far superior food to Khan's My own must-have dishes in Bombay..First - "Noor Mohammadi" on Mohammad Ali Road, for their breakfast Nalli-Nehari and Kheema (Nehari is the same dish that is the namesake of Devon's Sabri Nehari... except the Nehari at Noor Mohammadi is slow cooked every single day from 6pm in the evening to 6am - ie 12 hours every single day, to be ready in time for breakfast). And by 8:30-9:00am it will be all gone, the only way to get it is to get there early (I used to take "tiffin boxes" with me so I could bring some home as well

Second, get the "Tandoori Masala Raan" dish at Persian Durbar ("raan" = entire leg of goat). A quite fantastic dish in my memory - Persian Durbar, BTW, will deliver to many places in Bombay (you could just phone in an order, like I did many nights). There are I believe 2 branches.

Third - Delhi Durbar, old reliable thats been around for 30-odd years at least. Their "dabba gosht" and "meat cutlets" remain outstanding - they too will probably deliver. Biryani is pretty damn good too (they have a branch on Colaba Causeway, not far from the Taj hotel - easy to get to. Though the food at the "other" branch in a relatively unsalubrious Grant Road area of town has far superior food

(Oh, and if you ever happen to see a place called "Ratan Tata Institute, or RTI"... you must have their meat-cutlets too, maybe the best in the city even though theyre Parsi and stereotypically not renowned for cutlets

If youre hungry in the Haji-Ali area (famous shrine, and near Bombay's largest mall, Crossroads - you'll probably be in the area *sometime*)... there is a place called "Cafe Noorani" across from the mall which is reasonable for this style of food too. Their "baida roti" and "kheema roti" are very good (egg and ground-meat rotis respectively).. biryani isnt bad either. The "Haji Ali Juice Center" across the street serves fresh juices, 24-hours a day, and is worth a stop too (BTW, another place for late-night Kababs - round the corner from the Taj in "downtown", a place called "Bade Miyan" - literally "old man", used to be an old guy grilling on a stove on the street, with cars lined up around the block for his kababs). The several "Copper Chimneys" around town also have pretty decent kababs (especially, IIRC, the Bandra version of Copper Chimney).

The places you must go to in "town" - ie downtownish.. Fort area... there are 3 spots not far from each other, "Trishna", "Apoorva" and "Mahesh Lunch Home". These all specialize in sort of South-Indian-Non-Vegetarian - quite excellent for Seafood and the like (also appams, Kerala style food, some Goan etc). Again, this is a terrific genre of food, and one not really available in Chicago - fresh, spicy, and very very good.

Indian-Chinese ought to be another must-try while in Bombay - probably China Garden, or several other outposts, really, just ask around for the best.

Given your chutney-raita etc fondness.. Id really suggest a trip to "Kailash Parbat" - a quite terrific place for chaat, samosas, snacks...and especially quite amazing for desserts. (You cannot go there and not have their jalebis and gulab jamuns and ras malai's.. quite spectacular, maybe the best jalebis and gulab-jamuns you'll ever have... even if you havent liked them in the past, you'll discover *why* people like them, if you try them here . BTW, ras-malais etc are also good at Brijwasi's, several locations around town - a Bengali sweet shop that does cream-based sweets very well; ras malai's, rasgollas, maybe even misthi-dahi if youre lucky enough to find it).

Whenever family comes back from Bombay, I traditionally have them bring back "kaju katri" from a place called "Tewari Brothers", the best of its kind anywhere.

Oh, and if you make it to Noor Mohammadi (and you really ought to ... not far is "Usman Sulaiman Mithaiwalla" - a terrific sweetshop that is a must-visit. For halwas, barfis, and especially the malai-khaja (a fresh-cream-based pastry that cannot be refrigerated and must be consumed within 12 hours IIRC - there is no malai-khaja available anywhere in Chicago, sadly, and nobody can transport it either But the halwas and barfis are other things I usually request - fig or dryfruit barfis, sohan halwa etc, try them if you have the chance).

Also, Id highly recommend a stop at one of the several branches across town of an ice-cream parlor called "Naturals Ice Cream". They specialize in very very fresh fruit-based icecreams that are entirely seasonal - you wont, unfortunately, be able to get their Mango Ice Cream (amazingly brilliant) at this time of year... but you might get a chance to try their "Sitaphal Icecream" (Custard Apple) - one worth travelling many hundres of miles to sample (How good is Natural's IceCream? An uncle from England, when he happened to be in Bombay over summer, would traditionally get some of their mango-natural-icecream frozen and packed, and carry it back to London with him in his hand-luggage, back in the 1990s

OK, Iam probably getting carried away and making too many recommendations already, so I'll stop. Enjoy yourself, and report back!

c8w

P.S. OK, I lie. One more esoteric one, not very well known. If youre near the Churchgate station area (and if youre in Bombay you will be)...there is a little place almost across from the station called the "Tea Center". I would highly recommend a short 15-minute stop... try one of the several varieties of Indian teas they carry, in a relaxing setting (my own personal favourite was the cheapest - the "kullad ki chai", village-style strong-tea, in a little earthen-cup, made with jaggery instead of sugar; but there are several styles, many of them very good. Their "lunch specials" are occasionally very good too).

Thanks for all of the recommendations folks.

I'll do my best to honor them. I gotta say, roasted goat leg, fresh cream desserts, 24 hour juice bars and chaat till you drop all sound awesome.

I'm gonna document as much as I can and post.

Regards,

M

Habibi, hope you have a great time. c8w's mention of baida roti reminded of the following at a Delhi stand. I don't recall where it was exactly – likely it was in the Chittaranjan Park area, which is a neighborhood with a predominantly Bengali population in south (New) Delhi. We went there late one night to this one stand that purportedly makes 'Mutton rolls' (or kheema, i.e. ground meat, rolls) as it is made in Calcutta. 'Rolls' (or Kaathi [stick] rolls) in Calcutta are a must have specialty. I would say that the ones we had in Delhi at the stand pictured below, 34 Chowringee Lane* were good and above the average rolls in Calcutta but not near the really good (Calcutta) examples; it also suffered a bit from post prep travel. If you are in the vicinity, it is well worth a snack.


The paratha or roti is crisp and flaky but soft at the same time (from the egg cooked on it); picture to the right shows the innards (from one in Calcutta)


Here's a short clip of how the paratha is made with the egg cooked on it. (I'll put Calcutta examples in the appropriate thread). I'm curious to see what the Bombay versions are like, if you make it to one of those places.


If you are near south Delhi then make a stop for Bengali style sweets at Kamala Sweets in Chittaranjan Park (sorry I can't give you more specific directions but in that area if you ask you should be able to get directions easily). I mention this because the Eastern part of India is missing from your itinerary but the food is available somewhat in Delhi, specifically in that enclave [at least the sweets - if you care for sweets]. Sweets in Bengal are very different from the rest of the country and are typically dairy based (as opposed to more fried or ghee based sweets). Besides in winter, nolen gur or date-palm jaggery is in season and Chittaranjan Park in Delhi is one of the few (if any) places outside of Bengal where you can get good examples of sweets sweetened with it. The best use is in misti doi (literally sweet yogurt)
Pictured below are examples from Calcutta - the best ones are made from buffalo milk (note the fat on top). The brown color is from the jaggery (or palm sugar - like piloncillo). [I've noted a bit about date palm jaggery here. This is the sap of the date palm reduced down (as opposed to other, palmyra palm sap) or date fruit syrup (dibbis or haleq?).

[Pics of examples from Calcutta]
Misti doi [think very thick, rich Greek style yogurt flavored with maple syrup (but date palm syrup)]



You should also try 'rossogolla' (which is the quintessential 'Bengali' sweet known outside of Bengal).
However, the real quintessential Bengali sweet (if you ask a person from Bengal) would be the Sandesh, made with fresh chenna (think fresh ricotta). Both of these would be available in Winter sweetened with nolen gur (hence the brown color - otherwise they are typically white in color).

Rossogolla and Sandesh (below) in the traditional conch shape (the other traditional shape is the palm fruit shape) [examples from Calcutta]





On your travels if you are at bus stands or near train stations (especially in Jaipur) then you should be able to get some very satisfying meals at stands nearby - use your judgment on hygiene and the product (and turnover). In Rajasthan you should try a simple meal of Aloo (potato) or Gobi (cauliflower) paratha - made hot fresh, off the tawa and onto your plate.

Have a good trip!
(btw hope you aren't travelling on F*nnAir - the worst food I have had on air or land. The food on the Indian domestic Kingfisher airlines was very good)


*the name is based on a movie of similar name (36 not 34) set in Calcutta.

most of the best places to eat in Delhi are in hotels.

I strenuously disagree with that statement (& btw, I, & my family are from Delhi). Its tourist food.

if its not too late for your trip, Habibi or anyone else heading to Delhi, a few recommendations I can offer

This blog http://eoid.org/ (Eating Out in Delhi) is an excellent source of recommendations that are off the beaten path, including sources of highly authentic & extremely enjoyable street food. Its also the best resource for tracking down the best seasonal kulfis in Delhi. Keep an eye open for their events, they are similar to LTH's in nature (i.e. members descend on an establishment to sample the best & as widely as possible) & their map is essential to navigating Old Delhi eateries.

Also, pick up Time Out Delhi (its published biweekly). They review both the hipster places & authentic off the beaten track establishments & its a source of good recs (which it often pulls from EOID - highly reminiscent of the relationship between LTH & Time Out here LOL). One thing that folks often aren't aware of is how frequently Delhi-ites order in, rather than deal with traffic etc. & Time Out is a good resource for things like that too (for example, the Indian/Canadian bagelry that delivers > Red Moon Bakery, fabulous).

Its a cliche but Haldiram's is excellent for chaat that's safe to eat, no matter what you order. All my cousins think that the branch in Lajput Nagar is the best & take their little kids to eat there. I've had many enjoyable fast meals there. If you really want to eat chaat with dairy & green chutneys I recommend you do it there.

Some other specifics - Cafe Bikaner @ Bikaner House for Rajesthani food (wonderful bhindi)
South Indian at Andhra Bhavan (non-veg) or Swagath (veg)
If you must eat hotel food, go splurge at Varq at the Taj or Indian Accent at The Manor.
And the best way to avoid the whole "is the water safe" issue is to stick to the vodka gol guppas at places like Punjabi by Nature.

Also, don't ignore options like eating lungar (the free meal) at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib (the sikh temple) - its open to all. Its an interesting experience & the food is fresh & tasty.

Also when you get sick of Indian, there's a surprisingly large amount of decent Italian & Japanese food in Delhi nowadays, that was hard to get a few years ago (e.g. including locally made mozzarella made from local buffalo milk).

ok, just out of curiousity, how many of you have eaten at Bukhara, claridge's or the Kabab Factory in the Radison?

not to be argumentative, but I've eaten at a few hundred non-hotel places, and I've eaten at the half dozen best hotels in Delhi, and I have an opinion. a half dozen people have "strenously ojected" to that opinion - how many of you have eaten at Bukhara?

what I can tell you is that most of my friends, while they eat at Punjabi by Nature and the copper chimney and places like that on a regular basis, when they want a special meal they will end up at one of those hotels - Bukhara or the Dhaba in Claridges.

and, by the way, the indian food at the taj and the oberoi in Delhi aren't that special, in my opinion.

Headed to India (Delhi, Jaipur, Calcutta, Chennai) in a few hours and have found this discussion very helpful. My plan has been to eat a lot of street food and some of the warnings about specific foods (e.g., green chutney) have been especially helpful.

I'm not packing Immodium (in the belief that if I ingest really bad stuff, I want it the hell out of there) though I am packing Cipro in case of emergencies (I'm not a fan of antibiotics, but if I find myself in a really bad place, I will gladly take them).

Basic takeaway: eat it hot, drink it canned.

I would take imodium. Dehydration can be a serious problem with diarrhea.

dradeli wrote:I would take imodium. Dehydration can be a serious problem with diarrhea.

Doc, I respect your opinion, but wouldn't it be best to just drink a lot of (legitimately bottled) water and flush the bad stuff out?

David-

If I recall statements in another thread, haven't you also used a strategy of a couple shots of tequila or other liquor to kill off the icky things?

David Hammond wrote:Headed to India (Delhi, Jaipur, Calcutta, Chennai) in a few hours and have found this discussion very helpful. My plan has been to eat a lot of street food and some of the warnings about specific foods (e.g., green chutney) have been especially helpful.

I'm not packing Immodium (in the belief that if I ingest really bad stuff, I want it the hell out of there) though I am packing Cipro in case of emergencies (I'm not a fan of antibiotics, but if I find myself in a really bad place, I will gladly take them).

Basic takeaway: eat it hot, drink it canned.

Take my experiences with a grain of salt - I ate nearly everything in India on the street (for a month), including all kinds of chutneys, juices and other liquids. Bhel puri, chaat, fresh fruit juices, etc. I didn't get sick once, but when you're playing with dice, it's only a matter of time before you get burned.

In Delhi, I really enjoyed Karim's. Even better was the place right next to Karim's, where this cheerful fellow was perched:



If pomegranates are in season, get some anar juice:



Bottom-line; some of the best food I ate was at random holes-in-the-wall. Not so different than Chicago, New York...

David, you probably don't consider me a friend, but please believe me, I tell you as a friend would (and as a friend who's spent some time, sick and healthy, in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong), food-induced diarrhea is the digestive system on invountary overdrive. It's not merely a matter of time taking its course, it's a matter of your digestive system drastically overclocking. Yes, I understand what you mean by getting the bad stuff out, but don't let your body indulge its impulse to throw the baby out with the bath water. Sometimes bodily functions get out of whack. Take immodium with you, and take it.