NEW DELHI, Dec 26: Be it a ‘paan-wala’ from Benaras or a traditional vendor who hails from Rajasthan, but when food vendors from different regions of the country cater to Delhi’s palate it becomes ‘Dilli Ke Pakwaan’.
Giving a common space to the city’s street food vendors, the ongoing food festival that is scheduled to end here on December 30 has been an annual affair in the national capital since 2010. This year it is being held at the Baba Kharak Singh Marg.
Gulchand Yadav, a ‘paan-wala’ (betal leaf seller) from Benaras has been putting up his stall at the festival since four years. He claims that his Mahoba meetha paan sells the most.
“The speciality of this ‘paan’ is that it melts in your mouth. This is the most sold paan on the first day,” says Yadav.
Mahoba, a district in Uttar Pradesh has been famous for its betal-leaves cultivation.
Also at his stall are rows of ‘Maghai paan’ which says Yadav is popular in Benaras even though the Maghai leaves that go into making the paan are originally grown in Bihar.
On offer too is a variety of variety of supari, chocolate and flavoured paan chutney.
Surpassing the standard size of jalebis, Gohana’s Lala Matu Ram’s stall offers jalebis of 250 grams each that they claim are made in pure ghee.
Lala Maturam Halwai is a popular sweet shop in the city of Gohana, located in the Sonipat district of Haryana. This is their second year at the event.
“Jalebis are our speciality and this is the most sold item at our stall. Unlike the usual jalebis, even if you keep these jalebis for twenty days, it will still be edible. It tastes best when had with milk,” says Satya Narayan, manager of the stall.
After jalebis, ‘gajar ka halwa’ is the second popular dish at their stall, claims Narayan.
“What people do now-a-days is cook gajar ka halwa in pressure cookers. But we do it the traditional way. Mawa (thickened milk) and carrot are cooked together in a cauldron,” he says.
Besides jalebi and gajar ka halwa, ‘daal ki kachori’, chhola-bhatura and aloo-puri are also available at the stall.
From Mughalai to Rajasthani food, the festival offers over
60 varieties of food. Tausif, who owns a shop at the Jama Masjid area in Old Delhi says he is attending the event for the second time.
He had brought a range of mughalai food like Peshawari Tawa Chicken, Afghani Karai Chicken, the very famous Nihari, Halim etc.
But the the Sindhi Dum Biriyani is his champion dish and has been attracting customers to his shop for the last 35 years.
“The Sindhi Dum Biryani is cooked on a low flame for eight to 10 hours. For the next day,we have already started cooking the biryani. Apart from this we have we have different varieties of kebabs and Aflaatooni Tikka which is named so because of the strong spices being used to prepare it,” says Tausif.
Apart from the biriyani, another popular Mughalai food the Chicken Changezi seems to draw visitors.
Stalls that serve ‘Daulat ki Chaat’ and ‘Shahi Tukda’ offering a glimpse of the desserts of Chandani Chowk.
Faizan Ansari of ‘Mughlai Khane’ near Jama Masjid says that ‘Shahi Tukda’ is the most sold item at his stall.
Being his fourth year at the fest, Ansari is offering selected items that includes shahi tukda, gajar ka halwa and ‘lal roti’.
Since less people know about shahi tukda and lal roti, it attracts them to our stall, says Ansari.
‘Lal Roti’ is a sweet-flavoured mughlai flatbread, prepared with flour and milk which makes it tender.
Ansari says that ‘lal roti’ is edible for almost a month. One just has to heat and relish it.
Apart from desserts for the sweet toothed, a clutch of healthy alternatives are also being offered at the festival.
‘Home for Food Tradition’, located in the historical village of Todapur, offer a wide range of healthy breads.
Their products are available online as they say that rather than making it a business venture, they want to make it a mission to help India eat right.
Managers of the stall say that their meals are made from fresh and seasonal yields, which are planned by their team of food experts.
Some breads on offering include whole wheat potato and
pumpkin breads, multi-grain flour ajwain, jeera and chilli flake breads, country breads which includes bajra, corn and channa and plum cakes as well.
At ‘Jaipur Roasted Namkeens and Gajjaks’, another stall at the festival offers healthy snacks such as karela (bitter gourd) chips, soya chips and diet wheat namkeen.
“All our namkeens are roasted and we expect to have a good sale here since people today are health conscious and would prefer our products,” says S K Garg who has set up his stall for the first time here.
Garg is also offering sweets for winters which includes khasta gajjak, til-patti and peanut gajjak.
For those fond of tangy and sweet products, A K Gupta of ‘Raja Products’ offers a variety of ‘churans’ like anardana goli, jeera goli, ginger sweet, mango sweet, aam papad and chatkara goli.
Gupta is among the first timers at the festival.
Sudhir Sobti, of Delhi Tourism says, “The location was decided because this is a central place. Parking is available easily with the DLF Complex being nearby. Also the metro is just five minute walk. Also we have taken all steps to beef up the security and cameras have been installed after the threat by the agencies of a possible terror attack in the capital.”
Besides the food stalls, Dilli Ke Pakwan has lined up various activities like recipe competition, food photography crash course by Andrew John, expert food talk, musical evenings and art and craft section.
The event has a ‘Nomadic Haat’ based on the Rajasthani tradition where one can find drums, sarangi, knitted stools, traditional jewellery and lamps, Rajasthani puppets and bags.
A part of the venue has Rajasthani umbrella hanging from the ceiling and a wall filled with kites. Such corners have been specially created as ‘selfie walls’ where people can click themselves.
An NGO Antardrishti that works towards welfare of visually-challenged and Antarkranti that helps in rehabilitation and reformation of prison inmates are offering a wide range of ranging from aromatherapy products to handicraft products.
The revenue generated from their sale is set to go for the welfare of physically challenged people. (PTI)
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