00:00Delhi, a city where every street, every lane and every bite tells a story.
00:21From the narrow alleys of old Delhi to the vibrant streets of modern Delhi, food is not
00:26just about taste, it's a living archive, preserving the stories of time, tradition and migration.
00:33There is also a phenomenal diversity of food in Delhi. For example, there are about half
00:40a million Tamilians in Delhi. There are half a million Malayalis. The number of Bengalis
00:48in Delhi would perhaps be more. And the Bengali food all over, not only Chitranjan Park, one
00:59of the oldest Bengali sweet shops is right in the heart of Chandni Chowk. So, the range
01:05of Delhi food is unlimited. And it is just one of those things that some things have
01:14gotten marketed more than the others. But did you know that much of Delhi's food heritage
01:21traces back to the waves of migration during partition? The way partition has changed the
01:28eating habits of Delhi is phenomenal. In India, traditionally you did not eat out on the street
01:37because caste. You did not know who had cooked it, who had touched it, etc. etc. So, people
01:46and you know, even in my family, my father, for example, he would never eat out. If you
01:53liked something in the market, you bought it and you took it home. You did not eat on
01:57the street. So, the eating joints that you have in Delhi, they cluster around Jama Masjid
02:05and then they are in the markets, Chandni Chowk, Chabri, etc. etc. It is the people
02:11who came here for business, especially those who came from outside and had to spend an
02:18entire day. They used to patronize these places. And when the railway came in 1865, that is
02:28when eating joints came up near the railway station. So, you had passengers and people
02:34who came here for business purposes, who would go and patronize these places. All the
02:41restaurants that you see around Jama Masjid, most of them came up when the decision to
02:48shift the capital came to Delhi. Otherwise, they used to be on the steps of Jama Masjid,
02:53they used to be food joints. I remember one which was the Masita Kababi of Meerut. He
03:02was very popular. He only sold kebabs and chapati, you know. So, quite a lot of these
03:10are post-independence and some of them right after the arrival of the railways.
03:17Take Sitaram Diwan Chandan Paharganj. Known for its Chole Bhature, a dish that has become
03:23a part of Delhi's culinary identity, but its history isn't as old as it seems. Chole, once
03:31a regional dish, only became popular in Delhi post-1947 as recipes evolved and flavours
03:38blended. Even in the case of Lotanji's Chole Kulche, which gained new fame after serving
03:45at Ambani's pre-wedding, food in Delhi is a bridge between past and present. It is a
03:51shared experience, something that connects us, even when the stories may not match the
03:56recorded history.
03:58There is a story like this, one dish created for Wajid Ali Shah, one dish created for Shah
04:02Jahan, one dish created for Aurangzeb, the Leziza Khichdi. But these are all apocryphal
04:07stories. Like the whole story about Delhi chaat is a concocted one. The Hakeem found
04:12out that Delhi water was contaminated. So, chillies were added to chaat and then to balance
04:18the chillies, the Rogan was added, so Delhi has this. But you ask yourself a simple question.
04:24Delhi had been there for several generations, several centuries before Shah Jahanabad came
04:28up. Delhi like a cat has been built, has had more than nine lives, you know.
04:33When people learned to cultivate rice, they had learned to eat rice much before that because
04:40these are seeds of grasses. People had learned from probably from birds that these seeds
04:48can be eaten and they began to collect them and chew them. And then they realized they
04:55are edible. They were already hunting animals. They had perhaps already discovered fire and
05:04the uses of fire. But till they started making vessels, cooking did not happen. But cooking
05:13meat and rice together has been happening all over the place where rice was cultivated.
05:21So then to say, you know, the Kheer happened first in Lucknow or in Banaras or in Bulandshahr
05:29or Delhi is all bunkum. It could have happened anywhere and all over roughly at the same
05:37time, you know, because, you know, there are things, stages in human evolution when
05:44they happened and the people were constantly migrating. So one doesn't know where it went.
05:50And quite a lot of these claims are just claims. First there is food, then there is business
05:57of food. So if you are in the business selling food, the story about Shah Jahani Korma is
06:02good. The story about Aurangzeb Silezi's Khichdi is good. The Humayuni Roti is good. The Butter
06:09Chicken story is good. Vaidya Reddy Shah's Kolkata Biryani is good. You know the Kolkata
06:13story ki gareeb tha, paise nahi the, toh aloo milane laga meat ki jagah. But the man was
06:17maintaining a 2000 long retinue of servants including tawaifs, good-looking boys, Kathak
06:23dancers. And his Hakim had told him that the climate in Kolkata is not right, lighten your
06:27biryani with potatoes. And potatoes then was a prince's ransom. They'd just come from
06:31England, you know. And a cashier was given to Jahangir and so on, by Terry and Roe. So
06:37I don't believe these stories. But they add to the dining experience and enjoyment if
06:43they don't go overboard.
06:45Delhi's food culture is more than just about recipes passed down through generations. It's
06:52shaped by the migrations, the struggles and the transformation of this city. In the end,
06:58it's not just about the food. It's about how food binds us to the past, to each other and
07:04to the evolving story of this city. It's only when you dig deeper that you truly start to
07:10understand the flavour of this city.
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