Date: 19 June 2016
Venue: Near Jama Masjid

Id 2016 is just a week away. Every other foodie worth his carnivore instinct is doing the food trail in old Delhi these days. The online food world is abuzz with Ramzan food walks in the Jama Masjid area at a fancy price if you please. We do a food trail in old Delhi around this time every year. We choose a weekend evening during the month of Ramzan and head to Jama Masjid area to stuff up on Mughlai food.

Following this tradition, we reached Chawri Bazaar about 8ish last Saturday evening. An e-rickshaw dropped us opposite to the grandly lit Jama Masjid and we actioned our annual ritual.

Al Jawahar

There was however one deviation. During our earlier expeditions we would invariably queue up in front of Karim’s at Jama Masjid. This year we stopped at Al Jawahar adjacent to Karim’s. Please read about our experience here

Irani Chai

It’s a regular tea shop – almost like a shack. What they serve is different from regular tea. They pour the tea decoction in a glass and add a spot of cream from the top. This combo has the kick of tea in a unique milk shake kinddo feel.

Bakery

A plethora of bakery – sweetened bread, buns layered with butter and jam, dry fruit rusk, fruit cake are available only during Ramzan. The local bakeries make these for Sehri or breakfast. We have been coming to Golden Bakery here for a couple years now. At super affordable prices, we stocked up of these sweetmeats at least for a week.

Dessert

We were looking for Shahi Tukra, the signature dessert dish in this area. A well illuminated stall below a building attracted us. Cool Point as they called themselves sold sweets such as Shahi Tukra and mango ice cream. The Shahi Tukra, swimming in ghee was not overtly sweet and was terribly tasty. Inspired we tried their mango icecream. This tasted of real mangos and for a mango lover, this was manna from heaven. This place is really cool and they have all the right to call themselves Cool Point. It is a permanent stall and we are surely coming here again.

Shopping

This lane is lined with shops of all kinds – clothes, accessories, shoes, utensils, brassware etc. We bought some sandals from one traditional looking shoe store overflowing with customers. On our way out, we spotted a brass candle stand, somewhat like a Hanukkah Candelabra in a dimly lit shop. This was a rare find.

No Ramadan food trail is complete without sewaiyan. Both sides of the lane opposite to Jama Masjid are lined with small piles of sewaiyan of both sweetened and plain variety. We both some sewaiyaan to carry the Ramzan 2016 spirit for folks at home.

All in all, every bit of sweat that we shed on that hot and humid evening was worth it. We intend to do this next year too .. Insha Allah!