Delhiwale: Classic returns

Delhi's winter treat, Daulat Ki Chaat, returns to Paharganj, as vendor Rohit prepares the beloved dessert under festive lights, despite urban myths.

So many people here, and the market street strung with fairy lights. Such a grand welcome for the one and only Daulat Ki Chaat.

It is his Daulat’s inaugural day for the new season—says vendor Rohit. (HT Photo)

Ok, let’s cool down the hyperbole. There indeed is crowd, but it is an everyday feature of Paharganj’s Main Bazar. And the streets lights are truly festive, but they are remnants of the recent Diwali decorations. Even so, this Tuesday evening, the surrounding props do seem like appropriate trappings to mark the return of Delhi’s most poetic wintertime street dessert.

It is his Daulat’s inaugural day for the new season—says vendor Rohit, see photo. The classic dish the young man is hawking on his cart is arranged neatly into a giant platter, the dish’s fluffy top is garnished with rose petals.

The dessert comprises of milk, cream and… can this next ingredient be just a lore—dew. While every Daulat vendor may has his idiosyncratic version of the dish, the basic recipe remains the same. Buffalo milk is whisked with buffalo milk’s cream under the night’s clear moon, with the cold night’s dew forming froth atop the whisked milk.

The question is how can a clear moon appear night after night under Delhi’s smoggy sky?

Between us, the bit about the moon is pure myth. A year ago, a Daulat vendor in Chawri Bazar made a frank confession, explaining: “At night, we mix buffalo milk with cream, then leave the container uncovered on the roof for the dew to settle. We get up at three in the morning and churn the thing for three to four hours.”

Rohit, the Paharganj hawker of Daulat, follows the same method, he says. During the ensuing cold months, he would be getting up very early in the morning to prepare the day’s portion of Daulat—along with elder brother Vinod. Both bhai live in Himmatgarh, near Ajmeri Gate. Rohit’s brother hawks the dish in nearby Choona Mandi.

And now to the experience of savouring the dessert, which, at the point of serving in a bowl, is sprinkled over with ground sugar and roasted khoya. A decently made Daulat happens to be divine, as light and fleeting as Basho’s haikus. The froth in fact vanishes the moment it enters the mouth, leaving behind a sensation of sweet feeling.

Meanwhile, here in congested Paharganj, Rohit drags his cart deeper into the market street. He says he will return to his pad either after his cart’s Daulat is over, or when the time strikes 11 o’clock, whichever will come first.