Delhiwale: Khaas dessert for aam lovers

This homemade ice-cream tastes of frozen mango nectar, has no artificial flavours, and costs just ~25

This is one of the most sublimely authentic ice-creams in Delhi.

The unnamed stall at the entrance of Gharib Nawaz Guest House, in the Walled City’s Matia Mahal bazaar, sells homemade mango ice cream in summer and in winter. (Mayank Austen Soofi / HT PHOTO)

The unnamed stall at the entrance of Gharib Nawaz Guest House, in the Walled City’s Matia Mahal bazaar, sells homemade mango ice cream in summer and in winter. (Vanilla ice cream is also available.) Since the mango season is short, the fruit is obtained the rest of the year from cold storages.

Muhammed Zahir prepares his specialty every morning at his house in Gali Sirkiwallan. “I slice the mangoes and mix them with boiling milk, cream, raisins and sugar,” he says, “and then I churn the combination in an old ice cream machine.”

The product is brought to the stall in a metal container, which is covered with a wet red cloth. The stall is also known for Mr Zahir’s shahi tukda — deep-fried slices of white bread soaked in sugar syrup, drenched with thickened cream and embellished with pistachio nuts. But in these hot, humid months, the fastest moving dish is the mango ice-cream.

The pale-yellow scoop, priced at ₹25, is as sugary as it is creamy. Fortunately, these characteristics are lost under the tarty-sweet flavour of the dish’s signature ingredient.

Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that the homemade ice-cream tastes of frozen mango nectar. With no artificial flavourings, the cold sphere seems to be composed of a time when life was less mechanical, more natural. The pleasure it offers is vastly superior to the barren satisfaction borne out of industrially manufactured cold desserts.