Fest unites city’s street food lovers

Dilli ke Pakwaan, a seven-day food festival organised by Delhi Tourism, at one corner of Connaught Place on Baba Kharak Singh Marg, certainly took on the weekend crowd, Ritam Halder reports.

At one corner of Connaught Place on Baba Kharak Singh Marg, hundreds of Delhiites gathered this Sunday to get their hands on the gastronomic wonders from across the country.

HT Image

Dilli ke Pakwaan, a seven-day food festival organised by Delhi Tourism, certainly took on the weekend crowd.

To continue till Thursday, the festival is offering mouth-watering delicacies and that too at reasonable prices. According to Champa Paul, a 45-year-old housewife who lives at State Entry Road in Connaught Place, the food this time didn’t burn a hole in her pocket. “I along with my husband and daughter had biryani, rumali roti, chicken and kulfi and they were not at all expensive,” Paul said.

Apart from this obvious perk, the stalls from the oldest corners of the Capital were grabbing eyeballs and connoisseurs’ fancy. Be it the Purani Dilli Catering Services --- a 22-year-old establishment owned by Afzal Khan - whose chicken changezi is high in demand or the Mughal Darbar Chicken Corner - which owner Bhure Khan claims to be serving food lovers for around 35 years.

Talat Mahmud Khan, owner of Khan Point, was finding it difficult to cater to the demand of biryani and mutton nihari. “Food, especially Mughlai cuisine, is an essential part of the culture of this city. And if you serve tasty and quality dishes, people will lap it up,” Khan said.

Apart from the quintessential chats, jalebis, chole kulches and chole bhatures, new entries to the city’s cuisine list are also being appreciated by the gourmets.

According to an official of Delhi Tourism, the enthusiastic gathering shows that despite modernity and thriving fast food culture, traditional street food is still a hit.