A Food History of Delhi (Edition1) by Pushpesh Pant

A Food History of Delhi (Edition1) by Pushpesh Pant

'A wonderfully evocative book on Delhi and its food combining decades of scholarship with personal experiences and memories

by one of our greatest food writers.'-Vir Sanghvi, journalist and author, Rude Food

'Pushpesh Pant weaves a magical mosaic in his inimitable style about his personal, and Delhi's, food journey, spiced with anecdotes and tales. A mustread book.'-Rocky Mohan,

food connoisseur, author and custodian of Old Monk rum

Who is an 'asli Dilliwala'-a true-blue Delhizen-and what is his cuisine?

To answer this question, Pushpesh Pant, food historian and raconteur

par excellence, takes us on a culinary journey from the Mahabharata's

Indraprastha-the first city of Delhi-to the present day, through the

Sultanate, the Mughal Empire and the British Raj.

On this fascinating food trip, we savour the rich qormas and kebabs of

Shahjahanabad and the Shepherd's Pie and mutton cutlets of 'angrezon ki

Dilli', with a light snack in between of papri or undiya, washed down with bael

ka sherbet in a good Baniya home. But that is not all. As Delhi's population

grew to include migrants from across the country, so did its culinary

repertoire. The Dilliwala of today is as likely to enjoy Calcutta-style street

food-chops, cutlets, puchka and jhaalmuri-in the south Delhi colony of C.R.

Park, as he is to relish a berry pulao and dhansak at the Parsi Anjuman. And

what better tiffin than idli-dosa-sambar from the South Indian outlets that dot

the city? From a city identified largely with Punjabi and Mughlai food-butter

chicken and biryani-Delhi is now a melting pot of cuisines ranging from

Kashmiri, Bengali and Bihari, to Andhra, Naga and 'Indian-Chinese'.

Pushpesh Pant also tracks the growth of the city's restaurant culture, from

wayside dhabas and McDonalds to high-end restaurants that can compete with

the best in the world-justifying its claim to being a global food capital where

virtually every cuisine can be found, including Japanese, Thai, Mediterranean

and Korean.

Drawing on a wealth of historical records and literary sources, Pushpesh Pant

has written a delightful, anecdotal account of the life and food habits of each

period of Delhi's history, that is as much a feast to be enjoyed, as the food he

describes.

Pushpesh Pant is a New Delhi-based lecturer at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is a popular food columnist in India and the author of several volumes, including Phaidon's India: The Cookbook.