Shopping, winters, and Food are the first few things that come to your mind, when you hear the word ‘New Delhi’. But for us the first thing has to obviously be foooooooooooooooooooooooood! But in this busy lifestyle like the one we live in Mumbai, dishes like Stuffed deep fried Parathas from ‘Parathe wali gali ‘, Kebabs and Biryanis from Jama Masjid, Khan Chacha’s kebab and rolls, Aloo tikki chaat, Dahi bhalle among many others are a distant dream. But not any more.
We were recently invited by the Renaissance Convention Centre Hotel team to discover Chandni Chowk via Mumbai at the Delhi Food Festival which was being hosted at the Lake View Café from 23rd May – 1st June, 2014. The team not only invited us but asked us to get along our favorite foodies along and host a table.
And hence we hosted our very first Bloggers Table with Shanti from Riot Of Flavors, Anay from Everything on a Plate, Joel from Crumbs to Gourmet, Sandeep from Esca Brahma and the Bawi Bride, Perzen along with her #BawaGroom who also happened to celebrate his birthday on that day.
We along with our favorite foodies at Lake View Cafe
Lake View Café was beautifully Delhi-ised with a live Jalebi and Thandai counter and some quirky signboards on each counter with friendly staff around serving some awesome Delhi-ness. We started our gastronomic ride to Delhi with ‘Chaat’ which included among others, Gol Gappe, Aloo Chaat etc. With huge puris and not-so-spicy and pleasantly tangy liquid, the Gol Gappas (puchkaas as they’re famously known in the north) was something that all of us relished up on and had no count of how many we ate.
This was followed by the very refreshing and tangy drink, Dil Khush. It was a mix of kokam masalas that added the zinc to our taste buds. The drink truly lived up to its name. The next in line was the slow-cooked haleem. Doesn’t the word ‘slow-cooked’ add a little taste to the dish already? It indeed was tasty and flavorful, but we still thought that there was something missing.
We went on to the main course and the desserts. The dal makhani topped our evening charts along with the delicious butter chicken. We couldn’t have enough of the dal makhani, we kept repeating the order until we realized that we were not quite home, instead in a five star 😛 We have to admit it had the exact amount of ghee and cream in the precise tongue rolling tasteful delight!
We ended our journey with the awesome chocolate mousse cake which the team had arranged to celebrate #BawaGroom’s birthday. Whattay end this was!
All in all, the Exec Chef and others at the hotel did manage to take us and our favorite foodies on a gastronomic ride to Delhi, but we felt that there was a little Delhi-ness (read: butter, ghee, spice and some Delhi flavors 😉 ) missing in the spread. Having said this, there were definitely some lip-smacking highlights like the Gol Gappe, Jalebi with Rabdi, Dal Makhnani and the Butter Chicken, which made our first bloggers table memorable.
The Chef and the curator of the festival, Chef Danish. A very warm host!
P.S: While this festival is now over, you can indulge in similar dishes at Nawab Saheb in Renaissance Convention Center Hotel and tell us about your experience 🙂
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