It is Sunday and the time now is one hour past midnight. Weekends are a welcome respite from long hectic hours for five weekdays in a row and at this late hour, I should ideally be watching a movie or some random video on YouTube rather than writing this post. The reason for the latter is that I want to write down something before the enthusiasm fades away tomorrow.
In search of a new non-vegetarian taste, I and Maneet today landed in Changezi Chicken, a small restaurant in Darya Ganj. I went ecstatic the moment I first put a bite of their Afghani chicken in my mouth and for the remaining hour I was as happy as a kid who just received a bicycle on his birthday! The restaurant’s speciality was (obviously) Changezi chicken and the taste easily exceeded our expectations. The place wasn’t too hi-fi and looked more like a dhaba. Moreover, Darya Ganj is considered a part of Old Delhi, one that is not as glamorous as other places around and one where you would probably never go as a tourist. Who would then expect that a small food-joint produces a taste like few others’ in the city?
It is a great thing to go explore various restaurants in the city and try different things in a hope to find a unique taste. The first such place I discovered about twenty months ago, was Rajinder Dhaba in Safdarjung Enclave near AIIMS. The dhaba is a long eighteen kilometers from our place, still we went there at least once every week and apart from just three times, we always ordered a Chicken Curry and Tunday Kebabs. Such was the taste that the restaurant offered us and it was only about a month back that I finally got bored of it.
Some other places that my curiosity led me to were Karim’s (near Jama Masjid), Kaake Da Dhaba and Nizam’s Kathi Kebab (both in Connaught Place). These places are all highly rated on foodie websites but they somehow didn’t quite stuck a chord in my heart. The problem with Karim’s was that their speciality is mutton, which I don’t prefer much, and their chicken is not that good. Kaake Da Dhaba does not have a consistent taste. At one time, there was a distinct layer of Ghee in their Chicken Curry and the next, there was none. Their Tandoori Chicken was fantastic, though. The rolls at Nizam’s were good but not as great as touted by the online community.
It was a good time when I religiously went to Rajinder Dhaba every week. Now that that has passed, I think it is time to start exploring other unknown places in town. I have already begun doing that- let’s see what the near future has in store for me!