Monday, March 28, 2011

Foodie Jaunts


Foodelicious Trip To Delhi and UK
 
Bijoli Grill at Dilli Haat
 As is obvious from my prolonged silence I was away from blogosphere. My wonderful holiday was marred by an injury to my arm, to make matters worse this was the arm  I had injured during Christmas as a result of which I am compelled  to type with my left hand. There is also the problem of the internet connection which appears to have mind of its own. I apologize to my readers for not being able to update my blog.
I sure would like to share the foodie experiences I had on this holiday but before that I would like to thank each one of you for your encouraging comments. In my absence I am also glad to see that I have a new follower. A big THANK YOU! 
I have to confess that I learnt to thank my readers with these flowers from my fellow food blogger schmetterlingwords who has also helped me keep in touch with the German language. Thanks schmetterling for providing me with this inspiration. Incidentally we saw these beautiful flowers in a temple complex at Haridwar. 

This was a trip to UK, yes I was surprised to find ‘Government of UK’ written at  various places in Haridwar, Rishikesh, Mussoorie and Dehradun; for a moment I wondered what the United Kingdom had to do here only to later realize that it is short for Uttarakhand.
Haridwar
Rishikesh
Mussoorie
Before taking off for UK we decided to spend a couple of days in the capital city not for touristy reasons much to the irritation of the cab driver, but for foodie reasons and also to visit the National Gallery of Modern Art which to my brother’s (who is an artist) delight has an excellent collection of artworks.
Dilli Haat
Our culinary journey began in the capital city’s Dilli Haat an  interesting concept and an excellent means of showcasing the country’s handicrafts and cuisine.The handicrafts were not of much interest to me considering that almost everything is available here in Bombay(I did purchase a few things though), what I was looking forward to was the food court. Sometime back in a food related television show I had seen that the famous Calcutta caterer Bijoli Grill had set up shop at the Haat, ever since I had been waiting for an opportunity to satiate my taste buds at this stall and finally it happened. Was it worth it? It was great. We ordered Bhetki Machcher Paturi and Chittal Machcher Muittha
Bhetki Machcher Paturi
Chittal Machcher Muittha
I had both these for the first time in my life. The former is steamed fillets of bekti fish with mustard paste wrapped in a banana leaf. The latter is a preparation made from a fresh water fish called chittal. I do not know the recipe(chittal is not available in Bombay) but from what I have heard the fish is deboned then steamed, cut into pieces, fried and then cooked in a gravy. The dishes were very delicious, low on spices – we had requested them to go easy on the chillies but what I liked most was the complete absence of a fishy odour. One of the reasons I avoid ordering fish in restaurants is the fishy odour that emanates from the fish;I have found this odour even in well-known restaurants like Mainland China and O! Calcutta. Besides these we also had Radha Vallabhi (a kind of stuffed puri made from maida) and Aalur Dom (Bengali version of the Dum Aalu). Some delicious Bengali sweets rounded off our meal. The food was pretty light on the stomach, I had digested it almost immediately and had no hesitation when my brother suggested we visit Wenger’s the well-known pastry shop. I would like to share this video about Wenger's which I found on the internet.
 
Heavy rains played spoil sport preventing us from visiting the Haat again to try some of the goodies available at the other stalls. This was not the end of our culinary journey; the capital had more to offer. We headed to Delhi’s mini Bengal Chittaranjan park for some goodies like Khejurer Gur (jaggery from the date palm). More about that in my next post but till then have a look at this clip.

9 comments:

  1. you refreshed my memories. loved Dilli haat and everytime gorged on momo and fruit beer. beautiful post shilpidi.

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  2. Awesome post,enjoyed reading it.

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  3. Ah, so that's what you had at Bijoli Grill! Will keep it in mind, and will try that the next time I go. Somehow whenever we've eaten at the Bijoli Grill stall (in previous years - we haven't eaten there for a while), it's always Mughlai paratha. And that, of course, is very heavy and rich.

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  4. @dustedoff:Yes you must give it a try. Arm showing no sign of improvement, therefore I am not so active on the net.

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  5. Lovely post, Shilpi. Didn't you just love UK? One of my favourite places. I know where to eat now when I go to Dilli. I hate the fishy flavour too in food, it makes me suspicious about the freshness of the fish. :)

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  6. Delicious n mouthwatering dishes n amazing post..first time here..u hv a lovely space..visit mine as time permits....
    Sanyukta
    http://creativesanyukta.blogspot.com/

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  7. Hallo Shilpi, es ist schön dich wieder zu sehen... Ich habe dich ehrlich vermisst. My intuition was telling me, you were not doing well and I kept ignoring it. Wie geht es dir jetzt?? Ich wünsche dir eine gute Besserung.

    Es ist schön deine Erfahrungen zu lesen. Ich war nie im Delhi gewesen. Es ist bei mir auch genauso, dass ich das Fischy-Aroma im Essen hasse. Aber, einmal hat meine Deutschlehrerin gesagt, dass sie Fisch ohne seinem Aroma gar nicht mag. Komisch, oder?? Tja, alles Geschmackssache!!

    Und, vielen Dank, dass du mich in dem Post bezogen hast. Ich fühle mich geehrt!! :-))

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  8. @Banno: Yes loved UK and you are right fishy odour does mean the fish is not fresh.

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    The best famous cafe in mussoorieIt is the purpose of this article to present key information on the Cafe, its history and its future. As you will read, cafe is a world renowned recreational activity that has grown in popularity over time. Without further ado, let's tred a little deeper into this subject to discover the rich history of "cafe".

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