Street food, that teases your taste buds and satisfies your stomach, to that extent that you wonder why you even bother to eat healthy food at all. These reside in almost every corner of Delhi. Yet none of these foods are originally from Delhi. They have been brought to this beautiful city by people who have come to this city and made it their own.
From steaming Momos to Maharashtrian Pav Bhaji, Delhi has always welcomed all kinds of diversity, whether it is food, art, culture or even fashion. Can anyone imagine Delhi without the blabbering Punjabi aunties, with the awesome suits, the singing Bengali aunties, the South Indian aunties who seem to be talented in everything, or the Marathi aunty who lives above your flat, but just because she has spent the last ten years in Gujarat, you ask her to make Khandvi. Who hasn’t packed boxes of Dhoklas from Aggarwal to take home for tea when relatives have turned up? Which student from North Campus hasn’t queued up to taste “Chacha ke Chole” or “Tom Uncle’s Maggie”? Which girl hasn’t munched on soft, warm Momos on a cold, winter day, especially if the college fest is going on and the stall is right in front of her? Having Chuski, with a group of blabbering friends, or having kathi rolls when you don’t have enough money, at least not having enough to go to Bercos. From having cashew-filled tikkis at I.N.A, tandoori Momos at Kamla Nagar, to golgappas at every possible street in Delhi, to rejecting the golgappas at Chaat Street, because one finds it too “hygienic”, aren’t these what make up your tiny moments in this city.
Can anyone remember spending a really good day, which has not been etched in your memory forever, without any of these glimpses of Delhi life? I remember returning to this city, after living abroad for three years and spending Rupees hundred on golgappas only.
Food is an essential requirement of the human body, yet what is it about street food, that all share a love for it? We may enjoy burgers or pizzas once a month, but don’t we all enjoy street food almost every week, in whatever forms it maybe? Isn’t it because, at the end of the day, we are all “Delhiwallas” in our heart….
