What defines a city? Is it the art and architecture, the cultural capital, the physical geography, local politics or something else? A city is like an unending tapestry of dreams wherein each citizen weaves his/her pattern, rather painstakingly. Moving north from India’s capital city of New Delhi, lies the…

The famous Standard Sweets, better known as Layallpur Waale, after the Pakistani village from where the founder came to India in 1946, is now run by his grandson.

A few quick questions to the customers and you’ll know that some of them have been Layallpur loyalists for more than two…

Giani Gurcharan Singh of Layalpur (now in Pakistan) migrated to India in 1951, four years after Partition, and settled with his family in Old Delhi. With him, he brought his recipe of iced rabri falooda and established Giani Di Hatti, an eatery that has been serving a wide variety…

If you like Nihari and haven’t heard of ‘Kallu ki Nihari’ then it is definitely something you have been missing out on. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of restaurants in Old Delhi that serve Nihari, but unless you have not tasted Kallu ki Nihari, you truly haven’t tasted anything….

When we enter the town of Shahjehanabad from Delhi Gate on the left side parallel to Golcha Cinema in the Daryaganj Road is Mahata Chhole-Bhature ki Dukaan (shop). One gets to explore a varied menu from dosa, vada, kulfi faluda but the most famous is the chole-batura. We get…

When one is visiting Old Delhi, eateries such as chicken fry, fish fry, chat, pakoris, puri, sabzi, halwa are all available for one to try and experience. But this experience is incomplete without having tried one of the most famous and traditional dish of ‘purani dilli’ and that is…

In the bylanes of Shahjahanabad, in Fatak Teliyan is a small Kashmiri shop. The owner of the shop, by day sits inside the shop and come evening, he is one of the famous chefs who makes exquisite Kashmiri kebabs, which are available till 11pm. The speciality of the kebab is…

The one place in Old Delhi that is sure to increase your appetite by just its name is ‘Paranthe wali gali’. It literally means ‘bylanes of fried bread’ and these bylanes are filled with the smell of ghee, pickles, chutney, raita and what not. Gali Paranthe wali has a…