Having ‘chaat’, a la carte

Street food has come to occupy prominent space on the menus of various luxury boutique hotels in Delhi and seems to be a favourite among travellers.

From new menus to adding innovative dishes on the platter, five-star hotels here are adding flavours from the streets of Delhi amidst traditionally-served international cuisine. Hotels which have been offering Italian, Pan-Asian, Americana and continental cuisines, have made space for exotic dishes such as Aloo Chaat , Chana masala , and tandoori dishes, which are typical to the capital.

Chaat platter is one of the hot favourite dishes in Delhi’s The Park that has captured attention of food lovers.

Experiments “A surprising number of tourists and corporates, who do not have time to eat chaat on the streets of Delhi like to try the flavour here,” says Abhishek Basu, the Executive-Chef at The Park Hotel.

“From Delhi Chaat platter to tandoori tikka , we have a wide range of Delhi street food to offer to the food lovers,” says Basu.

Five-star hotels such as Taj Mansingh and The Imperial have also introduced tandoori delicacies along side its international cuisines.

Another restaurant in the capital, Claridges offers North Indian highway cuisine at Dhabha. With its truck mural rustic interiors the place offers signature dishes such as tandoori kebabs , balti meat , baingan ka bharta and the chef’s special thali .

Cha Bar at the Oxford BookStore here has introduced a Namo Chai in celebration of the election verdict. A new addition to their extensive tea menu, the Namo Chai priced at a nominal amount of ₹30 is being offered on a 1+1 scheme.

The chai is presented in the typical truckwala tea pot and is served in cutting chai glasses.

“The dhabawala chai has a distinct strong clove and ginger flavour and aroma,” says the servers.

Not the same Culinary cooking sensation Vikas Khanna, a better known face from MasterChef, however believes that while street food inspires his style it is beyond his capacity to reproduce the taste that is served on the streets.

“I can’t re-create the same golgappa paani in my kitchen. That particular paani has its own texture and flavour which is hard to get in a room similar to an operation theatre (the restaurant kitchens),” Khanna says. On the contrary, hotels promise the same taste acquired from the streets and they “try to keep the rustic flavour intact in their dishes.”