………………… an Indian Foodie’s experience of eating Chinese food in China (including vegetarian dishes) YUMMRAJ was in Beijing last week. Here’s a peek into what transpired on the plate. Njoy the super YUMM pics & read the small description. In most of the descriptions, everything in the menu card was written in Chinese & hence I left the ordering to my able friends. Hence I … Continue reading YUMMRAJ eating out in Beijing, China
This post is kind of a recap of non Indian cuisines & eateries in Gurgaon – I have covered detailed reviews of many of these eateries in doifferent posts in this blog . Needless to say that this is not a comprehensive guide of food places in Gurgaon but then it is good to start with – its about our favourite pik or not so favourite pik.
This post was first written in early 2011 for www.socialmantra.in. I am republishing this with minor changes. You will find updates to restaurants that we have revisited if u click on the links below.
Moving to cuisine from our neighboring country China, I must first explain the two types of food available Gurgaon. The first is authentic Chinese & the second is Chindian (Indianization of Chinese food). Manchurian is a common example of Chindian food – When I went to China years back, I asked for the famous Chinese dish Manchurian, to be told that they had never even heard of this. Later while reading a book called Rude Food by Vir Sanghvi, I came to know that Manchurian was invented in Mumbai by a Chinese origin Indian National hailing from Tangra in Kolkata who later opened a very successful Eatery in Delhi!!!! The Chinese of China have never even heard of it. The technique is basically to make koftas of meats & vegetables in the Indian way, deep fry them & then cook them in Chinese sauces. This form of food is so popular that last time I was in Boston I saw a restaurant with a board saying Indian Chinese Restaurant!!!
A good example of a restaurant serving Chindian food is Yo China. With most of the Chinese cuisines tweaked to cater to local tastes, this little eatery in MGF mall is a super success. Food is very tasty in general – Starts with a limited but good selection of dimsums (very chicken heavy). Honey chilli potato is a good vegetarian starter that even carnivores like me would love. Special mention for the fish & prawn dishes in starters as well as main-course. The full pomfret is excellent & so is garlic fish. Crispy mutton is also worth a try. There are a few very good sautéed chicken options as well. In the desserts section, there is a unique ‘snickers sundae’ which is actually pieces of snickers chocolate pieces dunked in vanilla ice cream. In food courts of other malls, movie halls & large departmental stores, you may come across a little colorful Yo China Cart which serves yummy momos & honey chilli potatoes. This is our favorite ‘little munch’ during our Gurgaon hopping exercises.
I originally wrote this post in 2011 but hv been revising it from time to time. latest update being 30th april 2015
Some of the best Dilli food is found in Chandni Chowk & adjoining areas like Chawri Bazar as many of the shops have not changed much from what they were about fifty to hundred years ago. This is not a comprehensive list but is a fairly large list which u will need few visits to cover – Some of the eateries mentioned below (e.g. Karim’s ,Jalebiwala etc) have been covered in detail (in other posts) in this blog – u can read those & enjoy the pics as well.
Attached is a hand drawn (by YUMMRAJ) map without which you will never find anything. You may need to take a printout and carry it with you as, without a map, you can easily get lost here. Let me tell u that inspite of the printout u might need to use Indian GPS – ‘Bhaisab, ye ved prakash lemon wale ka dukaan kahaan hai?’
The best way to get here is to park your car in CP (Connaught Place) and take the metro to Chawri Bazaar or Chandni Chowk. Let me warn u though that there r huge queues at the ticketcounters of Chandni Chowk station on the way back. The other option is to park the car at CP & take an auto rickshaw.
As u alight from the metro at Chawri Bazaar, take the gate towards Hauz Kazi. Once you are up on the street, you will see a clearing/intersection of roads. Go to the diagonally-opposite corner of the road, towards your right. You will find a tiny shop called ‘Ashok Chaat Corner’. You will see the red-coloured Times Food Guide certification on its wall. Ask for their signature offering – kalmi chaat and urad daal chaat. They use a kachalu chutney which is totally different, and simply awesome. Avoid the paani puris – they r no different from the rest of the places.
To try one of the best kulfis in town, check out Kuremal Mohan lal kulfiwale. Do not miss their stuffed mango kulfi during summers / jamun / lichi….
This post is kind of a recap of cuisines & eateries in Gurgaon – I have covered detailed reviews of many of these eateries in the blog . Needless to say that this is not a comprehensive guide of food places in Gurgaon but then it is good to start with – its about our favourite pik or not so favourite pik.
Food being a passion, eating out is a part of our regular existence in this city of Gurgaon. The range of eateries here vary from the tiny old shops of old gurgaon & their relatively new avatars in New Gurgaon to Restaurant chains & Boutique restaurants in star hotels. When someone asks us ‘what is ur favorite cuisine’ or ‘what is ur favourite dish?’, we have no answer coz as long as the food is great, we r happy. We generally try to avoid eateries that are confused about their USP themselves & have signboards saying ‘Indian, Chinese, Mughlai’ – They seem to have separated Mughals from the rest of the Indians owing to the former’s Timurid origins (pun intended)!!!!
In this post we focus on Indian eateries. By Indian most restaurants here refer to Punjabi. Among the non Punjabi ones, there is one stray tiny Bengali joint, few horrible or at most average South Indian ones (except Zambar), two branches of ‘Mughal’ Karim’s, a super cool Mangalorean seafood joint, a very bad Rajasthani food joint & alas a good erstwhile kashmiri joint Chor Bazaar (now closed down).
What is common with most of the above restaurants, however, is that most of the non-veg menu cards are very chicken heavy influenced by the taste of Punjab.……….. to the extent that I heard someone crack a joke in frustration – ‘Chicken seems to be the National bird of Punjab’. Let me make a confession here – For hardcore carnivores like us, chicken actually is the lowest form of non-vegetarian food & is on the borderline of being vegetarian!!!! I have consciously tried to cover all chicken joints, being completely aware of my bias………… Hope I do not disappoint the chicken lovers.
Inspite of having a bombardment of Punjabi food on offer, surprisingly there is not one shop which serves an Amritsari macchi tikka as good as Makhan Fish shop in Amritsar or a Bhuna Baingan & Dal Makhani as good as Kesar Da Dhaba in the bylanes of old city of Amritsar. In case u have had the opportunity to taste the fantastic true blue Amritsari Kulcha on Lawrence Road, Amritsar, u wud hate to swallow down the breaded variety of kulcha that is served at most of the eateries in Gurgaon. In fact, if u had been courageous to eat at Bajwa Ka Dhaba (opposite Highway King on Jaipur road), then u wud shudder at the thought of eating Punjabi in Gurgaon.
Among the low cost Punjabi joints, the best seems to be Pind Balluchi & Park Balluchi besides Bikanerwala. Bauji ka Dhaba in MGF mall is also not bad. All of them serve very good tandoori items (meats, paneer, breads), few good curries (the meats in many cases are not cooked in the gravy but boiled meat is simmered in half made gravy) and mostly average to good desserts. Gulab jamuns do no more have that slight taste of saltiness in the center near the kesar and many of them smell of ‘ageing’.
Continue reading “Eating Out in Gurgaon – A recap of Indian eateries”
