The food of Old Delhi serves as a living archive of memories—both personal and collective—and as a reflection of traditions and their exchange, and identity. The exact dates of when certain establishments were founded, or their claims to authenticity matter less than what the food tells us about the present and the past. Like recipes, food can be a starting point to trace the exchange of ingredients and, in turn, uncover layers of history and culture. History, after all, is rarely linear, even if it’s often presented that way. It rarely accounts for word-of-mouth stories or acknowledges that collective memory is, in itself, a form of history—because that’s how history lives and evolves with people. While food may have rules and methods of preparation, it’s the freedom to break free of them that breathes new life into a dish, making it ever-fresh and constantly evolving like history and culture.
Reporter: Rani Jana
Camera: Vikram Sharma, Tribhuvan Tiwari, Suresh K Pandey
Editor: Ehraz Zaman
Script: Divya Tiwari
#Delhi #Food #DelhiFood #StreetFood #ChandniChowk #OldDelhi #OldDelhiFood #Shahjahanabad #JamaMasjid
Reporter: Rani Jana
Camera: Vikram Sharma, Tribhuvan Tiwari, Suresh K Pandey
Editor: Ehraz Zaman
Script: Divya Tiwari
#Delhi #Food #DelhiFood #StreetFood #ChandniChowk #OldDelhi #OldDelhiFood #Shahjahanabad #JamaMasjid
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Delhi, a city where every street, every lane and every bite tells a story.
00:21From the narrow alleys of old Delhi to the vibrant streets of modern Delhi, food is not
00:26just about taste, it's a living archive, preserving the stories of time, tradition and migration.
00:33There is also a phenomenal diversity of food in Delhi. For example, there are about half
00:40a million Tamilians in Delhi. There are half a million Malayalis. The number of Bengalis
00:48in Delhi would perhaps be more. And the Bengali food all over, not only Chitranjan Park, one
00:59of the oldest Bengali sweet shops is right in the heart of Chandni Chowk. So, the range
01:05of Delhi food is unlimited. And it is just one of those things that some things have
01:14gotten marketed more than the others. But did you know that much of Delhi's food heritage
01:21traces back to the waves of migration during partition? The way partition has changed the
01:28eating habits of Delhi is phenomenal. In India, traditionally you did not eat out on the street
01:37because caste. You did not know who had cooked it, who had touched it, etc. etc. So, people
01:46and you know, even in my family, my father, for example, he would never eat out. If you
01:53liked something in the market, you bought it and you took it home. You did not eat on
01:57the street. So, the eating joints that you have in Delhi, they cluster around Jama Masjid
02:05and then they are in the markets, Chandni Chowk, Chabri, etc. etc. It is the people
02:11who came here for business, especially those who came from outside and had to spend an
02:18entire day. They used to patronize these places. And when the railway came in 1865, that is
02:28when eating joints came up near the railway station. So, you had passengers and people
02:34who came here for business purposes, who would go and patronize these places. All the
02:41restaurants that you see around Jama Masjid, most of them came up when the decision to
02:48shift the capital came to Delhi. Otherwise, they used to be on the steps of Jama Masjid,
02:53they used to be food joints. I remember one which was the Masita Kababi of Meerut. He
03:02was very popular. He only sold kebabs and chapati, you know. So, quite a lot of these
03:10are post-independence and some of them right after the arrival of the railways.
03:17Take Sitaram Diwan Chandan Paharganj. Known for its Chole Bhature, a dish that has become
03:23a part of Delhi's culinary identity, but its history isn't as old as it seems. Chole, once
03:31a regional dish, only became popular in Delhi post-1947 as recipes evolved and flavours
03:38blended. Even in the case of Lotanji's Chole Kulche, which gained new fame after serving
03:45at Ambani's pre-wedding, food in Delhi is a bridge between past and present. It is a
03:51shared experience, something that connects us, even when the stories may not match the
03:56recorded history.
03:58There is a story like this, one dish created for Wajid Ali Shah, one dish created for Shah
04:02Jahan, one dish created for Aurangzeb, the Leziza Khichdi. But these are all apocryphal
04:07stories. Like the whole story about Delhi chaat is a concocted one. The Hakeem found
04:12out that Delhi water was contaminated. So, chillies were added to chaat and then to balance
04:18the chillies, the Rogan was added, so Delhi has this. But you ask yourself a simple question.
04:24Delhi had been there for several generations, several centuries before Shah Jahanabad came
04:28up. Delhi like a cat has been built, has had more than nine lives, you know.
04:33When people learned to cultivate rice, they had learned to eat rice much before that because
04:40these are seeds of grasses. People had learned from probably from birds that these seeds
04:48can be eaten and they began to collect them and chew them. And then they realized they
04:55are edible. They were already hunting animals. They had perhaps already discovered fire and
05:04the uses of fire. But till they started making vessels, cooking did not happen. But cooking
05:13meat and rice together has been happening all over the place where rice was cultivated.
05:21So then to say, you know, the Kheer happened first in Lucknow or in Banaras or in Bulandshahr
05:29or Delhi is all bunkum. It could have happened anywhere and all over roughly at the same
05:37time, you know, because, you know, there are things, stages in human evolution when
05:44they happened and the people were constantly migrating. So one doesn't know where it went.
05:50And quite a lot of these claims are just claims. First there is food, then there is business
05:57of food. So if you are in the business selling food, the story about Shah Jahani Korma is
06:02good. The story about Aurangzeb Silezi's Khichdi is good. The Humayuni Roti is good. The Butter
06:09Chicken story is good. Vaidya Reddy Shah's Kolkata Biryani is good. You know the Kolkata
06:13story ki gareeb tha, paise nahi the, toh aloo milane laga meat ki jagah. But the man was
06:17maintaining a 2000 long retinue of servants including tawaifs, good-looking boys, Kathak
06:23dancers. And his Hakim had told him that the climate in Kolkata is not right, lighten your
06:27biryani with potatoes. And potatoes then was a prince's ransom. They'd just come from
06:31England, you know. And a cashier was given to Jahangir and so on, by Terry and Roe. So
06:37I don't believe these stories. But they add to the dining experience and enjoyment if
06:43they don't go overboard.
06:45Delhi's food culture is more than just about recipes passed down through generations. It's
06:52shaped by the migrations, the struggles and the transformation of this city. In the end,
06:58it's not just about the food. It's about how food binds us to the past, to each other and
07:04to the evolving story of this city. It's only when you dig deeper that you truly start to
07:10understand the flavour of this city.