From the King’s Table to Street Food

‘A wonderfully evocative book on Delhi and its food combining decades of scholarship with personal experiences and memories by one of our greatest food writers.’—Vir Sanghvi, journalist and author, Rude Food

‘Pushpesh Pant weaves a magical mosaic in his inimitable style about his personal, and Delhi’s, food journey, spiced with anecdotes and tales. A must-read book.’—Rocky Mohan, food connoisseur, author and custodian of Old Monk rum

Who is an ‘asli Dilliwala’—a true-blue Delhizen—and what is his cuisine? To answer this question, Pushpesh Pant, food historian and raconteur par excellence, takes us on a culinary journey from the Mahabharata‘s Indraprastha—the first city of Delhi—to the present day, through the Sultanate, the Mughal Empire and the British Raj.

On this fascinating food trip, we savour the rich qormas and kebabs of Shahjahanabad and the Shepherd’s Pie and mutton cutlets of ‘angrezon ki Dilli’, with a light snack in between of papri or undiya, washed down with bael ka sherbet in a good Baniya home. But that is not all. As Delhi’s population grew to include migrants from across the country, so did its culinary repertoire. The Dilliwala of today is as likely to enjoy Calcutta-style street food—chops, cutlets, puchka and jhaalmuri—in the south Delhi colony of C.R. Park, as he is to relish a berry pulao and dhansak at the Parsi Anjuman. And what better tiffin than idli-dosa-sambar from the South