“Where would you go to have hygienic street
food?” asked my NRI friend who was visiting Delhi. There was a time when I would
have blindly recommended Haldiram’s or Bikanerwala. But now there are some
upmarket restaurants that also serve various types of chaats as part of their
modern Indian menus. However, the choice of street food at these establishments
is rather limited. Hence, I suggest her to try a new place that serves an array of street
specialities from different corners of India – The Masala Trail.
From Old Delhi’s bedmi aloo subji and Agra
ke paraanthe to Banarasi tamaatar ki chaat, Gujarati panki, Kerala-style appam and
stew and thukpa from the North-East the choice is vast. You can choose how
you’d like to traverse this menu: stick to one region at a time, opt for a
range of dishes that showcase culinary traditions of different parts of India
or simply order a regional thali.
 |
| Left: Tower Chaat. Right top: Banarasi Tamatar Chaat. Right Bottom: Gujarati Dabeli Pav. |
On the Friday evening when we share the
table with Osama Jalali, the owner of The Masala Trail (TMT), he orders for us
some bestsellers as well as a few dishes that one may not easily find in Delhi.
We start with the ‘tower chaat’, a Kanpur special that is served like an
icecream sundae and comprises matra tikki, aloo tikki, dahi bhalla, ram laddoo, khajoor
chutney and green chutney. Next up is a piping hot tamaatar ki chaat, followed
with dabeli (a kind of Gujarati vada pav in which the vada is replaced with a
spicy-sweet mixture between the pav, topped with masala peanuts and sev),
kachori with aloo subzi, litti chokha (probably the most famous dish of Bihar),
Chalukya dosa from Mysore and panki (very thin Gujarati style pancakes steamed between
banana leaves made with rice flour batter).
 |
| Clockwise from Top Left: Panki; Chalukya Dosa; Litti Chokha; Banarasi Kachori Subzi. |
A former food writer, during the course of
his journalistic pursuits Osama Jalali also spent many arduous hours collecting
authentic regional Indian recipes. And in the last couple of years, he along
with his mother and wife curated food festivals in some of the finest five-star
hotels in the country showcasing Mughlai cuisine as it is cooked in his home in
Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi), Rampur (from where his mother hails) and so on.
Needless to say, most of these festivals featured plenty of succulent
non-vegetarian fare. But for his first restaurant, Jalali decided to go with an
all-vegetarian menu. “A majority of regional street food staples are
vegetarian,” he states. Thus he decided to serve dishes that best represent
the state from which they hail like Bihari lithi chokha, Rajasthani dal
baati choorma, Gujrati panki & dabeli, Amritsari chhola kulcha, Karnataka
akki roti, Andhra’s pulihora, Mysore’s dosa and so on. And as a restaurant that
celebrates street food, there is a range of chaats and kachoris, tikkis and
tikkas and even specials from iconic street food brands such as Haji Ali fruit
cream.
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| Haji Ali Fruit Cream |
Anyone who enjoys experimenting with local fare while travelling
will certainly enjoy a meal at The Masala Trail for the sheer choice of dishes
that one can enjoy under one roof in the heart of Delhi. This restaurant is
ideally located in the touristy area of Janpath to attract foreigners and
Indians alike to enjoy a culinary journey through India. The second outpost of TMT
is already functional in the food court at Select CityWalk and a third slated to open soon in Noida. In
order to give a real feel of street food, TMT food trucks will also be rolling out part of this menu shortly.
Details:
The
Masala Trail by Osama Jalali, 52, Janpath, New Delhi.
Timings: 10 am-11pm
Phone: 88823 00300
Meal for two: Rs 800
This article first appeared on indiatoday.intoday.in on February 7, 2017. It may have been modified by the author to fit the requirements of
AppetisingTales.com.
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