Allow me to get philosophical for a moment. I have come to the conclusion that some days are just meant to be. In our mad, rush-hour existence, we are often disappointed when a mission doesn’t lead to the goal in mind. After a pleasant half hour loitering around in Prithviraj Market and meeting old friends, I say, “So what? What’s a goal, after all?”
Searching for kababs
Let me start at the beginning. I wanted to eat some kababs, and I wanted to try out a small kabab corner that I had noticed in Khan Market a few weeks ago. I went there and discovered that the barbecue was still to be lit. So I started walking towards Prithviraj Market, where my car was parked. I like this part of Khan Market because it is not glitzy like its mega-rich cousin on the other side of the road. This side is still middle class and has two of the best meat shops in New Delhi. I first went past my old favourite – The Meat Shop – run by a very enthusiastic and polite youngS man. I was happy to meet him after years, and happier still to find that my old butcher and fish slicer were still there. I doffed my cap to them, and then went in search of another old favourite, Mirajuddin.
But before that, I stopped by at a new Gopala outlet. The Khan Market branch of the popular sweet shop, which now sells a whole lot of other products (such as namkeen and breads), had opened last month. I had heard from a friend that they were selling various kinds of cheese, but the only cheese they had was the pizza variety. I love their rasgullas, but bought some of the kalakand instead (₹560 a kilo; nice, mildly sweet, but could have been just a bit more moist), some lavash (₹50 a packet), crusty garlic butter slices (₹40), jeera ajwain biscuits (₹120), walnut bran biscuits (₹210) and coconut biscuits (₹108). The coconut biscuits were superb, the jeera ajwain biscuits weren’t bad either and I am told the walnut bran cookies were rather good, too. The bread is for friends who are coming over for dinner, so more about that later.
kachoris
What’s also interesting is that Gopala is selling kachoris these days. It had muttar kachori (₹10 a piece) and pyaaz kachori (₹20). They were not bad, I was told, and had a very hot filling of peas and onions. But, of course, they cannot be compared with the hot kachoris that come out of kadhais in many sweet shops in various parts of Delhi.
King’s special dish
From Gopala, I went to Mirajuddin’s meat shop, just to tease him a bit. Do you have labbe, I asked him. Now labbe is a small piece near the liver which you very rarely find in meat shops.
Mirajuddin looked stunned. No, he didn’t have labbe, but he did have a story to tell. A badshah once wanted to feed his guests labbe. So a hundred goats were slaughtered for just one dish of labbe, he said.
That’s some story, I said. And that was some trip down memory lane. And so what if the journey didn’t lead to the desired kababs? I met some old friends, ate some good biscuits, and heard a nice story.