Why Mughlai food is the most royal amongst delicacies

Mughlai cuisines have thrilled palettes all over the world. Although, there have been amazing empires all over the world, Mughals always stood out because of their love for art, architecture and food. And just like their lavish lifestyle, their meals were sumptuous, to say the least. The royal looking Mughlai dishes taste much like what an emperor would have on his table. Masalas, oils and colour add to the dishes’ grandeur. There won’t be a single foodie in the world who has eaten biryani, murgh musallam, kebab, rogan josht etc and not got hooked to them.

The display of the royalty in the food has toned down a bit. In the peak of the Mughal era, cuisines were made to look lavish, colourful and fragrant and it was eaten with proper respect and table manners. Decorating the food was also seen as a nutritional benefit on the advice of the royal physician. For example, the royal biryani had each of its grain of rice coated with silver oil, because silver aids digestion along with acting as an aphrodisiac. Even the best restaurants in Delhi now are unable to match that level of grandeur.

Mughlai food turned out so well because it infused the best of many cultures including Iranian, Persian, Afghani, Kashmiri and Punjabi. The cuisines are not only non-vegetarian though as some emperors even liked vegetarian food. For example Akbar ate vegetarian three days in a week and Aurangzeb was an out and out vegetarian though he did fancy his occasional mega-biryani, as it is referred to by the historians. Being the national capital, Delhi’s food was influenced by a lot of cultures. Although, North Indian cuisine in Delhi remains the favourite of every one mainly because of its Mughal background. So hurry up and order, it’s time to feast like a king. 

How to Make an Evening In Enjoyable

After a long and hectic week filled with work, meeting, waking up early and long hours, all one wants to do is sleep the weekend away. And even if they feel like spending some down time with their friends, then even the thought of dressing up and going out, just leaves one tired. So, that is why, many times people just invite friends over to one’s house and have a nice relaxed time, talking, playing games, watching TV or movies.

When a group of people gets together the first the thought is what to eat, luckily, these days there are numerous delivery restaurants in Saket, Malviya Nagar, GK, Hauz Khas and most of the Delhi area. Even some of the high end restaurants offer home delivery services, so one can order from there too. And these delivery services have gotten fast too, most don’t take more than 30-40 minutes to deliver scrumptious food that one can enjoy in their comfortable clothes.

One of the most favourite cuisines to order is north Indian cuisine in Delhi. Not just for the cuisine itself, but also, that it’s so filling, pocket friendly and can easily feed a large group of people in just 2-3 dishes and a lot of bread rotis. Unlike other cuisines one doesn’t have to order separate dishes for every person.

Also, one can take a trip down memory lane and play old board games, or create new games of your own. One can also go to the local market if they want, to just take a walk and get some fresh air, have lively debates, finally binge watch a show or have a movie marathon of some of the classic films.
There is nothing better than being able to lie in your house, in for pajamas, with good company and good food, to make an evening in sound wonderful.

Common Indian Cooking Styles

Welcome to the food paradise! India is a land of varied tastes and flavours with the flavours that vary with different cultures and regions. Many might not know this but the country has some 35% of the people that are strictly vegetarians and there are roughly 30% that are regular meat eaters, states the top North Indian restaurant in Delhi.

It might be interesting to note that the tastes and preferences vary highly with the changing geographies along with the climatic conditions. With such an immersive variety that the Indian food offers, it in fact is imperative to have a look at the common cooking styles that Indians have:

-Roasting Dry Spices

Spices such as garam masala, ground cumin, coriander seeds and other curry spices are roasted dry in a frying pan. This is one of the common practices when preparing north Indian cuisine in Delhi or any household. Once the frying pan or the iron girdle is preheated on a medium flame, the spices are added and are continuously stirred until the spices turn a few shades darker.

-Adding Seasoning to the Dals (cereals)

Commonly known as tarka, some oil (ghee) is added to a pan followed by masalas like mustard seeds, cumin, chopped onion and garlic, chillies and heeng (asafoetida). Then these are cooked and stirred for some one minute until the mustard seeds start popping.

-Grinding Masalas

It is one of the ways we store our spices. We use a coffee grinder or a specific spice grinder to powder spices like garam masala, turmeric and red chillies amongst others, explains a top North Indian restaurant Dhaba By Claridges. 

-Cooking in Tandoors

Exclusive and unique to Indian cooking is tandoori cooking style. Now that meat, seafood and chicken is cooked in Tandoors, tandoor cooking has become a significant style of cooking.

Best north Indian restaurants in Delhi

Fusions foods, Mediterranean diets, Italian delights and French delicacies: a panoply of platters are at offer and yet I’ll choose my butter chicken over everything else, any day. So if you too are a ‘Delhite’ who dotes on the traditional Punjabi food, then this is dedicated to you.

Chandni Chowk ke golgappe, University road’s tea and samosa, Moolchand’s Paratha joint- when your whole life in the city has been not an album of memories but a food association game, I take it upon me to suggest you some really cool eating joints serving Check Taste of North Indian food Delhi that are too good to miss.

 

 Dhaba By Claridges

The fine dine restaurant with a quirky décor by the Claridges hotels is now a standalone unit. Economic prices and some superb food makes it one of the finest North Indian restaurants in Delhi. Balti meat, mutton chaap, kanastari baingan and chicken pulao are all their glowing dishes. But wait till you have tried their theka menu for some innovative cocktails with quirky names. The ambiance is that of a typical dhaba that is sophisticated yet earthy in its own ways. It can score a mighty 8 for food even on a bad food day, as a bad food day at dhaba is certainy better than good food days at many joints that are stupidly famous. A full 10 for ambiance and serice.

Dum Pukht

A little on the costlier side of it, but the experience is every penny worth it. If you are ready to splurge around 6 grand on a dinner for two then Dum Pukht knows how to pull it off. A pricey meal with assured elegance and earthy flavours. Though it is known for its traditional Mughlai cuisine, a selection of Punjabi recipes gathers much praise. Try the tadka daal and tawa chicken and you will remember the flavours for a long long time.

Bukhara

Living in Delhi, who hasn’t heard of Bukhara? Tagged to be ‘The Best’ it has maintained its standards ever since. Try the epicurean dal tadka and family naan and you would know how they have earned the name they got. The price though can be a let-down for many. Be ready to splurge around 5k on a dinner for two. 

Special Navaratri Menu at Dhaba By Claridges

Were you going nuts, thinking you will have to be on a soul-less and colorless ‘diet’, to be at par on spiritual days of navratri? Well, to my understanding there’s certainly nothing wrong in fasting all the while, indeed i would say you can stretch a bit and delight your taste buds with wide array of scrumptious dishes. Sounds weird?? Yes, even i agree!  If i would have had come across something like this in navaratri, would have reacted in the same way! But …good is news that keeping all your hunger pangs satiated with delicious dishes, one of the best north indian restaurant in delhi, Dhaba by Claridges has come up with something special as always. 

This time, this remarkable delighter of north indian cuisine in delhi, have come up with a special menu, named as navaratri specials, and will be served to the diners here at Dhaba till 2nd of October. So those who just can’t resist without good food, but have dared to do things differently by fasting throughout navrtri, no worries!

The special menu at Dhaba entails Aloo sabut dane ki tikki, tawa arbi, dahi aloo, kache kele ka kofta, jeera sendha namak ka pulao, samak chawal, singhade aate ki puri, kheere ka raita, makhana sabiut dane ki kheer. 

My God! This is crazy menu and is attracting hordes to its shore! Why not! There’s so much so that anyone and everyone can get tempted to savor these lip smacking dishes. There’s a lot more to it so what all are you thinking and wasting your time over much? Rush to Dhaba by Claridges! Afterall it’s a no stone carved rule where God ask their followers to starve them. 

Splurge on the Street Food at Saket this Monsoon!

How often do you find yourself binging on that one extra plate of Pani Puri or those two extra glasses of the street vendor’s lemon water? Very often, right? No one understands the ethereal feeling of gorging on the street food like a typical Delhi-ite does. But then, a Delhi-ite must also understand that if there is anything that holds the potential to give you turbulent pangs of sickness in Monsoons, then it is the street food only. 

It’s already Monsoon in Delhi, are people are becoming increasingly wary of what they splurge on. Parental sermons reek of ‘don’t-eat –out-anywhere’ stuff. Street delicacies have become brutalities, and are a big No-No. But can we really wait for the monsoon to terminate to dwell on these dainties? I guess no. 

Street food doesn’t necessarily have to be eaten at the streets. There are a number of north Indian restaurants Saket where you can easily gobble down your favourite spice without even remotely worrying about the health consequences. Many good quality restaurants that offer north Indian cuisine in Delhi have arrangements for healthy street snacking. You will often find the sellers wearing protective gloves while making dishes, in addition to taking extra care about the cleanliness of utensils. The water that the high profile restaurants in south Delhi use is uncontaminated, and hence safe to be used for cooking purposes.  These restaurants hire professionals who make sure that contamination never meddles with taste and health. And that’s precisely what makes them stand apart from the various other restaurants in Delhi.

In a nutshell, spend your weekend at some restaurant in Saket, south Delhi that will offer delectable street spice with absolutely no compromise on your health. You can always let your appetite loose for the taste buds that demand to be fed only by the spice of street!