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Puris blossom here!
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RAHUL VERMA is in Old Delhi again and this time he zeroes in on Bhushan puriwallah
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Time was when gardeners lived there. Today, Maliwara is a busy hub in Old Delhi. Saris and jewellery line the little lane, which is a road parallel to Chandni Chowk. And since business means food, the area is full of tiny eateries. I went there one m
isty day last week, and was struck by the different kinds of food that were on display. Somebody was selling nagori halwa, a delicious dish of small puris and halwa. There was a man selling daulat ki chat, a heavenly sweet prepared with powdered sugar and foams of milk. Elsewhere, you could get the smell of paranthas being fried. Another little eatery offered khurchan – again a great dessert cooked with milk. My destination, however, was a shop that is generally known as Bhushan puriwallah. It has a formal name – Rewari Mishtan Bhandar – but if you ask anybody for Bhushan’s, you’ll get exact directions.
How to reach
Take the Paranthewale Gali, and when you reach the T-junction with Maliwara, turn right. Move on a bit – you will find a man selling puris, but that’s not Bhushan’s. Ahead still is another man selling kachoris, but, no, that’s not him either. Keep walking. Some 20 or 25 shops down, you will find Bhushan on your left.
It is a dilapidated and unassuming little shop – but its bedmis and kachoris are famous. Bedmis – puris stuffed with a lentil paste and served with a vegetable curry – are great for breakfast. There was a time when it figured prominently in the Dilliwalah’s kitchen, but the process is time-consuming and not too many people make bedmis at home any more. And why should they, when you still have a few places where bedmis are sold in the Walled City? Bhushan is one of them . I was yearning for some kachoris. I could see a huge platter of kachoris on the counter, next to a degh with a potato curry. An old man was sitting at the back of the shop, laboriously shaping and frying jalebis. Kachoris are for Rs.10 a plate of two. And they come with a great potato curry, topped with a tangy chutney of fenugreek seeds.
Bhushan’s kachoris are indeed khasta – they are not the soft kinds that you tear off with ease. Instead, the kachoris are so crispy that they have to be broken into pieces and then eaten. They were bursting with a spicy, masala-laden dal paste. The potato curry was interesting– it was not the usual gravy thickened with mashed potatoes. The pieces were big and chunky, and the gravy thin, though the oil content was pretty impressive. And when topped with the methi chutney, the curry became tart, and went wonderfully well with the crisp kachoris. Bhushan is also famous for a sweet that’s known as Rewari ki burfi. I took a kilo (Rs.150) home, and was happy to find that everybody enjoyed it. This is a thick burfi, sweeter than most burfis, and packed with khoya. It didn’t crumble, like some burfis do, but melted into a nice mass when you bit into it. It was quite a nice encounter with an old shop, and its old halwai. The malis may have long gone, but thankfully a few good people are still around.
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