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Good old Triveni keema
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Triveni may be the cultural hub of the Capital but RAHUL VERMA finds the keema-matar at its recently re-opened restaurant very appetising
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For many of us growing up in Delhi, the Qutab Minar was one important landmark. And then there was the Triveni café. If you had to meet anybody in the centre of town, you met at Triveni – for Delhi was still to usher in its restaurant revolution. I liked the Triveni restaurant for many reasons. One, it was right there. Two, you could smoke your cigarettes there and have heated discussions on any topic. Three, it had a wonderful ambience, surrounded it as was with trees, plants and a green lawn. And, most significantly, it served a great keema dish with paranthas. Then, of course, the Triveni restaurant shut down – bringing to an end an era of romance and revolution.
Tasty toast
Meanwhile Delhi changed, so we had our options of regional and world cuisine. I could eat my Greek moussaka, Italian pasta, Chettinad chicken, Assamese masor tenga and Bangla bhaapa ilish. But I still missed the keema and paranthas. Then – and this is the crux of this column – I heard the other day that the Triveni restaurant had reopened. I went there for lunch this past week and found that it has a new avatar called the Triveni Tea Terrace.
It looks just the same – a covered unit, along with the open-air arrangement. I went to the open-air section – which has always been my favourite area and looked at the menu card. Ah, keema matar was right there. The good news about the Triveni Tea Terrace – run by a young lady called Mina Singh – is that it reminds you, to an extent, of the past. For instance, tasty toast, which used to be our staple diet during teatime long years ago, is very much there on the menu. This is a toasted sandwich with melted cheese (Rs.30). But the café has new additions as well – including a walnut brownie (Rs.30) and carrot walnut cake with dates and raisin (Rs.30 a piece).
The other good thing about the café is that the food still tastes pretty good. My keema matar (Rs.48 a plate) was good, though it could have done with some more frying. The problem with frozen keema is that it needs to be cooked for a long period. The paranthas (Rs.13 a piece) were very nice and flaky, and not too oily. But the raita (Rs.14) came in such a small container that I almost missed it. The menu includes kadhi, channa, rajma (Rs. 25-26), kababs (Rs.25), and meat and chicken curry (Rs.48).
The bad news is that the Triveni Tea Terrace has moved on with the times. It doesn’t allow you to smoke (chucking cigarettes is my New Year resolution, but I have a problem with being forced to do so) and it doesn’t allow meetings either. For many years, Triveni was the venue for radical and liberal political outfits. Not surprisingly, I find the place now teeming with corporate-types, and the old artists are all missing. I suppose you gain some and lose some. But I would have liked it better if it had kept to the spirit of a bygone era.
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