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A class apart
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On a sunny day, Rahul Verma rediscovers the spice of life
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My friend, Sohail Hashmi, had roped me into sharing a podium with him at The Attic in Connaught Place the other day. We were discussing food, and not surprisingly, the audience was full of questions and observations. One gentleman, who was clearly a fellow foodie, asked me if I had been to Gali Kundewallan in Old Delhi and tried out the bedmis there. I regretfully replied that I hadn’t – but decided right there and then that this was a place that I had to try out.
I went there one sunny day last week and realised that the foodie interjector knew what he was talking about. You get bedmis in different parts of Delhi, but I have always believed that you can’t really beat Old Delhi’s bedmis – which are puris stuffed with a lentil paste and served traditionally for breakfast with a potato curry.
The location
The Kundewallan bedmis were in a class of their own. To reach Kundewallan, you should enter the Old City from Ajmeri Gate. Kundewallan is the first right lane.
The landmark is a chholey-kulcheywallah who stands with his cart at the mouth of the lane. You have to ask him if he knows of the bedmi sellers of Kundewallan. He might – as he did when I asked him – flatly deny that there was any bedmi seller there. But don’t take that seriously, and just walk on. You will soon find Sri Radha caterers on your left (the address is 665, Gali Kundewallan).
If you are taking the Metro, get down at the Chawri station. Take the exit leading to the New Amar cinema, walk back towards Ajmeri Gate, and then take the fourth lane to your left. Kundewallan is an interesting lane. This was where the doyen of Hindi literature, Vishnu Prabhakar, lived. This is also the gali for kulfis. This column has mentioned the famous kulfiwallah of Kundewallan. All along the lane, you can see people stuffing cones with the frozen dessert. The bedmi shop is run by two brothers – Laxmi Narayan Sharma and Pradeep Sharma. The shop is about 80-years-old, and serves some of the best bedmis I have had in Delhi. You have to reach there before 12.30, or you’ll never manage to eat their delicious bedmis. I was a little late, but it was my lucky day, so I did manage to get some packed to take back with me. The bedmis were, indeed, something to write home. The vegetable that they came with was delectable – there was a spicy potato sabzi that had been topped with chholey. This was doused with a tart methi chutney. And you got all this, with two bedmis and a pickled carrot, for Rs.6.
The great thing about real foodies is that they don’t like to keep secrets. Apart from the enjoyment of actually eating something good, there is nothing quite as exciting as sharing information with other foodies. The Attic had brought a lot of people together whose common passion was food, and I was glad to be there to relate my experiences of eating out in Old Delhi. I also came back rich with tips about where to get where. Let’s hear it for the foodie community.
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