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This is something you absolutely can't miss when you're in Delhi. And today we're eating some of the greatest Indian street food in Old Delhi, including a hidden curry spot that's open for just 2 hours a day and attracts diehard food lovers. A street food that will unlock new taste buds you didn't know you had. Oh, wow. This is the real deal. and we'll brave an Old Delhi institution for a near mythical meal that opens at 5:30 p.m. and sells out in 30 minutes. Welcome to Old Delhi, India. So good to be back in this incredible city. The last time I was here was almost 14 years ago, but not even for a moment did I forget the glories of Delhi street food.
This time I'm with my friend Anub, who's eaten just about everything in Delhi. And today he's taking us to try only the best of the best. And we are starting with Pateki Kachori. There's the most popular kachori spot in Delhi. Oh man, there's a crowd. Anytime you're in India or in Delhi, when there's a crowd huddled around, you know there's something extraordinary, something incredibly tasty. The shop is open only in the daytime and they serve mutki, then they have cholelay kulch, and they have kulchar rules. And they're serving everything on a bicycle here.
Yeah. So there's coriander, there's ginger, the kachoris. Kachori is like a puffed pastry and it is stuffed with dal lentils and they serve it with chickpeas. Lime juice goes in. So it starts with the just the boiled chickpeas. Now he's mixing in all the spices, the masala. Then in goes a handful of coriander and ginger. Yeah. So they kind of just top that kachori with that chickpea. He's so fast. So with those kachoris, he's just lathering it with that chickpea paste.
The chutney, ginger goes on, masala, spices goes on, sprinkles it with coriander, and then more chutney. That's the sweet chutney that goes on top, but it's definitely not over yet. It still goes on. Green chilies goes on, sprinkled with onions as well. Man, that process of making this kachori is incredible. And they could do it with their eyes closed. They do it just nonstop. So usually kachori there are different versions of kachori. Some kachoris are puffed on buns. Here it's more like a flat one. So you pick up the whole Yes. The whole kachori. Yeah. I love the ginger and the onions and the coriander and all the different chutneys. You know this is going to be something that touches and hits all of your taste buds.
M. Oh wow. Mhm. It's fresh. Mhm. That's extraordinary. Oh, it has like this fruity chutney flavor to it. Is that from tamarind? It's from tamarind and tamarind. And the mango. Yeah. Mango powder. Anchor. Yeah. Because immediately you taste this fruity flavor actually. But then that's mixed with the warmth of the masala and the spices, the crunch of the onion and the crunch of the kachori and then those warm chickpeas all the way through. That's an incredible amount of flavor. And the ginger, your nose might get stuck into it when you're taking your first bite and it won't matter at all. You'll be
happy to just absorb all that flavor. That is unbelievably flavorful. This is the ideal snack on the streets of Delhi. Jumped in the back of an auto rickshaw and we're on our way to the next place there. And they're only open for like 2 hours a day, right? Yes, they only for the lunch hour. That's only for lunch. But there's just nothing quite like the energy and action and nonstop flow of humans throughout Old Delhi and the bizaars. Okay, thank you. Oh, sorry. Okay, we have abandoned the rickshaw. It's the traffic is non-stop, so we're going to walk on foot over a little wall. Okay. That was a journey to get here, but we have arrived. Welcome to Ashok Mit
Dhaba. They're only open for like 2 or 3 hours per day for lunch and then they sell out and we got here just in time. Oh, look at that chicken curry. It's all cooked in ghee. Oh man, all shining with ghee. That looks so rich, so good. Oh, and chicken biryani as well with the curry gravy on top. Sprinkle of coriander and ginger. Nice. Okay. Oh, and then they Oh, and then they take the biryani and heat it over the coals to reheat. Nice.
Oh, it's starting to scorch on the bottom of the pan. Bring out the flavor even more. Another dimension of flavor. So, they have the chicken curry, the mutton curry, which you have to try both of them. And she scoops it out. They've been open for generations. And then they actually reheat it over the charcoal so that it starts to sizzle and all that ghee starts to melt and come out of it. Talk about tableside service here. This is the real deal. Finishing it off over the hot charcoal. Oh, that's one of the most mouthwatering things you'll ever smell. You can hear the crackle and the sizzle of that ghee roasting and thickening. Oh, the
basting move is unbelievable. And then over here down the alley here is where they're making fresh bread. He's patting out the bread fresh right here. And then they're they have a tandoor which is inside of a barrel lined with clay and burning charcoal. Oh, what a setup. So, it's actually just standing tables. You just stand and eat here. But because the table is a little bit low, I'm going to They got a stool for me here so I can sit down. Oh, yeah. Now, we're right in the food. But this looks absolutely incredible. And the friendly people as well. There's 16 different spices within the gravy and within the chicken curry and the mutton curry to make it what it is. 16
different spices and ghee and ginger and coriander. Yeah. Now, before trying it with the bread, I think I'm just going to go all in. Look at the amount of spice that's been caked up onto the chicken. Oh, and before I take my first bite though, this place also has an amazing history. Started in 1984, and it's called Ashok and Ashok because two friends, they were both named Ashok, and they both loved meat. And so, as the legend goes, they decided to open a small restaurant serving what they loved to eat most. And it's still going strong. Oh wow. Okay. That is unbelievable. The richness of the gravy. You can actually feel the spices on your tongue held together with the richness of that
ghee. The flavor goes to the bone. All the different cardamoms, the different chilies in there, the cumin in there. It's like all a harmony, yet it's all individually represented. The pepper, and you can see like everybody's like sweating, too, because they said it's spicy. They said, "If you love spicy, this is where you want to be." These are little mini breads baked fresh literally right behind me. I'll take that chicken. I'll grab a piece of the chicken from below it. And then scoop that gravy. The thickness of that gravy, the ginger. That's one of the greatest chicken curries I've ever had. Oh, that's phenomenal. That is something
truly magical. And I do want to chase that with some of the green chili. A little green chili to even enhance things even further. Oh yeah, that's going to get spicy. And some of the onions sprinkled with chart masala as well. And a little lime. Oh yeah, that green chili is hidden now. Okay, next up, mutton chops. Just totally coated in that masala. And again, I just cannot resist biting it first, trying the full effect. Oh wow. The fat of the mutton is so tender, absorbed with all of that sauce. The ghee, that is a pivotal moment in my life. Taking a bite of this. The heat of that green chili is fully kicking in, starting to sweat on the streets of
Delhi. This is pure overjoy and happiness. Oh wow. Like I literally did not have to use my teeth for that bite. They just slid through like mutton butter. And I have seen some people they kind of sprinkle with some of the lemon. A little more lemon on here. And then for this one, I will grab some more of the bread. I love how the bread is so smoky as well. Smoky crispy. You can just use it to just Oh. Oh, it just completely slides off the bone. Like you're almost not sure where the meat and the masala comes together. It's just a harmony of fat, meat, masala, and the flavor of the ginger and the coriander, the black cardamom, the long pepper in here. And then with every bite, you can chase through some of the onions.
cleanse your pallet and prepare you for the next bite. Check out this piece of mutton. Oh, look at the interiors of the meat. Look, just with one hand, you can just release the meat into your bread, scoop up. And again, green chili onions. The flavor just keeps on growing as you keep on eating. Okay, next up for the biryani. Oh, there's even a piece of chicken in here. Nice. And then they kind of heated it again, melting that ghee even more. You can't go wrong. You know, there's biryanis where they're like all cooked together, but this one is more like a spiced rice biryani, which is made for carrying that chicken curry gravy. And I love how this place is just a small
little restaurant known for people who love to eat curry. And this is actually everything they have on their menu. They keep it small. All they have is mutton, chicken, biryani, fresh bread, onions. That's all they have. And that's all you need. That's all you'll want. This place is the real deal. They've been doing it for generations. If you love spicy food, you're in the right place. Well, I'm actually in disbelief. What a meal. I don't know how to put it any other way. That was just otherworldly. And the owners are so friendly, so nice and hospitable. Ashok and Ashok. Absolutely. some of the kings of meat curry in
Delhi. And I can safely say that's one of the greatest curries I've ever had in my life. Yep, you heard me say it. I'll be dreaming about that curry for the rest of my life. And still coming up later this afternoon, we're trying a dish that sells out in 30 minutes. But before that, Anub is taking me to try one of Delhi's highest in demand street foods. Okay, Anuav. Where are we heading next? Now we are going to try the most famous dish of Delhi, Chole Bur at Nandi. Yes. Another legendary food spot in Delhi. And did you say that's one of your favorite spots?
The best chole in Delhi, I would say. We made it tucked deep within the market. And the popularity of this place says it all. It is a packed house. There's people eating everywhere and you got to kind of be a little bit aggressive to get to the front to order your food and to see where the all the action is happening, but it's all in friendly nature. People are here for the delicious food. And Anuba was also mentioning that this place is so hard to get here because you basically have to walk here because it's in the middle of the congested market with a non-stop flow of human traffic. But we're going
to make our way into the center of the action and see how they prepare it. Delhi is the capital of today. There are many legendary places in every neighborhood. They will have a spot selling cholelay bur. And if you ask anyone, they will have their favorite spots. This is my favorite spot. I love this place. So is cooked in heat. Baturas are cooked in ghee. And they make the best fil in town. All in a closetized space. Back there is where they're frying the buras. And then after the batas are ready, then uncle here is in charge of scooping the cholay, the chickpeas with the chutney.
Oh, and the achar as well. So how many years has it been open? From 1940. Okay. Yeah, it's a 1940. 1940 shop. We are sitting there. We are selling the chur. Amazing. So iconic. This one is for me. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, this is really exciting. What a place. Throughout India, one of the foods that Delhi immediately will spring to mind is choleur. And I remember on my first trip to Delhi 14, 13 years ago, I remember just standing in the streets eating choleur. One of the best memories. Every time you come to Delhi, you can't miss it. But I've never tried the best cholay bat. So Anub has brought
us to the best place in all of Delhi, which makes it the world's best choleur. That's true. By default. So let me break into that bur. Oh, you feel the sponginess of it, the fluffiness of it, and the satisfaction of just opening that pocket of dough and the way it kind of just you burst the balloon and then scoop in a little bit of everything. Here we go. It's very savory, nice and salty, and you taste that blend of all the spices, like heavy on the cumin. A lot of cumin in there. They also use pomegranate seeds, dried pomegranate seeds. A little tart flavor, heavy texture. Pomegranate seeds. And the chickpeas melt in your mouth. They're cooked down there.
They're super soft. And then because that masala is so thick, it almost blends into the same texture of the chickpeas. Like everything melts in your mouth. That's ridiculously good. There's also an art to taking a bite. A little piece of the potato and then after that you can scoop in some of the chana. This is the real deal. Extraordinary. It is so tasty. He was also mentioning that now they have other branches, right? Yeah, they opened up two more outlets in Delhi.
Okay. But this is where it all started. The original location is always the greatest experience for sure. I think the other thing is the environment just adds to it. The hustle and bustle, the literal non-stop action and energy that just pulses through these lanes of Old Delhi. This is superb. Oh, the king of choleur in Delhi and the incredible still familyrun four generations. Thank you very much. That was incredible. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you also. Thank you so much. historical, iconic, and superbly mouthwatering tasty. That was unbelievable.
Oh, I am so happy. Could not be happier than walking the lanes of Old Delhi on our way to eat more. And Anub has been doing Delhi food walks for about 16 years. and what he's doing for the vendors, for food stalls, for local food in Delhi. He's doing an incredible job to promote them, to keep them alive within Delhi. It's almost 400 p.m. I think we can squeeze in one more meal before we need to be at the 5:30 p.m. spot. And luckily, there's another local favorite meal within walking distance. Yeah, it's definitely a tight squeeze when you're navigating through Old Delhi. But being with Anub, he knows the back streets and he knows the best food in Delhi. So we going to eat now rama chaw and palak paneer chaval.
Okay. A very popular dish in Delhi. You get it all over Delhi and Oh, man. That's Old Delhi. It is an intense amount of people on this market lane in Old Delhi. I'm going to move in to try to take a photo here and see what how they're scooping it. Just be careful of boxes and goods. This restaurant is literally the size of your closet. Actually, probably smaller than many closets. And they serve up the dishes, but it's so packed. It's so congested. I can almost not stand here to get a clean shot of them making it. And so fastpaced. But this is truly where you'll see people from all walks of life. This is humanity in its purest.
It's so incredibly busy, but people are so friendly and the food is so good. And so they get rice, they have the paneer, they have the palak, which is the spinach, and then they just cover it with a whole handful of h sliced onions and chutney. And one of the reasons it's so packed is because it's kind of at the intersection between the main road over here and the market lane over here. And we're at the corner of the intersection. Wow, what a place. Okay. And you were saying this is one of your favorite dishes on above. I love Rajma. It's called Raja. Raja, which is the kidney beans, then the palak, the spinach, there's some paneer, and that then the squirt of chutney. And I love
how he just puts a whole handful of onions on top. Mix that with the rice. It's all completely soaked in. There's multiple chutneys on top as well. All completely hydrated into the rice. the guinea beans just melt in your mouth like they're they're so soft. And then you can move over mix in with some of the palak paneer with the cheese. The cheese the palak is over on this side but kind of just slurried into the whole mix the general mix. Oh, I love the palak. You immediately get that vegetital green spinachy flavor but then it's made into this sauce. So it's pureeed just enough creaminess but not too rich. You get the cumin seeds in there to get the creaminess of that palak.
This which combination you like the most palak paneer or I like it both. I couldn't decide which one I like more. Man, I love this combination. And then every now and then you get some of that like coriander chutney. You get a crunch of the onion. And I think this is one of those dishes that kind of gets better and better as you keep on eating it cuz everything starts to swirl and mingle together with those chutneys. M. It's a healthy meal like a proper homestyle kind of dish. Yeah, you're right. Something that everybody loves, everybody appreciates.
Comfort food. It's comfort food. Yeah, that's true. Oh, it's so tasty though. It doesn't taste heavy. Like it's not too ghee Yeah, it is pure comfort food. And you'll just see there's no seating. It's just a stall on the corner where they continually dish out and people just stand throughout this entire intersection just enjoying fresh homestyle food. Well, we made it to the next place and we're deep down the back alleys of Delhi and we're at a place uh that serves nihari, one of the kings of dishes, of meat dishes. They say it's the number one nihari in all of India. They sell
out in 30 minutes. 70 kilos of nihari. They're going to open up the pot of nihari for the day and part out all the sections of the nihari. And we got to be here right on time or you'll miss out. Here they're making fresh breads. It's called kamiri roti. The word kamir means east. So they add east and refined flour and they take it in tandu. And this bread Yeah. And this bread goes very well with nihari. And this is a specific type of bread that's fluffy to you can absorb the gravy of the nihari. And they've got to be fast. Can you imagine just reaching down into that tandoor every few minutes with that intense heat. So more and more people are starting to gather anticipating the opening of the
pot, which is going to open precisely at 5:30 p.m. But you got to huddle around here. You got to be here at the right time or you will miss out. Sells out in 30 minutes. It's time. The crowd is here waiting. They've opened the nihari. Look at that red layer of oil on top. It's like a ritual every evening. The nihari master. Oh, he's starting to scoop it out. Oh, the nali. The bone marrow. All made from buffalo. Look at their color of that red oil. Oh, those are all the buffalo bones. Look at how tender it is. The still the marrow is seeping out down here. He's taking out all the marrow from the buffalo bones. And then
you got to remove some of that oil cuz that's so much oil. So now that he scooped out the bones, then he scoops out some of that oil, like ladles of oil, the animal fat that has melted into it, and now revealing that extremely rich nihari stew. And that's been cooking for like 10 hours. simmering in there. It is so thick. Just smoldering. What a spot. What an experience. Oh, and now they're starting to sell it. I think you just give however much money you want for the portion size that you want.
This is unbelievable. I've never seen anything quite like this in my life. Things are in full force right now. This is why they sell out in 30 minutes. It's like an auction. This is like a Nihari auction. It is just intense. And they're just scooping and shouting and yelling, handing out money. This is so cool. Oh, with the bone marrow and the oil on top sprinkled with ginger and green chilies. And I think this is ours right here. They have truly taken food to an extreme sport. We almost couldn't get out. We're almost stuck inside. We're going to go eat it in the shop next door where there's some seating. Here it is. Some people say the best nihari in the world.
We got a mix with the brains, with the meat, with the marrow all scooped in with that red oil on top. Okay, so I'll go for a piece of the bread. And yeah, that's baked fresh. It is fluffy. It's got to be fluffy to be able to absorb that oil and fat. And you make like a little pocket. And then first before scooping in the meat, I'm just gonna go for that like melted meat and oil and the green chilies and ginger. That's why you have to have puffy thick bread for all that sauce. Oh, wow. nothing will prepare you for your first bite of this nihari. The contrast of the rich meat oil has been melted down with like those spices and then you've got the freshness of those green chilies with the heat of the green chilies. All
that meat just simmered until it just completely literally dissolves into the gravy. That is a meat stew of your dreams. Look at that. It just completely melts. You can just break that meat with bread. Oh wow. That actually is unbelievably tasty. And you probably think I say this all the time that it melts in your mouth, but if that ever defines a food melting in your mouth, it's this nihari right here. You don't need teeth for this. It dissolves on your tongue and just melts with the meat and the gravy and the oil. That's why there's such a crowd. why it's in so high demand and why it sells out in 30 minutes.
Let's try the brain. Over here, you can see a piece of the brain that's still intact. Buffalo brain. Oh, the creamy anacy texture. It's melting on my tongue. This is truly a mastery of meat cooking until it becomes something truly transcendent. In Hindi, it's called nali nihari peda which is bone marrow, the meat and the brains all in one. And that was all combination all in one bite. You've already heard me say this a few times today. It's otherworldly. He's like transported to another world. Oh, as we're leaving like 30 minutes later, completely sold out. That was a once in a-lifetime meal experience and couldn't have done it without my friend Anub this entire day. He's Delhi food walks. He does food tours in Delhi. So,
go follow him. He's an amazing guy. And I want to say a big thank you to you for watching this video. Remember to give it a thumbs up uh and go check out the other Delhi food videos we're eating around. Some of the best food that you're not going to want to miss. Thanks for watching. Goodbye from Delhi. I'll see you on the next video.
