Mahendra Sweets

 True blue Delhiites have an insatiable desire for food. This desire serves as a source of income for numerous small and big players. One such medium-sized player is MAHENDRA SWEETS  

located at the Babu Market end of New Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar Market. It’s a small-sized, pucca outlet serving a range of snacks and sweetmeats. Sometime back, the owner expanded the outlet a bit to include a section for cakes and pastries, and another counter of “Italian Salad” was added. During winters, there’s a small setup stationed outside the shop selling warm “Kesar Milk”.

There is an unprecedented amount of crowd during festivals, and the owners put up an extension counter outside the shop to make it easier for buyers. On display are a number of dry and wet sweets. My favourite is the ‘Krishna Bhog’, a thin layer of cream sandwiched between two thick, orange-coloured round layers of chhena [rasgulla]. Having tried most of their sweetmeats, it can be safely concluded that their ‘halwai’ does his job earnestly and the preparations are not too sweet, or under-cooked.

The most popular item of their repertoire is the jalebi, prepared fresh and sold only in the evening. It’s so famous that on most days, there is a queue of buyers to collect their order being packed, hot, right out of the sugar syrup. The samosas are amongst the best I’ve had across this country. They are always crisp, never too spicy, stuffed with steamed and seasoned potatoes with green peas thrown in during winters.

The newly opened ‘Pasta and Salad’ counter doesn’t visually appeal to my taste buds, but I am sure it must be selling well, due to the very reason mentioned at the beginning of this piece!

Aloo Tikki Trail

Despite not being much of a potato fan, the accidental discovery of the stuffed Aloo Tikkis at UPSC Chaat made me check out the same preparation at a few other outlets across the capital. Here are some comments from the preliminary round of tasting…

1] KHATTA MEETHA

This is a fairly popular joint located in Sarojini Nagar [SN] Market. The ‘Aloo Tikki Chaat’ is served along with chhole [link]. The tikkis are stuffed, but do not have anything striking about their taste. The Chhole, though, makes up for a great accompaniment.

2] MAHENDRA SWEETS

Another one of SN’s buzzing sweet-cum-savoury outlet. Here, the filling inside the tikki struck a balance between tasty and tangy, but the outer covering of boiled potato was quite bland. The Chhole served along with it also didn’t strike a chord with the taste buds.

3] BENGALI SWEETS

Located at the quaint and cozy Bengali Market near Mandi House, their Aloo Tikki Chaat completely swept me off my feet! Oh, where do I start! Well, the “aloo tikki” first… this was a very well-prepared snack. The small tikki packed a big punch by being stuffed with green peas [fried and seasoned] and dried musk melon seeds, making it a delicacy in itself! The ‘chhole’ served along with it was another mind-blowing preparation. It struck a perfect balance between well-cooked steamed gram and spices, without having oil floating around it. If this is what they serve along with their “Chhole Bhature” too, then I’ll surely be licking my fingers at the end of it!

The trail continues…

UPSC Chaat

The UPSC Lane on Shahjahan Road is New Delhi’s very own miniature KHAU GULLY! It’s most famous outlet is the Shree Prabhu Chaat Bhandaar, better known as ‘UPSC Chaat’. Long ago, I was mightily stunned when my dear friend Marina mentioned this place to me despite never having been to the capital until then. She still hasn’t had an opportunity to taste their chaat, though I have done my bit of sampling and gorging! The Chaat Bhandaar has their oil simmering throughout the day but it’s only in the evening that the lane starts buzzing, with other outlets dishing out chowmein, bread pakoras, samosa-kachori, and a juice-walla to complete the course!

The Chaat Bhandaar follows a neat system of having you purchase a token before picking your order, to ensure the notes don’t get messy! The Aloo Tikki is stuffed with mashed peas and coriander leaves, garnished with grated raddish, making it a fine winter snack to relish. Sadly, the outlet couldn’t impress us with their consistency, as during my third visit the tikkis turned out to be uber-spicy and I unearthed 4-5 dices of green chilly making it difficult to hold back the tears. Ignoring that ONE unhappy incident, their other preparations do a good job of leaving the tongue tangy and happy!

Bharwa Gol Gappa

The “Bharva Gol Gappa” is a plate of small puris stuffed generously with soaked bhallas [vadas] and topped with curd, red and green chutney, and their “chaat masala”. It is the capital’s version of west India’s “Dahi Puri”. The “Papri Chaat” is a quick yet fine preparation of papris [7-8] sprinkled with mashed potato and copious amounts of curd with seasoning to top it off. And finally, a comment on Amitji’s favourite street snack… the “Aloo Fry”. This is essentially small pieces of boiled potato seared in oil and garnished with green chutney and chaat masala. When not bordering on unbearably spicy, this is a decent preparation too.

That one experience of tears notwithstanding, I’ll definitely go back again, especially for their Bharwa gol-gappas!