Delhi Diary Day 4

Day FOUR! I am deep in holiday time mode now where the days blur a bit. I’ve established a morning routine — a saunter through the Hauz Khas Deer Park and over to the Blue Tokai in Green Park for a coffee and maybe a bun. Between that cafe and the Green Park Metro I know the shops and stalls and where I can do the admin bits, the post office, the ATM machines that work with my bank. I like to formulate a plan for the rest of the day by the time I’m at the metro. On the agenda today: Chole Bhature in Chandi Chowk (quintessential Delhi street food experience), a spin round the Red Fort and some miscellaneous other ideas for that side of town.

I got off the Metro and made a beeline for Kanwarji’s for a late breakfast. The shop sits on a busy street that looks to more or less run from the Red Fort to Jama Masjid. Chole Bhature is a pretty heavy meal, a portion of spiced chickpeas perhaps with some paneer, a chutney and some salad, and a couple of breads that puff up as they are deep fried in ghee. It’s a good place to stand and eat in the shadow of the fort, watching Delhi walk past.

I then headed up the road towards the Fort where the Delhi dance occurs: There’s about 10 lanes of traffic flanked by 3 rows of tuctuc drivers between you and where you want to go. The obvious inference is that the approx one quid that the driver wants for safe passage is the most effective way to make it in one piece. Normally a bit of perseverance pays off and after ducking a few drivers I discovered an underpass connected to the Metro station that comes out the right side of the fort. The first impression is that is about ten times bigger than I expected and the second one is that it is still not clear how to get in. I’m definitely not the first person to find Lal Qila impregnable and I doubt I’ll be the last. In case you’re ever in the area the entrance is through a fun fair.

Once inside it becomes clear just how massive the site really is. There is a huge covered market in a vast hall that opens out into a huge campus featuring ornamental gardens littered with buildings ranging from Mughal Mosques and residences through to colonial era brick mansions housing museums, gift shops, cafes and so on.

The museum on the failed 1857 uprising against the then English East India Company was particularly interesting and it’s not an area of history I really don’t know much about.

I had not planned on Red Fort taking up so much time so by the time I left I could not be arsed to visit another major monument with some UNESCO world historical significance designation so I got the metro back to the flat. I made a plan to go out to a posh restaurant for tea, and with an hour or so to kill, decided to explore the Hauz Khas Complex which is directly adjacent to where I am staying. It houses the ruins of a 13th Century Seminary/Mosque and the tomb of Firoz Shah Tughlaq. It’s another nice green part of the city and reminds me a lot of Fountains Abbey — in its state of disrepair, water features, religious function and contemporary use as a nice family day out.

In the last picture of this gallery you can make out the apartment I am staying in. It has the green fence across the third floor balcony of in the corner of the buildings in the distance.

Later in the evening I spent a LONG TIME in Delhi traffic getting across town for a meal at Spice Art. It’s quite an interesting experience having a concentrated dose of Delhi driving but the overall feeling is of having been pickled in Diesel fumes. What the metro lacks in convenience it makes up for in user experience by a long distance.

I had the vegetarian set menu. It was incredibly rich food with a lot of cream and butter that I struggled with a bit.

I made the mistake of telling the waiter how good the starters were (and they were) and another plate appeared and were not added to the bill. They do not mess about with customer service here. There was some really great food in there. A saffron and cashew sauce with a cheese dumpling thing was particularly memorable and not like anything I had ever ate before.

The journey back later at night was much faster and a good bit more exciting as the Uber driver was a bit braver and had a slightly smaller car.