Delhi's Moti Mahal retains Punjab culinary traditions

     New Delhi: Former every nook and corner of old Delhi emanates the aroma of mouth-watering delicacies, sweet jelabis, imartis and the like, besides spicy kachoris, samosas and stuffed pakoras served with the tangy `Aloo ki subzi'. More of a business centre of the capital, yet old Delhi sees thousands of visitors experimenting with a variety of delicacies. Travelling through the narrow lanes of the old city, a journey in search of authentic Punjabi food finally led its way to the six decade-old Moti Mahal Restaurant in Daryaganj. Set up by Kundal Lal Gujral, it is a common belief that this is the place where the tandoori chicken was born. The first savour is incomplete without the Chicken Pakora and Chicken Garlic Kebab or the Royal Chicken Afghani marinated in cream enriched with cashew nuts and almond paste. Dal Makhni and tandoori roti are the hot favorites of vegetarians. Though generations have come and gone by, the craze remains intact.

     Vinod Chaddha, the present owner of the Moti Mahal Restaurant said: "We cook all food in butter, and that is the secret of its popularity and people really like it. In Punjab also, people talk about `Makki di Roti' and `Sarson da Saag' cooked in butter. So we too offer butter but in a unique manner, which is a Punjabis delight. We prepare our own spices and it is this flavour that attracts a lot of visitors. The aroma too makes it attractive". The ambience is kept alive just as it was in 1947.The live qawallis, the Punjabi folk and the old Hindi melodies makes everyone nostalgic. From India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to Former American President Richard Nixon, many celebrities have been delighted by the tandoori culinary of this extraordinary place. Moti Mahal was the first to bake Chicken in a big clay oven - a sight common across villages for baking bread. It is said a gratifying meal is the ideal mixture of all three senses - sight, aroma and taste. It is the magic of the good old flavour that has made Delhiites take time out of their busy lives to come and satiate their taste buds. "The atmosphere is quite pleasant, sitting outside gives a nice ambience. It is famous and the old outlet offers Punjabi food, said Upinder Bhatia, a regular customer. Visiting Old Delhi has a charm of its own even for foreigners. It is the flavour and the golden dishes that are irresistible. Moti Mahal is one such establishment, which offers the genuine flavour of undivided India; one can come across more aromas, as one goes deep into Old Delhi.
-Feb 25, 2005

Online database of Indian spices for the British palate

     London: A coalition of museums and community groups led by Britain's Royal Botanic Gardens have decided to build an online database of personal accounts, recipes and folklore to promote interest in plants from the Indian subcontinent and their influence on Britain. According to The Independent, the scheme run through a government-funded website (www.plantcultures.org.uk) and funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, aims to attract "socially excluded" members of the Asian community, in particular the elderly, to get valuable information on how staples as common as rice or as unusual as banyan tree are used in traditional culinary preparations. "These are all plants that have had a huge influence on this country at levels from cuisine to science from tea to the opium poppy and morphine. But what we want to know is how these plants are being used every day by communities. We want to know about how they are grown on allotments through to the stories that are told about them,'' the paper quoted Professor Monique Simmonds, chief plant scientist at the Royal Botanic Gardens as saying. The Plant Cultures project, will feature 1,000 rarely seen images of the 25 plants taken from the collections of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, West London, the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum, and will be accompanied by exhibitions and garden visits, including a trail at Kew that will display many of the featured plants, from tea to the sandalwood tree. While ginger, garlic, black pepper, sugar and other exotic spices and food stuffs have been chosen for their culinary purposes, many like Indigo which has undergone a recent revival and neem, now being used in insect repellents, have been chosen for their industrial or medicinal uses.
-Feb 18, 2005