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Business News/ Opinion / Blogs/  HUNGER GAMES: The dish that never changes
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HUNGER GAMES: The dish that never changes

Not all eating out sojourns are about getting to try the latest dishessometimes it's about spending time with each other and ordering food that you've had a dozen times before

Once a month, my 10-year-old and I treat ourselves to a meal which is more about the two of us spending time together and less about ordering the food we have never tasted before.Premium
Once a month, my 10-year-old and I treat ourselves to a meal which is more about the two of us spending time together and less about ordering the food we have never tasted before.

It became a ritual even before we knew it: lunch/breakfast/dinner at a restaurant where we don’t have to trawl through the menu and dance around each other’s peculiarities before ordering. Once a month (sometimes twice), my 10-year-old and I treat ourselves to a meal which is more about the two of us spending time together and less about ordering the food we have never tasted before. The restaurants we choose for these meals mostly offer what we call “comfort food" – dishes we have tried and tested and do not hesitate to order again and again and again. The restaurants on this list are mostly in South Delhi; and at least two have been around have been around forever. Sometimes we add a new place and drop an old one but over the last couple of years only one has been scratched off our list and we are scouting for its replacement.

Qahwa DinerCafe, Safdarjung Development Area, New Delhi (opposite IIT Delhi)

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Photo: ThinkStock

Evergreen, Green Park market, or Mughal Mahal, Rajendra Place market, New Delhi

Depending on whether we are in the mood for vegetarian grub or full Punjabi fare, we pick either of the two restaurants for a heavy duty lunch date. Both these places have been childhood favourites of mine and the tradition continues with my daughter. Chole-bhature and gulab jamun at Evergreen; and boneless butter chicken, chicken curry with tandoori parantha and butter naan at Mughal Mahal—our order remains a duplicate of what I have been eating here for more than 30 years. A meal at either of these two places not just satisfies the cravings of a Punjabi palate but also works as an elixir for a lazy weekend nap.

Amichi, Hauz Khas village, New Delhi

Pasta in pomodoro sauce, cheese garlic bread and a margherita pizza polished off with Spremuta (lemonade with mint leaves)—we don’t even bother looking at the menu when we enter Amichi; the order is rattled off as we settle by the window to watch people flock through Hauz Khas village. Sometimes we end the meal with cappuccino and a couple of almond biscottis, other times we indulge ourselves and order a slice of cheese cake. Many pizza and pasta places have opened in the vicinity but not once have we been tempted to give up this cheery café.

Red velvet cake. Photo: ThinkStock
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Red velvet cake. Photo: ThinkStock

We frequented this space for the Red Velvet cake and whatever else caught our fancy that day— croissants, cream cheese and cucumber finger sandwiches, scones with thick cream and berry preserve, a pot of red rose tea— but this is one place that has been knocked off our list since it moved within Hauz Khas village to the TLR café and became Elma’s@TLR. Sure the cake tastes just as nice but the ambience is not as relaxing for a cozy mother-daughter chit-chat as the previous one was. Recently we visited Hauz Khas Social at tea time and loved the way the food and beverages were served. Iced tea in a bathtub-shaped bowl, Social shake in a jar with two wafer biscuits, a delicious chocolate dessert with ice-cream and brownies, sandwiches on a nailed to a platter—yes this one has potential to make to our list but perhaps not as a tea-time snack space.

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Published: 22 Jul 2014, 06:01 PM IST
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