Hey, I won't lie, I have participated in the enjoyment and brief moments of merriment these novelty delights had to offer. But there comes a point where you start wishing your Dal Chawal didn't come pre-balled and trussed up and disguised as what it was not.

And evidently I am not alone when it comes to this ideology. A lot of new and upcoming restaurants are going back to the root and re-doing food as they originally intended it to be. Old-school yet original, lip-smacking yet wholesome.


One such place that I had the good fortune of dining at was Dalchini. Chaitanya Adgaonkar is a man with a plan. And he plans to bring to us food and the reminder of how richly and diversely blessed our Indian culinary map is. He travels frequently and extensively to discover and learn about the food that you find in kitchens of Indian homes but rarely in snazzy restaurants.




Might I say it was one of the satisfying tastings we've had. The amazing food came peppered with enlightening nuggets of information about it's backstory. It was like traveling while you stay put, gorging on some brilliant grub.

As always I would invite you to be adventurous with your choices off of the menu and let us know of your discoveries. But here are some of my favorite picks:

• Salad love: I am a sucker for good salads though I'll be honest I do add a good helping of chicken to make it all the better. Dalchini served us a choice of vegetarian salads and I surprised myself by how much I loved them. KAIRICHI VATLI DAL was Maharashtrian spin on salad with tangy pieces of kairi or raw mango.
  KOSUMALLI was a beautiful South Indian salad with soaked moong dal mixed with carrots, cucumber and spices that made it hard to resist.

• PALAK PAPDI CHAAT is one thing that you should make it a point to try. Inspired from the streets of Lucknow, this chaat has papdi made out of Spinach leaves! And it tastes stellar. Better than the regular chaats might I say. 

• GHEE ROAST ALOO is a thing of dreams for carb lovers like me. Bite sized potatoes crispy fried in Ghee and coated in aromatic spices and served on a banana leaf. I'm in love <3

• AMER KI KEEMA BAATI blew my mind yet again. Not the biggest fan of mutton, but the mutton keema filling in this baati was so carefully spiced and such delicately prepared, I couldn't help but falling for this.

• BATLIWALA AUNTY'S PATRANI MACCHI is a dish that would do anyone from Bengal proud and some more! Such a spectacular dish. It's common in Bengal to steam cook fish wrapped in banana leaf but the spices in this one, the aroma that hit as soon as we unwrapped our fish was something to remember. If you love fish, heck even if you don't, give this a go. Thank me later?

• 24 GHANTE KI DAAL was surprisingly my favorite from the mains even though there was such brilliant non vegetarian dishes on the table. Maybe the simplicity hit straight home but the creamy, comforting gravy just did magic. To think they hadn't added any cream to make it this smooth. Kudos to the chef!

• RAMPURI TAAR KORMA was another thing that fascinated me no end. So apparently this dish from UP is prepared everyday using a bit of yesterday's leftover korma which is added to the new korma. This is done everyday and in some parts of India the taar or thread of has been kept on for centuries.
  Dalchini is doing the same with theirs, so make sure you taste this dish!

We wrapped our hogging spree with SERRADURA, a dessert from Goa in a glass, with layers and layers of whipped cream and crushed Marie biscuit. Nothing fancy, nothing theatrical just good ol' comforting food that puts a smile on your face after. Well, isn't that just what we are looking for anyway?