New Delhi: Street food has come to occupy prominent space on the menus of various luxury boutique hotels in the national capital and seems to be favourite among travellers. From renovating menus to adding new innovative dishes on the platter, five star hotels in the capital are adding flavours from the streets of Delhi among traditionally-served international cuisine. Hotels which had been offering Italian, Pan-Asian to Americana and continental cuisines, are making space for dishes like ‘Aloo Chaat’, ‘Chana masala’, and tandoori dishes, which are typical to the capital.
‘Chaat Platter’ is one of the hot favourite dishes in Delhi’s The Park hotel, that has captured attention with food lovers. “A surprising number of tourists, and corporates, who do not have time to eat chaat outside on the streets of Delhi like to try the flavour here,” says Abhishek Basu, the executive Chef at The Park Hotel. “From Delhi Chaat platter to tandoori tikka, we have a wide range of Delhi street food to offer to the food lovers among the newly introduced international cuisine,” says Basu.
Five star hotels like Taj Mansingh and The Imperial have successfully included tandoori delicacies among Malaysian, Thai, South Indian, Sea Food, and Japanese cuisines. Culinary cooking sensation Vikas Khanna, however believes that whereas street food inspires his cooking style, it is beyond his capacity to reproduce the taste that is served on the streets.
“One cannot do better street food than the people who serve on the streets. To be really honest, I can’t do it,” Mr Khanna said. “I can’t re-create the same ‘golgappa paani’ in my kitchen. That particular ‘paani’ has its own texture and flavour which is hard to get in a room similar to an operation theatre (the restaurant kitchens),” Mr Khanna says. On the contrary, hotels promise the same taste acquired from the streets and “try to keep the rustic flavour intact in their dishes.” Not only from Delhi, but street-borne dishes countries like Italy, Japan and Indo-nesia are also gaining prominence in the restaurants.
