Daddy’s Delhi, in Indiranagar, is a fine example of how traditional cuisines can be kept alive by approaching it with a sense of humility…
It’s like dining in a long lost relative’s home. The curtains bear a certain touch of the old world, the furniture simple with a sideboard delicately holding a few dinner plates as decoration. From the time the menu appears on your table to the delivery of the bill, the smile rarely leaves the face of the person attending to you. In fact, when we asked for the rest of the food to be packed to go, we were also told, in a gentle chiding tone, “You couldn’t finish the food — ordered too much?”
Daddy’s Deli, in Indiranagar, is buzzing most of the time, especially at weekends, but you won’t hear loud yammering as much as you would the tinkle of fork against plate. And given its moderate size (my guesstimate would be 30 odd people would fill the place), don’t be surprised if you have to wait in line to get a table on some days.
Before you order, make a mental note that their portions aren’t miserly, so unless you’re in a largish group watch your order.
A personal favourite is the Kheema Patties — a massive, almost circular gift from the kitchen. It is crumb fried with a generous dose of mince coated by a thick lining of mashed potatoes. The vegetable cutlets too are quite a dish — even though I did find it a bit greasy. Sink your teeth into that with some wine they have available or better still a nice thick sweet lassi or fresh lime soda on a hot summer’s day. What’s kind of interesting is that the starters that have a bit of that Western touch are served with ketchup and the desi variations are served with a more humble tomato chutney that looks like a ketchup but is more rudimentary.
The main courses are where I think we became way too ambitious! The Khichri Kheemo, where a mildly flavoured yellow rice served with a mutton mince preparation on the side, came to our table along with two other curries. It’s a traditional dish for sure, especially the mutton mince, but we were generally under the impression that khichdi, by and large, requires the use of lentils in rice — something that I didn’t quite find in this.
The Dhansak, one of the most popular Parsi dishes, came along with the khichdi. A laborious process, a dhansak looks like a simple mutton curry (slightly green in colour) served with brown rice. In many places, this mutton curry, which is cooked along with lentils as well, is served with mutton balls on the side as well. It’s a rich dish so you might want to share and you also may not find all that much meat in the curry — a bit depressing for carnivores though. Even so, the gentle flavours of the sweet and spicy are quite a treat.
I am not quite sure what had gotten into me, but I also ordered a portion of the Curry Chawal with prawns. This specific dish has a strong Goan influence, though I found a stronger influence of tomato gravy than I did of coconut milk. Priced at `350, I did find the size and numbers of prawns a bit disappointing, especially when the portion of gravy can feed at least two people. But since the balanced taste of the dish is hard to criticise, I didn’t find room for much complaint.
All this with a small portion of kachumbar, a typical salad with onions, made our meal extremely fulfilling — in the literal sense of the word!
Most Parsi specialities require a long list of ingredients and take time to cook; interestingly, however, when you take the first bite into any of their curries, a sense of familiarity hits you first, even if you’ve never eaten that food before. They all are brought down to a basic structure and the finer nuances become apparent only when you start to focus more on the flavours.
Did we get to the dessert? Not by a long shot, but don’t forget to the try the traditional Parsi mawa cake or their special gourmet ice creams. Now here’s a smart tip — order what you like, eat a little, pack the rest and then finish off with the dessert!
