I like them a lot for they are prepared in the Old Delhi style, served with some aloo sabzi and chutney. The place is also known for its bread pakoras. It is then topped with onion slices, and served with a papad. They tart up the rice with some mild spices such as cumin seeds and then heap it up with rajma, chholey, kadhi and so on. They have pakora chaats, chholey bhaturey, parathas, and even some Chinese dishes.īut I go there for their rajma chawal. Now, they serve thhalis, kadhi chawal, chholey chawal, aloo chana chawal, dal makhni chawal, raita chawal and so on. It started out as a two-dish shack which sold pakoras and rajma chawal. But it has grown significantly since then - in size, in the number of dishes on offer, and in popularity.
When I first went there, many years ago, it was a tiny place. There are hundreds of such stalls, but one of the better known ones is Jain Chawal Wale in the Connaught Place area, near the Shivaji Stadium. If you are in an office area at lunch time, you are bound to see a small cart or a stall selling rajma chawal, and a crowd of people lapping it up. In Delhi, of course, rajma chawal is much loved and eaten - not just in homes, but in restaurants and little shacks. Now it is widely grown, and is no longer a dish associated merely with the north. This is so much a part of our food lexicon that it is difficult to think the beans actually came to India from Latin America via Europe. But a few spices, and a little bit of asafoetida, can really lift the dish. I am not greatly fond of the beans cooked with large amounts of onions and tomatoes. But I quite enjoy it now, especially when the rajma is lightly cooked.
I wasn’t such a fan of the dish when I was growing up. There is, I must admit, something about rajma chawal. What is it that they like to eat at the end of the day after they have served their truffles and caviar, or tartare and ceviche? The answer, for many, is the same. I often ask my chef friends, who rustle up the choicest of delicacies, about their comfort food.
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