Dhaba Fare
A road trip to Delhi recently revealed an entirely new Grand Trunk Road: one that appeared to have gotten itself quite a face-lift. Its flanks now wear some very fancy brands; the ubiquitous golden arches of McDonalds stare you down from quite some distance. While I’m all for four lanes, clean restrooms, sanitised food areas and the like, I do feel a regrettable twinge whizzing past the spots where earlier stood ancient culture. The homely dhaba. Its trademark charpoys and wooden planks passing for tables.
Once boasting the highest number of dhabas, the GT Road is fast yielding place to new. In 
existence since its inception as the Sher Shah Suri Marg, these wayside serais offered weary travellers a simple yet wholesome meal even in days of yore. Don’t believe me? Read Megasthenes, Hieun Tsang, Al Baruni and ilk. In fact, some recipes have remained unchanged since; the Shahi Khichri being one. Dating back to the time of Emperor Shah Jahan it boasts over a hundred ingredients.
Long the domain of truckers, who nurtured this culture, dhabas have now begun to attract regular customers from townships in the vicinity. In its present avatar, the dhaba caters to all tastes but is still most popular for its mah ki dal, a staple of Haryana and the Punjabi saag with lassi. These are usually accompanied by hot tandoori rotis that magically reappear on your table the instant you finish the one in your plate. Tadka daal, kadhi and paranthas, rounded off by kheer or phirni, are the other all-time favourites.
Murthal, near Sonepat has the largest cluster of dhabas, each one claiming a speciality as 
its own. Traditionally serving vegetarian fare, a few of these stalls have begun to offer non-vegetarian dishes. Even though that meant going against the recommendations of a holy man, who, story goes, predicted great prosperity as long as animal protein was kept off the menu. Old-timers believe the demolitions carried out a couple of years ago were a direct fall-out of this addition. But then, how do you explain the truly “divine” flavours of the curries in question?!
Anyways, they continue to attract droves of customers around the clock with bright lights and blaring music; their choc-a-bloc parking lots ample proof of their popularity. Sadly, more and more of these customers are veering towards chowmein, pizzas and colas, placing traditional fare on the back-burner. Literally.
The one heartening thought being that as long as 
there are truckers, there will be dhabas. So, the next time you wish to relish dhaba fare, look out for the one with the highest number of trucks in its lot. You can rest assured that the food will be delicious, the service quick and the cost negligible.
I remember all those trips from chadigarh to delhi and all those dhabas on the way .. The food is so yummmm everywhere ….
🙂
yummmmmm, says bikrammmmmm 🙂
Most certainly the simple dhaba delivers a flavour and an experience that nary a restaurant can duplicate. And the one area where the dhaba always scores over its city cousins is the basic Tandoori Roti: they are always tastier at the dhaba! Possibly the reason could be that the time taken for delivery after the roti comes out of the tandoor is much lesser in the dhaba that in a restaurant…
Also, the dhabawallah doesn’t wait for your order, he simply tempts you by brandishing a hot aromatic roti under your nose!!
No fast food joints can match the dhaba food. Its always freshly cooked not dug out of deep freezers of five star hotels. And the taste – wow.
Bansi Lal as Chief Minister of Haryana used to gobble down plates of dal at Murthal, a phulka or two rounded off with fresh dhahi. And then his dakkar!!
I have been partaking of GT road dhaba food since over 48 years and still love it.
Never miss a chance of stopping at one of the dhabbas for their excellent fare.
It really is the best, Mr Bansi Lal’s belching notwithstanding! More power to them…
nothing can come close to Daal-Makhani you get at the Dhaba along with crisp tandoori paranthas dripping in butter, which you have the leisure of relishing while swatting the flies 😉
flies? what flies? wasn’t that the tadka…? 😉
LOL!!
Hey i have been to this place and its great 🙂
A marked change from the besan and chai in HP, eh??
Yes yes, yes. The good old Dhaba.
More chowmein and hamburgers, more truck tyres on the belly. Sadly, even when lifting with friends to Delhi, they invariably turn off att one of these teribble places where I doubt they really enjoy their meals.
I would imagine the most pressing reason to halt in these places is clean restrooms…!
Dhaba food is great, no doubt but ever witnessed their manual dish washers and how they conserve natural resources like water!
Yes! Isn’t that where all them wonderful flavours come from though??
On our annual trip to Chd, the dhaaba food is the main attraction on the way from Delhi to Chd. Just remembering the taste of tandoori aaloo parantha …. yummmm.
No Macs and subs can match upto our very own authentic dhaba food.
I am seriously considering converting an impending train ride to Delhi into a road trip purely for those paranthas 🙂