Episode - 2 - Delhi - 6 Week- SAM enjoying Daulat Ki Chaat in Old Delhi

This post is dedicated to Winters, since this delicacy is true only to winter months. Its actually quite overwhelming how season also defines street food in India. And daulat ki Chaat happens to be something which sees the light of the day only during winter months on the streets of Old Delhi. Daulat (as the name suggests means wealth) ki chaat happens to be something which looks like a meringue. Actually before I had eaten it, Ihad imagined Daulat ki chaat to be something else. Surprisingly this thing called Chaat looks and tastes nothing like our usual normal chaat with saunth, chutney, dahi and masala’s on top.

If one walks on the streets, lanes and bylanes of old delhi or from Gurudwara Shish Ganj till Town hall, one will see so many daulat chaat hawkers in winter months selling the chaat in big aluminum Thaal’s covered with net or a muslin cloth. The same is scooped and served in pattals / dona’s and now plastic plates. The taste of Daulat ki chaat for me was nothing that I had ever imagined. A dessert being called a chaat? For me the very idea was funny, but when the frothy creamy delight touched my taste buds, they transported me to my childhood and I could instantly image eating the soft cotton candy as a 5 year old. The creamy texture really charges you up and one is actually confused if this is a quick snack or a full fledged dessert. Some hawkers add rose water also to it and rose water flavoured daulat ki chaat has a distinct flavor too.

The main ingredient of this chaat is full cream milk, cream, caster sugar, rose water, saffron, bhoora or unrefined sugar and pistachio nuts. You can call it puffed milk, because unboiled sweetened milk is whisked for hours until it becomes frothy and fluffy and held overnight till it becomes creamy and semi solid, and is decorated with bhoora / unrefined sugar, saffron, pistachios and even chandi ka vark (silver foil). So obviously one can understand the reason why this street food is not available in Delhi’s summer months, because the darn thing would not sustain 45 degrees of temperature, hence this rich daulat bhari chaat can only be savoured during winter months. In one legend, it is believed that the milk must be whipped by the light of a full moon and set by early morning dew.


So guys this winter you must remember you have one item on your wish list, that is the daulat ki chaat and you ought to try this in 2014-15 winters. You’d rather make that your new years resolution 


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