North or South Campus, and elsewhere, the food is great, cheap too.
By Siddharth Theodore
NEW DELHI: Come August, the bustle in the campuses in Delhi University becomes a din with students, mostly freshers, flocking the colleges. Many of them are looking at life beyond classes, beckoned by a world of music, dance, fashion, clothes, politics and the king of all attractions–food.
After a year in the campus, by now I have managed to do some rounds of the eateries in and around Delhi’s colleges, which is mainly in two parts, the North and the South Campus. There are also the Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU) and the Jamia Millia Islamia, popularly known as Jamia.
As freshers come to terms with the campus, they go through weird rites de passage, like samosa eating competition and the ‘proposals’ where a boys is made to seek girl’s hand or vice versa. Then there is also Mr. Fresher and the Miss Fresher tournament, but ragging per se is banned and enforced strictly in all the colleges. With familiarizations over, many students would flock cafeterias and restaurants in and around the colleges.
“The food here tastes so yummy and it is cheap too,” says Pia Singh, a first year Philosophy Honors student from St. Stephen’s College. Pia got a taste of the iconic mince and scramble toast. “I had heard a lot about this but it is for the first time I get to eat it, it is as good as it sounds and with the green, fresh chutney you could even go for another helping,” she added. And one cannot also miss the Rohtas Dhaba for its nimbu paani and samosas, situated just outside the café of St. Stephen’s.
As the days go on, freshers get familiar with the hangouts in and around north campus. Kamla Nagar is KNags for those students who would want to chill out. “ A fresher is spoilt for choice here –be it a fast food joint or coffee shop, KNags can give serious competition to any specialty restaurant in town,’’ says Yogender Singh from Kirori Mal College, who has enrolled for History Honors.
KNags is emerging as the new Fleet Street for food for university students. It has many restaurants lining the place. Singh Ching is a popular food stop in KNags. The restaurant has a projector also which screen sports events. There are Chinese starters like momos and noodles and students can opt for Punjabi thalis also.
At Chache di Hatti, you would see people queuing up for their famous chhole bhature and in the ragged line would be not only students, but also teachers, other staff, and families from surrounding areas. There are also the banta walas who offer the old fashioned marble corked homemade sweet sodas, a welcome respite after the kick from the chhole bhature. Located right at the start of K-Nags is Y-Not Chinese housed in a basement where steaming hot pudina momos are dished out.
“The food is inexpensive and it is a hot spot for everyone in the campus here,” says Sandeep Mukherjee of Hindu College. Something Vintage is another eating place located above Y-Not Chinese where pakoras, bun maska and suji ka halwa are popular fares.
The Big Yellow Door is at the adjacent Vijay Nagar market which cannot be missed because of its big yellow door. The burgers and shakes here are very popular among students. The sandwiches, wraps and burgers all cost below Rs.100.
A fairly new kid on the block is the Kori’s, a Korean restaurant functioning out of their Hudson Lane outlet. Lee, the owner of the restaurant boasts of his variegated burgers with prices ranging from Rs. 35 to Rs.135.
Some of the popular fares inside the colleges are: the paneer cutlets with dhania-mint chutney of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) and the light–on-pocket lunches served at the Faculty of Arts Canteen; both are busy outlets. J P Tea Stall at Delhi School of Economics and Nandu ki Chai outside the Law Faculty is always crowded. A little away is the Tibetan resettlement of Majnu Ka Tila where delectable momos or dumplings have always been a hot favorite among the students.
“Once they used to serve Chang, an intoxicating rice beer, now it’s all but disappeared from the menus here,” Suresh Sukumaran, an old timer, reminisces.
“The Maggi always tastes better here,” says Geeta Priya, a final year student who swears she has not fallen sick after eating street-food yet.At the south campus, students can feast on paneer rumali and kathi rolls. While the Sri Venkateswara College dishes out most of the popular south Indian delicacies, Gargi College with its open space called the Nescafe corner, has a wide variety menu from teas, pastas, snacks to cappuccinos. Tom Uncle’s Maggi (offers over 20 flavors) near Daulat Ram have enjoyed immense and abiding popularity for ages.
At the sprawling JNU campus, spread over lush green 1,000 acres that stretch along the northernmost reaches of the Aravalli Hills, it would be hard to miss the food at Ganga Dhaba and the numerous coffee houses spread across the campus .
“The coffee houses are great social levelers. This is where students engage in threadbare discussions on every conceivable topic,” says Ranjit Devraj, a former JNU student.
Then there is the Jamia Millia Islamia, located in the congested lanes of Ansari Nagar in south Delhi where the favorite hang-outs are the Castro Café, Central canteen, MCRC canteen and Engineering Canteen. The food here is a non-vegetarian’s delight with all types of meat dishes and Khamiri rotis to wipe the gravy.
To contact the author, email to editor@americanbazaaronline.com