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Have you ever seen someone immersed deeply into their smartphone, plugged in headphones, and painstakingly flipping the screen as if in a trance? Chances are this hostage is watching an Instagram reel of a trending song, with any kid, teen, adult, grandma, even baby doing the most catchy hook step. It’s a revolving door of videos that everyone I know today keeps on flickering and watching. It has become a hypnotic, enslaved and addictive national obsession. Sure, this social media trend has turned hundreds of nobles into stars, but there is one real star who is used to watching, scrolling and doing something completely different. Some quite off-beat and more or less idiosyncratic. cricketer, Virat Kohli Chole is used to watching videos of Bhature in his spare time, and he reportedly watches hundreds of them.
Now, this is a person I can easily identify with, not only by watching food videos, but also someone with passion and interest in Chole Bhature. That is, unfortunately, we have everything in common. It is one of my favorite foods, and chickpeas or chickpeas have been my favorite food since I was really little. We used to cook kala chana at my grandmother’s house almost every other day because that’s all I used to eat. The preparation was quite simple. The chana was soaked overnight, and cooked in a simple tempering of oil, mustard, hing, curry leaves, chili powder, turmeric and garam masala. By the time all the water had dried up, the chickpeas became very soft and silky and I ate them with buttermilk filled with soft ghee.
Growing up on chickpeas, and it was probably the only vegetarian food I ate other than potatoes, I looked for chickpeas in every restaurant I went to, even as a kid . Butter Chicken and Chole are two of my favorite dishes even today. Walking distance from the original outlet of Cream Center in Chowpatty, where we lived, popularized chana bhatura in Mumbai. Unlike our Maharashtrian home made chana, the taste of chana was distinctly North Indian. It was very difficult to figure out the recipe for making Cream Center Chana. Till date, chana bhature is cooked in a mixture of secret spices and in oil with whole green chillies. This chickpea is made with kabuli chickpeas (chickpeas or garbanzo), which are white and large, unlike black chickpeas, which are small and dark brown beans. This large white gram when cooked with a cream center turns out to be dark brown, smooth, soft and tangy and should be eaten with a large, deep-fried, hot air-filled bhatura.
But Delhi is the place for Chole Bhature or Chole Kulcha. I know I can start a debate on which are the best chole or pindi chole in Delhi, but I will give you my preferences. For my money, Chacha Di Hatti near Delhi University, North Campus has the best chickpeas. Soft, spicy chickpeas served with onion rings, spicy chutney and bhature can be served plain or stuffed with potatoes.
My next favorite is Sita Ram Dewan Chand near Imperial Cinema. The shop has been serving Chole Bhature since 1950. Chole, dark and slightly oily, is served with two medium-sized bhatures, a special potato curry made with potatoes in a spicy, tangy spice mix.
Kwality, that age-old institution in Connaught Place, serves traditional chole with big bhatures, just like Mumbai’s Cream Center. The taste and taste of Chana Bhature has not changed since last 70 years as Kwality is serving good food to Delhi.
And then there’s the black, almost black, oily chickpeas with a slice of potato at Odeon Sweets in Delhi’s Gole Market. Serve with tangy, crunchy chewy bhature with just the right amount of pungency, garam masala and sourness, Punjabi pickles and green chillies and onions.
Lastly, there is Pindi Chana. A classic dish of Punjab, which is different from other chole dishes, this is because Pindi chole made in the north is made without onions, garlic or tomatoes. They also use white, large chickpeas, but they boil the chickpeas in tea leaves to give the dish a deeper color and add only a few spices, along with a little ghee. It is a solidly good, nutritious and really healthy food. I know that chickpeas are popular all over the world especially in the Mediterranean and Arab world, but no one can make them like we make desi.
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