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A spoonful of sweet sensation

Street Dessert
Last Updated 15 February 2012, 14:44 IST

Daulat ki Chaat is more than just a dessert. Pop a spoonful into the mouth and it disappears. The lingering sweetness is as fleeting as an early-morning dream.

Made of buffalo’s milk, Daulat ki Chaat, a street speciality in Old Delhi, is not seen in mithai shops or in the  eateries. Sold exclusively on wooden carts or on three-legged mobile stands, called tarona, its sellers are mostly migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

“We have been one of the best sellers of Daulat ki Chaat in Chandni Chowk. I really don’t have exact idea why we call it Daulat ki Chaat but the only thing I know is that it has been popular since ages among people from all walks of live,” says Rajesh Yadav, a chaat vendor.

In Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi’s signature street, Metrolife met Harish Singh, a Daulat ki Chaat vendor, who hails from Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. Harish, 46, lives with his brother in Jamuna Bazaar, North Delhi. Every morning, he wakes up at half-past two and whisks cream with milk. Nothing is added into the mixture, not even sugar. The froth builds up three hours later.

At daybreak, Singh leaves his house and boards the metro for Chandni Chowk. From 9 am to 9 pm, with a tarona under his arm and a brass pan on his head, he makes several rounds between the bazaar’s two ends — Red Fort and Fatehpuri Mosque

The pan holds five kg of the dessert, the snow-white surface of which is coloured with golden-yellow saffron, green pistachio nuts and decorated with (edible) silver foil. Sold for Rs 10 a plate, the froth, just before being served to the customer, is dusted with boora (unrefined sugar) and roasted khoya (condensed milk). Tell the vendor in advance if you don’t want sugar.

Eaten with a wooden spoon, the first sensation is that of licking butter.That impression instantly dissolves. A moment later, the senses sing with delicate flavours of pistachio, saffron and khoya. If you don’t take another spoon quickly, the taste vanishes.

Much romance is attached to the making of this fluff. One legend is that the milk is whisked under a full moon sky and the morning dew sets the resulting froth. Raj Kathuria, a businessman says, “I can’t resist eating Daulat ki Chaat after lunch. It’s like a ritual and is the tastiest and healthiest dessert for me.”

Since this cloud of cream melts in high temperature, Daulat ki Chaat vendors are sighted only in winter, from Diwali festival in November to Holi in March. Hawked in the congested alleys of Chandni Chowk, Kinari Bazaar and Chawri Bazaar — amid dust, fumes and flies — the dessert, covered with muslin, proves that it can survive in the unlikeliest of places.

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(Published 15 February 2012, 14:44 IST)

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