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Go for the authentic one

Rahul Verma discovers the real biryani outside Old Delhi!

For the last many days, I had been hankering for some old-fashioned mutton. It was a busy week, and I had been eating out quite a lot, but, much to my disappointment, nowhere was I offered the juicy Mughlai mutton I was dying to eat. So, sometime in the middle of last week, I hotfooted it to Bara Hindu Rao. A friend had been waxing eloquent about the mutton biryani and qorma of Al Khatir, and I wanted to try it out.

One can always drive up to Bara, or take an auto. You can, of course, also take the Metro from Kashmiri Gate going towards Rohini and get down at Pul Bangash. You can walk up from there to Bara. Once you are there, you will find Al Khatir some 20 shops down the road on your right.

Al Khatir is a small place, with simple benches placed inside for those who wish to eat there. The place is run by two brothers - Mohammed Mateen and Mohammed Saleem. I entered the place, looked around and said, "Usually, I go to Old Delhi for my biryanis and qormas." The two brothers smiled politely at me "Old Delhi," one of them asked in an incredulous manner. "What you get there is not biryani. This is biryani," he said.

I have to admit that their biryani was excellent. Unlike Old Delhi, where they mostly use buff for their biryani, the brothers use mutton or chicken. A full plate of mutton biryani costs Rs.80 and half plate comes for Rs.40, and if you just want enough for yourself, you can buy a plate for Rs.25.

Nicely flavoured

I had the mutton biryani and found it nicely flavoured. The rice was long and aromatic, and the meat was soft. It was a little oily - as Delhi biryani often is - but it tasted good. I got some mutton qorma packed, too (Rs.80 for a full plate, and Rs.40 for half) - and liked it quite a lot when I had it later at home with hot rotis. The meat was succulent and the gravy rich.

The brothers' visiting card doubles up as a menu card. They have a whole lot of other things, too - chicken changezi (Rs.200 for a full chicken), chicken biryani (Rs.60 for a full plate, Rs.30 for half) and chicken roasted or chicken fry for Rs.140. Roomalis are for Rs.2, and tandoori rotis for Rs.3 each.

I was urged by everybody to try out mutton nahari at Al Khatir, but I declined. I love nahari and will go back for it one day, but that day I had another date. I knew of a small place that sold the most delicious nahari - and had to go and have some of that. But you'll get to know all about this special nahari next week. I am still burping happily.

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