It was about 9’o clock in the evening and after struggling from the torturous traffic on the Delhi Gurgaon expressway, I was on my way towards Dwarka in west dilli intending to drop a colleague home after work. As the roads became narrower under the flyover which runs over the Mangla Puri market and connects the airport underpass with Dwarka, it was almost the time when the shops in the market were about to call it a day.
Unexpectedly, a cluster of bike’s, autos and some cars were parked opposite the Girdhari Lal Hospital, it was an unusual scenario considering the location of the hospital since the visitors would either park their vehicles into the premise or would prefer to take some other medium of transportation while visiting the hospital all because of the densely populated vicinity and the overcrowded market.
We anxiously decided to find out what the matter was, and accordingly parked our car at a suitable place. We got down and started to head towards a seemingly busy spot, from where people were moving in and out. By this time it was pretty clear that the parked vehicles had nothing to do with the hospital since a crowd gathered at a particular place opposite the hospital and could be spotted from a distance.
The only thing which was left to discover now was, the reason for such chaos at that late evening hour and at that particular space. We had comfortably made our assumption by now about what it could possibly be and had summed up to a conclusion, that considering the rainy weather and the late hour, it can only be food joint, but of what ??
As we entered the shady corner, after managing to rip through the crowd, we were amazed to see a young man standing behind a stack of eggs and tossing fiery ‘butter sautéed’ omelets high in the air, catching them back and flipping’em over to his assistant who in turn after doing his own jig of giving final touches by adding onions and chutney, handed it over the starving customers.
These omelets, although priced on the higher side, had to be minimum of two eggs and could be of ten eggs depending upon the customer’s appetite. We realized the reason for the crowd only when we ordered ours, the omelets were drenched in butter and were served only after a generous squeeze of lime and a magical sprinkle (by the assistant) of secret spices. We were obviously through with our dinner after the second serving and by the end of it ‘Rajiv Bhai’ had earned the loyalty of two more customers to his fame.
I would call it yet another feather in saddi dilli’s cap and I now feel prouder in saying that saddi dilli’s street food ROCKS!!
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