A friend had been troubling me for a while. Every now and then, she would go somewhere for a meal and then send me a detailed message listing everything that she had eaten. Last week, when she was ooh-ing and aah-ing over a plate of fried pork, I got really bugged. You know me – I am not the vengeful kind. But this time I had all kinds of dark thoughts involving this friend, some dry, rotten bread and water. Then I said to myself, why should I play around with my sunny nature. So I abandoned the dark thoughts and instead went scurrying to the restaurant where she had been overdosing on pork.
Actually this is a restaurant that I had been meaning to visit for quite a few years. The restaurant is called Gam’s Delicacy – and it’s in Assam House in Chanakyapuri. Ever since I had a thali at Jakoi in the other Assam Bhawan (on Sardar Patel Marg) I have been a diehard fan of Assamese food. I find it aromatic, yet simple – and love the strong flavours of some of the ingredients that go into the Assamese cauldron.
Delicacy is a smaller place than Jakoi, though there are a few connecting rooms. The décor is simple, the food is excellent and the prices are exceptionally reasonable. We were a group of three – and the total bill came to less than Rs.1000.
I’ll tell you what we ate – we asked for two vegetable thalis, one extra bowl of joha rice, one plate of fried pork, one plate of pork cooked with bamboo and a plate of steamed hilsa in mustard sauce. The thalis (Rs.110) consisted of a helping of rice, yellow dal, black dal, vegetables, green herbs, khar, pickle and kheer. I love aloo pitika – which is a dish of mashed and boiled potatoes tempered with mustard oil – and was happy to see it on the thali. The dals were nice and light, and I enjoyed the simple thali.
I didn’t try out the hilsa (Rs.200 for two pieces) but was told that it was fairly okay, though the sauce could have been a bit more piquant. The pork with bamboo shoot (Rs.210) came in a very thin sauce redolent with the strong flavours of bamboo shoot. What I liked the most (surprise, surprise) was the fried pork (Rs.190), which had pieces of thick pork and potatoes in it. The pork — soft and fatty – was mildly spiced, and went really well with the steamed rice.
There are many other dishes on the menu that I would like to try out. There is duck with gourd (Rs.260), pork with lai shak (Rs.200), various kinds of fish preparations (from Rs.140 to 200) and roast pork (Rs.160).
This is a place that deserves many more visits. I found a lot of young people gorging on food there (and not everybody, one could tell, was staying at the bhawan). The restaurant has quite a few regulars who like Assamese food. I think I am going to be a regular there, too.
And the next time the friend texts me about the fried pork at Delicacy, I am going to laugh rudely.
