This YouTube video (hosts Nate Buchanan and Kara, guided by Anup) documents a four-hour breakfast street-food tour through Old Delhi. The hosts visit multiple historic stalls and markets — sampling traditional items such as bedmi puri, nagori halwa, whipped milk dessert, chickpea soup (with brought-in butter), chai, slow-cooked goat (nahari), biryani, jalebi, and a saffron lassi — while noting local customs (first cup poured on the ground for gods), service times (some items only served until mid-morning or in winter), shop histories (established 1910; family in business ~90 years), and a charitable meal program (20 rupees buys a meal). The tour emphasizes sensory detail, local routines, and culinary context.
Questions this video answers
10 places.
1910.
Served only until 11:00 AM.
Only there until 10:30 AM.
About 90 years.
Chapters
Foreign.
Good morning. Today is day three here in Delhi. We've already eaten so much good food since we've been here but today we're kicking it up a notch.
I don't think I've ever been so, so excited to go on a food tour. We are going with deli food walks and it's actually a breakfast tour. It's almost 8am and we've never been on a breakfast walk before and I have no idea what Indians eat for breakfast. So excited.
Now we have about a 20 minute walk through some of the most interesting streets that you'll ever be on to the Chandi Choke market where we're meeting our guide for the food tour.
We found Anup, our guide for the day. We're about to go to our first stop.
We are going to stop at 10 places and we'll taste different varieties of food there.
So much food.
So this shop was started in 1910. It's like more than 100 years old. Shop in the morning in breakfast they have only two dishes. They have a dish called nagori halwa and then they have second dish called desi beans.
Wow. So much food.
This is the first stop. Desi bedmi. You can call it bedmi puri.
This smells so good. So we just saw these guys rolling up these little dough balls and stuffing them with lentils. Then they fry it twice and it turns into this. This is called bedmi puri. It's a traditional breakfast food. They only serve it till 11 and then not anymore. And you eat it with potato curry, chickpea curry. And then I think this is of like breakfast dessert. It's another. What is this? Naguri halwa, which is another fried dough with some sweet mush. All right. My first Indian breakfast.
Wow. Oh my gosh. That is so good. It's spicy. The fried dough with the lentils has such a good crunch to it. It almost tastes meaty. But it's all vegetarian. But it has the best like savory buttery flavor. And then it's like boom. Spicy. I love it.
So we just finished our first course. We're moving on to the Ngoori halda. It's a sweet dish which is why I'm trying it. Karen's not a big sweets fan, but we've heard that the way you eat this is you break a hole in the top. Am I doing this right?
Yeah, yeah.
You take the sweets and you put it inside.
So you pretty much stuff it yourself then just dive in. Yeah.
Yes, Dive in.
That is so sweet. Crunchy. Fried and perfect. Is this our next stop?
Yeah, this is our next stop.
This dish is only served in the winter months because otherwise it's too hot and the ice will melt immediately and they just can't make it anymore. So it's basically whipped milk and cream. It's kind of similar to meringue, but there's no egg. And they put pistachio and saffron and sug, and it is, like, so fluffy, like a cloud.
Wow, that is really interesting. It just dissolves in your mouth instantly.
Yes.
This is why you come on a food tour with somebody that knows what they're doing. Because never, ever in my life would I have just stopped at a guy with a stand with whipped milk just out in the open and eating it.
So the lit piece will be a quaint. I call that place as byob.
Do you?
I owe me.
Just bring your own butter.
This is when you know it's good. There are so many people eating. Apparently this guy and his family have been in business for 90 years. You have to bring your own butter, you have to bring your own glass. And apparently it's the only place where you can get chickpea soup in all of Delhi. So that's why it's a big thing.
So it's chickpea soup. It has cilantro, which is my favorite herb and ginger, which is one of my other favorite tacos. And a very freshly made. The butter that we bought is on the bottom. So he takes the butter that you give him, he scoops it into the bowl, and then you mix it up yourself. This guy's just sitting on the side of the road with a pot of soup. All these people are surrounding him.
Oh, my gosh.
That is so good. The butter, the difference. This seriously tastes like something your grandma would make. It is, like, so comforting and so creamy. The perfect amount of spice, and you have the crunch of the ginger. There's also mango sauce in here, so it's got a hint of sweet to kind of balance the spicy. This is amazing. This is my favorite chickpea dish that we've had so far. I see why there's so many people standing here. I think that's going to be my favorite stop of the trip. It's just so unassuming. Like this guy sitting on the side of the road. Apparently, people are so attached to him. Like, little kids come by in the mornings with their lunchbox and get it. And on Sundays, his brother comes with him, and there's so many people. What do you mean? You have to Get a token and stand in a queue all the way down this alleyway. And he's only there till 10:30 in the morning. And then the shop opens up and he leaves for the day. Living the line.
Oh, sorry. So we just learned that in these pots, they're preparing the spices for the chai tea. They mix this delicious smelling concoction of spices with black tea and they add milk to it and sugar if you want. And we're about to try some. It smells so good.
Called chai tea. It's like chai tea is spelling twice. Chai chai. Like chai is tea and tea.
I said chai tea. It's like saying tea tea. Same thing.
Same thing here.
So we totally have it wrong. In the US we ordered chai tea. This is probably what I was most excited about today, ordering chai from the side of the road. We're actually the first customers of the day. So he just made a fresh pot and actually poured the first cup on the ground. So that's what they do is the first cut goes to the gods and then we got the second cut. It's super hot. Cheers.
So good.
So creamy. One chai of many on our trip in India. Thank you.
Have you tried before? The first time you'll be having it.
Y.
That's more like, like fat and jelly.
Yeah.
We haven't had meat in India yet. Our first meat that we're trying is goat meat. It has been cooked all night long. We're trying just the regular goat meat and the foot.
That's a traditional breakfast in Delhi. Nahari and fire.
That's amazing. That is absolutely delicious. Yes. I never thought I would like a goat meat, but it is so tender and the sauce is so like. It's like a gravy almost. So for the foot, you can get.
It by the bone.
Yeah.
You have to give it a bone and then chew it.
I don't know about this one.
A little jiggly.
I eat this part.
Yeah, yeah, eat that part.
Okay, here we go. Eating a goat foot.
It tastes about like.
It looks good.
Looks fine. It goes. The foot was best if you squeeze a little lemon on it first. Makes goat feet taste better.
Looks a little gelatinous.
It tastes like a meat jelly. The taste isn't bad at all once you get past, like, what you're actually eating and the texture of it. The taste of it is actually nice.
I think I prefer the goat meat.
Which are meant for homeless people.
Can we buy some meals? This is such a cool concept. So this restaurant right Here, anybody can come up and buy the people who are living on the street meals. For 20 rupees, you buy somebody a meal. So we just gave them 200 rupees and they let 10 people into the kitchen to get a meal, which is fantastic. There's a lot of people that come asking for money, and I think this is a really good way to make sure you're giving it in the right way. I'm getting right up.
This is 120 kgs of rice and meat. Oh, thank you, genius.
Yum.
So that huge pot of biryani is gone in an hour. He said this place biscuits passed around lunchtime. We got here a little early, so I never exactly knew what biryani was. I thought it was just the type of rice, but really it just means rice and meat. So the bottom layer of that pot is the meat, then it's the rice, and then there's pickles. And when you order, they kind of get one of each layer and put it on your plate. The rice that was on the bottom is like orange from where it's been soaking with the meat. Okay, you gonna take a picture? Do you have anything to say?
Okay, what is your name?
I'm Kara.
Yeah.
Whoa.
Yes. Muslima.
What is your name? Yes.
Yes, yes.
So this is buffalo meat. Smells amazing as usual.
That has so much flavor. Like the meat, as soon as you bite into it, it's so juicy and it just. Hello. I'm so excited.
This is our first time in a bar bicycle rickshaw. We've been avoiding him up until this point, but it's really a fun way to see the city.
On our first day, I would have been terrified to get on one of these, but it's just how people get around, and they're actually really good drivers.
Okay. So we're here trying jolibi, which is basically like a delicious Indian donut. They fried the dough in the ghee, and then they soak it in sugar syrup until it floats to the top. And this delicious, crispy, sticky, golden brown thing is what? You come out. It's still really hot.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, it's like everything that's good about a donut and a waffle put into one. You get the hot, sugary syrup with the delicious deep friedness of a donut.
After four whole hours of food touring around Delhi, we're at our last stop. But it is Lassie, which I'm really excited. Oh, my gosh. So pretty. So there's six different flavors. I ordered the saffron, which is actually Kesar Badam. Right. Lassi, if you don't know, is like a milky yogurt drink. So it's basically yogurt, sugar, saffron and almonds on top. There's an order to it. You get a spoon because the top is cream. So you eat the top first with the almonds and then you drink the rest.
Good.
It's supposed to help with digestion because it's yogurt with probiotics. Great way to end the tour.
If you come to Delhi before you do anything else, you have to do a food tour with Delhi Prince Loft. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
It was so good.
Thank you and hope to see you again in Delhi sometime.
Yes.
And we can do tour in other parts.
Apparently this monkey has a schedule. Every day around 8:30 comes and stands right here and they give him a sweet and he takes it and then he leaves until the next day.
Hey, little bit, open your eyes. Smile for the camera.
