Dal from Delhi

Eating in New Delhi at the expensive, haughty Bukhara restaurant was one of the restaurant low points we've had here. Despite their problems, they do make a good dal. I was so happy to see that there's a tie-in line of food in grocery stores. It'll be fun to try to reverse-engineer the recipe of their Dal Bukhara from the taste and the ingredients (for the record, they're "Water, Tomato Puree, Black Urad, Fresh Cream, White Butter, Garlic, Iodised Salt, Ginger and Red Chilli Powder").

The dal is in a metallic pouch, and it doesn't need to be refrigerated until the pouch is opened. It's like an MRE, since you just have to heat them up. They're getting more and more popular here. They were new to me when I arrived and there were only one or two lines then. Now, there seem to be five or so.


Most of the pouches cost about 40 rupees or so for three (very small) servings; Dal Bukhara is fancy-pants (of course) and costs 68. just throw them in boiling water or pour the contents in a pan. They don't include artificial ingredients, and all the ones we've had so far have been good. I imagine that they're being bought by the armful by all those single IT and call center people.