Novelty Dairy & Stores (Hawkers House) in Jangpura: Delhi's Secret Sandwich Shack
Having spent the formative years of my life in Amdavad, I grew up adoring street-side sandwiches. Nearly every locality back home had a sandwich shop or two, serving simple, white-bread sandwiches, filled with either freshly sliced produce or mashed potatoes and peas, topped with Amul butter and shredded processed cheese, with a healthy helping of some mint chutney on the side, much inspired by the Bombay Sandwiches that are native to Mumbai - a city that has given much to Amdavad’s food scene thanks to close economic ties and history of migration between the two cities, visible in the popularity of Vadapav franchises and Pav Bhaji stalls, and more recently, emergence of Misal outlets. An extremely simple combination of a few quality ingredients that goes a long way, I frequently snacked on sandwiches from a local shop (whenever I wasn’t having vadapavs or cholafali, of course) to beat the late afternoon food cravings that leave you scrambling for something to much on.
All of that changed when I came to Delhi. The roadside cholafali stalls and sandwich shops back home were nowhere to be found, instead replaced by momo vendors, kachori carts, soya chaap shops and chhole-bhatuure sellers. I quickly embraced this new environment, nay, even preferred it at times to my old one, notably due to the lack of cheap meat snacks (or any meat snacks for that matter) sold in gentrified areas of Amdavad. But the lack of street-side sandwich shops was quite baffling for a city like Delhi, and I started to miss the convenience of having a homely slice just a few moments away from wherever I was at any given moment. Perhaps, Delhi’s sandwiches were to be found within the glittering walls of quirky cafes, which I find myself to be quite allergic to, or perhaps, I wasn’t looking hard enough.
Turns out that the best sandwiches in Delhi are not ones that are immediately visible to the naked eye. You have to meander narrow alleyways, stake out residential areas, ride the metro to far-off areas, and then, perhaps, you might spot a place selling sandwiches. Within the confines of the residential colony of Jangpura Extension, buried behind what seems at first glance as a rather unremarkable convenience store selling generic brands of chips and energy drinks amongst other products, lies a room with a rather long table decorated with a cash register, an assortment of cheap wrapped cupcakes, muffins and cakes, bottles of ketchup and paper napkins, and around half a dozen barstools for customers to sit. Delhi’s best sandwiches are to be found in this rather unconventional space, known to the world at large as Novelty Dairy & Stores, and to old-time customers as Hawker’s House. Sitting inside this cramped space takes you back in time a few decades, to the early years of Independent India, when the shop must have been established by Shanti Sarup, a partition migrant who settled in Jangpura. Its barstool-laden interior may evoke images of interiors of an American diner from a similar time period across the seven seas, but the vibe of the rest of the restaurant is quite simple and dull in its interior, quite the contrast to flashy, neon lights that populated American restaurants at the time, bringing you back to familiar shores.
Novelty’s cold coffee and baked goods are rather mediocre, and quite frankly, entirely skippable. The coffee is plain, not very strong, and uninspiring, and their muffins and pastries are rather average in taste too. Their sandwiches, on the other hand, are to die for. It is a rather curious coincidence that the sandwiches served in this little hobbit hole are similar to the ones available back home in Amdavad, served with thin slices of white bread, untoasted, a generous slather of butter and in-house mayonnaise on the slices, served with the freshest mint chutney you could ever imagine. The only two digressions from the Gujarati formula are the notable inclusion of meat slices, and the lack of chaat masala sprinkled on top, the former not unexpected due to Amdavad’s puritanical obsession with vegetarian food, and the latter quite a surprise given the love Delhi has for its chaat masala.
Novelty’s formula for what goes into a sandwich is quite simple, and they make it work by ensuring the few ingredients that they use are absolutely top-notch in terms of quality. I am a huge fan of their Chicken Salami, Tuna and Ham sandwiches, which feature three cut slices of meat sandwiched between three pieces of white bread, alongside the other condiments listed above. They also serve burgers, patties and other items at their shop, but to be honest, I hecking love sandwiches! And the ones at Novelty remind me of home. Naturally it goes that I’ve never tried their other fare, but you’re welcome to come searching for this shop behind a convenience store and try them for yourself.
Recommendations:
Chicken Salami Sandwiches (9/10), Tuna Sandwiches (9/10), Ham Sandwiches (9/10), Muffins and other pastries (6.5/10), Cold Coffee (4/10).
The latter two items are skippable.
Location:
Shop No. 43, Birbal Road, Opp. Post Office, Jungpura Extension, Jangpura, New Delhi, Delhi 110014
Hawkers/Novelty has been kind of a neighbourhood secret. My office is nearby, so I've often binged on their sandwiches and burgers. The latter reminds me of the oily burgers that were sold in cinemas in the 1970s! The green chutney that goes with the sandwiches is the best.