A Hobbit-Hole of Savory Skewers: Talib Kabab Corner in Zakir Nagar
A place that, in my opinion, serves the (joint-) best Seekh Kebab in Dilli
Zakir Nagar in South Dilli’s Okhla is a pandemonium of fragrances, flavours and fabrics - a locality that never fails to overwhelm your senses, marked by the ear-splitting howls of streetside fruit and vegetable sellers, the rumbling crackles of kebabs on open fires, the brouhaha of pedestrians and electric rickshaws treating the single-lane streets as American Inter-State Highways, the stifling heat of fumes emerging from the variety of street-side food shops, and streets littered with stores and vendors selling a variety of kurtas, sweaters, chappals and other apparel. Its densely packed lanes are both a challenge, and a great joy to explore, as every turn you take in this labyrinth takes you into a new area to investigate, and as someone who is immensely passionate about exploring new spots to eat, entering Zakir Nagar feels like I’m a toddler that has just entered a Toys “R” Us, or a miner who just put foot in Coloma during the California Gold Rush of the mid-19th century.
In a burrow beneath the Earth (the store goes below road level), lies a shop by the name of Talib Kabab Corner, marked by nothing else but a shared wall with an atta and masala chakki, and a small, purple board stuck above the shop’s pastel, seafoam coloured shutters, which details the menu and prices of the two items offered by the shop - (Seekh) Kabab and Tikka. I find the choice of the board’s colour to be particularly interesting. In the olden days, purple was rarely used in garments or national emblems, due to its rarity, stemming from the production of a natural purple dye requiring an elaborate process, involving crushing the shells of sea-snail, extracting its mucus, and exposing it in sunlight, as a result, the colour being rarely used in national flags and being restricted to regal garments.
The colour purple symbolises the fare of Talib brilliantly, as they are a commodity beyond all boundaries of rarity. Their seekh kebabs are succulent and robustly seeasoned with masalas, and their tikkas, which are mildly spiced, are perhaps the softest I’ve had in the city, an honour that I earlier bestowed upon Chitli Qabar’s Kale Baba, but after recently having sampled those that Talib have to offer, I think that the latter is more worthy of the title, which is a particularly important one, as buffalo meat tikkas are rather chewy, and cooking them down to juicy, tender, bite-sized pieces of joy is nothing less than a task worth appreciating. There is no seating in this shop, just a table where you can put your plate on, next to the tikkas and seekh being barbequed on an open grill, charred to a impart a slightly smokey taste on it that one could miss if they paired it with the fresh green mint and chilli chutney served with the meat. I consider their Seekh to be the joint-best seekh in Dilli, alongside Chitli Qabar’s Kale Baba and Ballimaran’s Sangam. One’s nose gets swarmed with the fragrance of the freshly seared kebabs, and despite you being engrossed in the plate that lies before you, it is incredibly difficult to resist the temptation to order another plate of these inexpensive goodies, and another, and another, until you’ve had more kebabs than humanly possible, and take a step back to take it all in, in the pandemonium that is Zakir Nagar.
Recommendations : Seekh Kebabs (9.5/10), Tikkas (9.5/10). They only sell items in buffalo meat.
Location : 143, Zakir Nagar Main Rd, Jogabai Extension, Zakir Nagar, Okhla, New Delhi, Delhi 110025
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