Virat Kohli's Favourite Rama ke Chhole Bhatuure in Rajouri Garden (well, Tilak Nagar)
“… (Virat, ) if you had one cheat day, ki aaj boss, jo bhii khaaungaa wo broccoli jaisaa banke andar utaregaa, to kyaa hogaa?” (Virat, if you had a cheat day, and were able to eat anything in the world without it affecting your health, what would you eat)
Without any hesitation, Virat answers the question, his response rolling off his tongue before the interviewer could finish the question - “Rajouri Garden mein Rama Ke Chhole Bhatuure. 110%. Wo bhii uskii dukaan ke paas jaake. Ghar aate - aate to vo bhatuure kahaan rehte hain wo to phatuure ho jaate hain. Silii huii bread kii feel aatii hai. Taaze - taaze jo phuule hue aate hain jismein unglii maarke bhatuuraa niche ho jaataa hai vaise. Thode pyaaz, harii chatnii, gajar kaa aachaar aur mirch kaa aachaar. Wah wah wah.” (The Chhole Bhatuure at Rama in Rajouri Garden - physically at the store, not takeaway. By the time you reach home, the bhatuuras flatten down, and feel like stale bread. Fresh, fluffy bhatuuras, which visibly deflate when you poke them with your fingers. Some onions, green chutney, pickled carrots and pickled chillies. Delicious.)
This is an excerpt from a clip from the interview series, Breakfast With Champions (watch from 12:11), that went viral a few years ago, for good reason. Virat Kohli is one of the fittest men on the planet, a sportsperson who has been extremely vocal about the need for fitness, and his flawless fitness regime and a strict diet - going so far to not even appear for advertisements of commercial products that may be deemed unhealthy. The sight of one of India’s biggest superstars, whose diet mostly consists of grilled chicken and steamed and boiled foods, seasoned with nothing more than salt, pepper and lemon, drooling over a dish of spicy, oily, greasy Chhole Bhatuure - one of Delhi’s most loved foods, was amusing enough that “Rama Ke Chhole Bhatuure” entered the nation’s vocabulary overnight - gaining cultural relevance and becoming a feature of cricket and food conversations.
Naturally, I embarked on a quest in Rajouri Garden to search for the famed “Rama Ke Chhole Bhatuure”. And I failed. There were no traces of such a place, neither online nor offline. All roads, including several food vloggers, locals, and a cricketpremi college junior who claimed to enjoy its fare, hinted towards Tilak Nagar’s Jail Road instead. Here lay Rama Ke Chhole Bhatuure - what I presume is the shop that Virat Kohli was referring to (I’m willing to admit that I might be wrong on this). Kohli’s love for Chhole Bhatuure is unsurprising. He grew up in a Punjabi family, and his forefathers reportedly migrated from Rawalpindi to India in the midst of the Partition. He grew up in West Delhi, which was developed as a colony for Punjabi refugees after the partition. Chhole Bhatuure’s popularity in Delhi can be attributed to millions of (descendants of) Punjabi post-partition migrants that call the city home.
I’ve been to Rama Chole Bhature twice last year - once in March 2022, and again in September of that year, the Sunday after he ended a three-year century drought by scoring his maiden it20 hundred in the Asia Cup league game against Afghanistan. I have found it to be quite inconsistent in their offerings. What they serve isn’t a bad product, but I feel like it could be much better than what it currently is. The blend of masalas they use in their chhole is not optimal, and while I loved the pickles they served to me in February, I feel the quality was terrible the second time around. Rama aside, I’m a harsh judge of Chhole Bhatuure. The idea of filling your arteries with cholesterol first thing in the morning doesn’t excite me, even as someone who doesn’t have the healthiest diet and exercises infrequently, and I feel like the taste of a plate gets too monotonous for me after a while. But just as Kohli described in that interview years ago, the Bhatuuras are still very fluffy, served piping hot, freshly deep-fried. They serve two types of lassi with their fare - salted and sweet, and I find the latter to be quite good, appropriately thick and slightly sweet. This isn’t a particularly negative review - its still a good place to eat out at, but don’t expect anything extraordinary - its just your average Chhole Bhatuure spot, and might not be worth a trek from anywhere far. Unless, of course, you happen to be an ardent Kohli fan, who is engrossing themselves in cricket media - going over old highlights, reading books and articles, and, well, browsing old, viral cricket interviews - infected by the epidemic that is cricket fever due to THE World Cup, taking place in India, starting tomorrow, October 05, 2023.
Recommendations : Chhole Bhatuure (7.5/10), Sweet Lassi (7.5/10), Salted Lassi (5/10)
Location : https://maps.app.goo.gl/v276Bcm2CwyTDAcB6
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