During the two weeks I spent in Delhi/Gurgaon at the end of July and beginning of August, I ate out seven times. I’ve previously reported on my meals at Chak Khum, Farmer’s Kitchen, Ikk Panjab, The Fusion Naga, Matamaal, and Hosa. Here now is a look at the last of the seven meal, eaten, like three of the others, in Humayunpur. As the few people who follow my Delhi restaurant reports know, the North East enclave of Humayunpur in South Delhi is my favourite place to eat at in the entire National Capital Region (Delhi/Gurgaon/Noida). I particularly love the food of Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram—all of which I know largely or only through restaurants in Humayunpur—and I am yet to eat at more than a small percentage of all the restaurants there. This is the only reason for my having gone back to so few of these restaurants for a second meal. I’m yet to have a bad meal there and so I am incentivized to keep trying new places. Today’s report, however, is of a restaurant I’ve written about before. The Categorical Eat Pham is one of the oldest Manipuri restaurants in Humayunpur—if not the oldest—and it was one of the first restaurants in Humayunpur that we ate at back in 2020. If not for the fact that other Manipuri restaurants have since opened up in the neighbourhood—both Chak Khum and Chak-Shang are just a hop, skip and jump away—I would have been happy just going back there over and over. And so I was very happy to meet some old friends for lunch there the day before my return to Minnesota. Continue reading →

Here is one of the backlogged restaurant reports I’d meant to post last week but didn’t end up having the time to get around to. It takes us back to Delhi, but closer in time to the present. After returning to Minnesota in mid-June from my extended sojourn in first Bombay and then Seoul, I remained at home for just over a month. A lot of world cup, a lot of time in my community garden plot, a lot of recharging. And then it was back to Delhi for two weeks to check on my mother. I ate out at my regular clip while there—roughly once every other day. This first report comes from the neighbourhood in South Delhi where I ate most of those meals and my very favourite place in the Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) to eat: Humayunpur. Four of my seven meals out on this trip were eaten there: two at Naga restaurants and two at Manipuri restaurants. Let’s begin with lunch at the first Manipuri place: Chak Khum. Continue reading →

On Sunday I posted the last of my restaurant reports from my truncated trip to Southern California in December (dim sum at the Cerritos branch of Lunasia). Here now is my last restaurant report proper from my trip to Delhi earlier that month. I say “last restaurant report proper” because I may post an odds and ends roundup at some point in the next few weeks.

This meal took me back to my favourite place to eat at in Delhi: Humayunpur, the South Delhi neighbourhood/village that has in the last decade and more become one of the major hubs of North East Indian life in Delhi. I had eaten there with a friend just a few days prior to this meal. That was an excellent Naga meal. As we were walking around after I noticed a place I didn’t remember seeing before: Manipuri Chak Shang (which literally means Manipuri restaurant or eating place). One thing led to another and I was soon eating lunch there as well. This time I was on my own. Here’s how it went. Continue reading →