Yaatri

One is advised to stay away from street food in Delhi. However, some street food is just too tempting. What about Dhaba food? I have never got sick from Dhaba food.
When was the last time you had Dhaba food or street food, such as Gol Gappas, Dahi Bhalla?

Keyser

the best dhaba food i have ever come across has been the street side dhabas on the delhi-chandigarh highway....since i travel to chandigarh once i month, i make it a point to stop & have a meal both on the way to chandigarh & on the way back....

Yaatri

On this last trip, I got sick after I ate at a local restaurant in Haridwar. As soon as I taste the Shahi paneer, I knew, it had already gone bad. I got up, paid the bill and walked away. One morsel was enough to make me sick. The next morning, I woke up with you know what.

Keyser

not good....

have you tried the food in pandara park near khan market????pretty good stuff....

hserus

You need to find the right places. And these are mostly not street food but a step above - cheap old restaurants with great food. For once the NYT is right on the money about food at a foreign location.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/18/dining/18indi.html

compuser1973

I haven't been to Delhi recently - so can't comment much about street food there now. But when I had visited Delhi eons ago - I enjoyed everything I had eaten - especially the chana-bhatura at a couple of places was awesome.

My rule of thumb is for street food in an unknown city - generally I stick with cooked stuff (unlike pani-puri etc. where chances of catching something with bad water are higher) and avoid any sort of dairy - sweet or savory. Fried / steamed / boiled / cooked seems to be safer :-)

Yaatri

Not recently. I have not been in that area since school (Humayun Road) days. On this trip to India. I had no car, unless I hired a taxi. I lived like an everyday middling middle class (not upcoming or prosperous middle class) person on limited income. I ate in places within walking distance of where I happened to be when I needed to eat.
With dhabas if the dhaba doesn't have a hidden galley area, where they can store stuff, it's most likely O.K.
I should have known that Shahi Panner spelled trouble. Shahi Paneer is something that a greedy owner would take chances with by serving it beyond it's useful life. I drank a bottled soft drink, stayed away from their water, and still got sick.
I went to a chemist who gave me three doses of norflox. I asked him what the normal course was. He didn't know, except that three doses should cure it. The normal course is 3-5 days. I bought some more. Now that I had had an antibiotic course, and I had already been immunised against hepatitis A & B I figured I could take some risk.

A few years ago, my son got sick from eating at Nathus in Bengali MArket. I figured why pay three times as much to get sick. So I ate street food from one man stalls.
I hadn't had some of the stuff in years. I am still alive.

Mark_mnl

Just about every time I've gotten sick in India, it's been from restaurant food. Frankly, the best bet is to go to places that have a good reputation whether they are street stalls or high-end restaurants and don't eat anything that looks or feels like it's been sitting at room temperature for a while. Otherwise, it's all going to be a matter of luck.

There was a time when I was going to the same street vendor selling masala dosas along the side of the road in Delhi and they were all prepared fresh right in front of my eyes: never a problem there. Then I went to a South Indian restaurant with local friends of mine and got horribly ill. Go figure.

Yaatri

If you haven't noticed,

1. I did not get sick from street food, but from restaurant food.
2. The thread is about street food, food available on the street, not the food in what you call "right places".
3. I did not seek your advice on how not to get sick.

With street food everything is happens under your eyes, whereas in a restaurant, you don't see how your food is handled. I am not saying that restaurant food is bad or worse than street food, but that it's naive to be complacent about restaurant food.

Yaatri

Right I eased myself slowly into the street food. . I avoided pani puri at first too. I also stayed away from dahi bhalla and chaat papri at first. Since I had just finished a 5 day course of norflox, and had been immunised for hepatitis A and B, I figured I could take a chance. The hot food that's cooked or heated in your presence is generally OK.

Jamoldo

^^

Haven't done this in the North, but have done so numerous times in Tamil Nadu where my family hails from. Lots of roadside places on the highway etc. The key is to request fresh Rotis/Parattas rather than ones already made. Are they scooping the Korma out of a bucket? Ask them to put it on the griddle until it bubbles for a bit etc...

Yaatri

I don't understand that people prefer to sit with pride or to show off in American fast food chains in Delhi while it would have been so much easier to provide hygienic Indian fast food that is sold on the street.

There is hardly anything a foreign tourist can eat on the run in India.

raj0321

I guess I lucked out during a 9-day stay in Delhi in January without any ailments. I stayed with relatives and mostly ate home-cooked food. When we ate out, it was places that my relatives were familiar with, such as the Bengali Sweets House in Bengali Market, Kamal's in Sundar Nagar, a smaller non-veg place in New Friend's Colony, etc.

I did get a lot of sweets and chai from street vendors and small snack shops in Bhogal, Janpath, New Friend's Colony, Chandni Chowk, etc. and they were all delicious -- and best of all, without any "side-effects."

mikeinseattle

If u can get your hands on Ducoral, a vaccine against travellers diarrhea, you can basically eat whatever you want. I tested the vaccine with 28 continous meals at restaurants, food courts, street stalls etc, and it still worked. It's like a steel box around your stomach. I'd never go to India without taking this vaccine.

Yaatri

Traveller's diarrhoea is not the only concern. Diarrhoea is a symptom of other serious ailments too. Ypu can be ill without diarrhoea. Hepetitis is another worry.