C. R. Park or Chitranjan park is a well know locality of south Delhi. Primarily residence of Bengali folks, this place is a foodie paradise. If you are a Bengali or from eastern part of India, I am sure you must have been here at least once. Being married to a Bengali and born in Bihar and grown up with Bengali family, my taste for Bengali food has grown over the years. I have been very regular to CR Park and have enjoyed dining at most of the places. I had been thinking of writing about various joints\food that we get here, but trust me, if you love Bengali food and you are a foodie like me, you will go crazy figuring out what to eat and what not.
A recently opened “Ki Hangla” which is a famous Mumbai based chain, serves biryani and other stuff. Do try their biryani, nothing exception though. I feel it’s pretty dry and meat was hard. Also if you love fish and other sea food, this place has excellent fish market. You can buy variety of fish from here.
Let’s start from the very beginning…… a very good place to start…… When you read you begin with A B C, when you eat you begin with CR park….. CR Park primarily has four markets thought market 3 and 4 is not that popular, so I will talk about market 1 and 2. The moment you enter C R Park on your left, is market 1 , biggest one and has some really great food. Here is how I begin. I start with phuchka and my fav place is the guy who sells it behind the market near atm. Please remember he doesn’t have a shop. Me and my wife we both love their phuchkas. I always order aloo kabli and chana chaat which is out of this world. Their pani and all the chaat stuff has imli unlike other places in delhi where they use amchoor powder. Then next we come is on front side of the market to eat some sweets. There are 2 sweet shops. Both are good but my personal favorite is Kamla sweets (little away from market) and Annapurna sweets in market 2. Next to the sweet shop there are 2 shops selling chops and rolls along with Bengali Chinese. I love their egg rolls and end up eating at least 2 rolls every time: P. I do not quite enjoy their mutton or chicken rolls as I feel the meat isn’t tender. Then I go in the middle lane of the market. This is the place where you can enjoy various Bengali fish curry with rice at a hotel called Annapurna hotel. Nothing great but still couple of dishes are really good specially fish kalia and rohu sorsho. I then try-my favorite - , ghughni. Spicy boiled muttar with chutney only for INR 10 and you shouldn’t miss this.We then proceed to Market no 2. Here you will also find some joints selling Punjabi food and you can chose to ignore. I love famous dadu’s shop that sells different types of chops, samosas and also has rolls. I would recommend trying everything. Everything here is fresh and very delicious. Next to dadu, is Annapurna sweets. Delicious sweets and I end up eating at least 4-5 types of sweets every time. In the same building on the first floor is the place called Maa tara which is famous for excellent Bengali food. It’s the place where you can eat all mouthwatering Bengali dishes. Let me remind you, this isn’t posh or any sophisticated dining place. If you are not comfortable eating here, then I recommend visiting - city of joy in alaknanda which is very close to market. Whenever I come here, I end up being overstuffed and also pack up some sweets for more indulgence. If you love Bengali food, this place that you would love coming time and again! Mini Kolkata as some call it – the richness and taste of Bengal is surely going to blow you away!
