Daulat ki chaat is one of the strangest and loveliest things in Indian sweet-making: a bowl of milk whipped
into a foam so light it seems to vanish on the tongue. At Tajnuma it closes both the Indian street food
tasting menu and many a la carte dinners.
Despite the name, daulat ki chaat is not a savoury chaat at all. It is milk and cream, sweetened and whipped until it holds as a pale, airy froth, usually finished with saffron, nuts and a dusting of sugar. The name means, roughly, “the chaat of wealth” — a joke on how rich it tastes and how little of it there seems to be.
The same dessert goes by other names elsewhere in north India: makhan malai in Lucknow and malaiyyo in Varanasi.
In Old Delhi, Lucknow and Varanasi it is sold from street carts only in the cold months. The traditional method relies on cool winter nights: the whipped milk is left out overnight and finished at dawn, and the foam does not survive heat. When the weather warms up, the carts disappear until the next winter.
Because a restaurant kitchen can control temperature in a way a street vendor cannot, it can offer the dish beyond the season. That is how we are able to keep it on the menu.
Our menu describes it as an ethereal saffron-infused milk foam, delicately light and crowned with the crunch of jaggery chikki and toasted pistachios. The chikki is the contrast — brittle and caramel-dark against something that has almost no texture at all.
It is the final course of the Indian Street Food Tasting Menu, and it is also ordered on its own from the dessert list.
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₹495 plus government taxes
Desserts
No meat, fish or egg is cooked anywhere in our kitchen.
12:00 pm to 12:00 am, seven days a week.
Yes. It is made from milk and cream, and like every dish at Tajnuma it is pure vegetarian. It contains dairy, so it is not vegan.
Sweet. The word chaat in its name is playful; it is a dessert, not a savoury snack.
On the streets of Old Delhi and Lucknow it is a winter-only dish. At Tajnuma it is on the dessert menu all year; call ahead if you want to be sure it is available on the day.
2nd Floor, Jobaaj Complex, Fatehabad Road, opposite Howard Plaza, Bansal Nagar, Tajganj,
Agra, Uttar Pradesh 282001
Open every day, 12:00 pm – 12:00 am
Reservations: +91 90688 89658
Tajnuma
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