When in New Road

Published On: June 23, 2017 12:30 PM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

Pani-puri has long been a part people’s lives in Kathmandu, and every corner and alley seems to have its own local pani-puri vendor. Tiwari Sonali Fast Food, formerly known as the Tiwari Brothers, is one that has been around for more than 40 years. It was established three generations ago, in New Road, and is being run by Gopal Prasad Shah and his family for the last nineteen years.

Currently located in an alley that branches left from the popular “Suraj Arcade Galli”, it has been here for the last two years. Before that, they were operating from a small stall in New Road. “It was running well, but it became harder and harder to use a stall in New Road to sustain ourselves, and we decided we needed a proper place instead,” says Shah. When they made the move, it didn’t make sense to only have one type of food, so they expanded their menu to include momos, chow mein and aloo sekuwa. All of their items are vegetarian for the same vegetables can be used in different ways; some just need to be chopped finer than the others.

“We may look like we have everything figured out right now, but it took us a long time to get here,” adds Bindu Kumari, Shah’s wife. “We only knew how to make pani-puris, so momos and Chow mein were a whole other ball game for us,” explains Shah. They had to enlist help from a friend who had a momo hub to learn how to make them and, even when they did, they spent months trying to perfect the recipe. Everyone came to them for their pani-puris so they wanted to make sure all their other food matched up as well. They experimented a lot and say that they ate a lot as well, before they finally settled on the recipe they were happy with.

One of the biggest things that make them stand out from the others is the fact that everything they sell is homemade. From the puris to the momo achhar, nothing is stale because they run out of the days’ batch before closing shop. “There is a secret recipe my father developed while he was in Calcutta that was passed down to me,” says Shah.

Their day starts at 7 am when they knead flour and leave it to rise and then tackle all the vegetables that need to be chopped for the day. When the dough has rested for an hour, they roll it and cut it into smaller sizes and then leave it to rise for another hour. During this time, they prepare the stuffing for the momos. They then fry the puris and leave it aside to cool for a while and are finally ready to open at midday. By 1 pm, Shah says they start running low on the puris and have to go and prep another batch, and the refill arrives by 2.30 pm.

A family run business, the couple doesn’t have anyone to help them with the preparation when their children are in school. During the holidays, their kids help with rolling the dough and cutting them into small pieces, and they also handle the accounting at the shop. They aren’t allowed near hot oil and sharp knives.

The good thing, the couple confesses, is that they didn’t have to struggle with the inflow of customers because by the time he was in charge of the shop, they already had people coming from all over the city. “We do have to work very hard to retain them though,” says Shah. Everyone who comes here are well aware of the taste and the quality of the pani-puris they have and have high expectations especially when they come from half way across town for it. He has to make sure that the taste of the food remains the same to meet those expectations.

The famous pani-puri

Their pani-puri is indeed one of the best around town. The puris are never stale and the green chili paste that he adds to the mashed potatoes elevates the taste far more than chili flakes could. The spiced water that goes with the puri has been perfected over time and isn’t too spicy or too sour. The only unfortunate thing is that most of the times you have to wait for your turn before you can pop it into your mouth and relish the taste. This, The Week believes, is the perfect way to battle mid-shopping hunger when you are in New Road.