A visit to the old Reshmi Dhaba never did materialize due to a variety of reasons…but it was long overdue. This was the Dhaba that had fuelled many nights of drinking at my good friend, the late Rishikesh’s house. The chicken dishes from here always had us licking our chops even in our drunken state. In fact at some party, old Rishi (God Bless his Soul) had introduced me to the owners of the Dhaba. But then life went on, took strange turns…the Dhaba reinvented itself into a Classic Restaurant, Nanking collapsed and was rebuilt, we lost poor Rishi to cancer and other ailments and my own health issues prevented me from venturing out to food jambories of the kind I used to indulge in before.

So when the Foodies in Hyderabad announced an event at Reshmi Classic Restaurant, opposite Nanking, Secunderabad I had no hesitation in saying yes…I will be glad to join. Something else that sweetened the idea was the realization that Dev Shahani and Prashansa Sahani who were young friends of mine courtesy Facebook, were the children of the owners of Reshmi…in fact they were the gracious hosts for the occasion.

I like putting a body to a Facebook face and it was indeed a pleasure to meet these two youngsters who I had been in sporadic touch over the years.

As I walked up the steps to the restaurant (though I still prefer to think of Reshmi’s as a Dhaba) I just reminded myself about my own expectations of the evening.

Having been brought up on a diet of highway travel around the country, I am an old Dhaba veteran and have immense admiration for the original breed of dhaba owners. Setting up shop in remote places on the highway those many years ago may not have been the easiest of tasks. And it is during my travels that I learnt that these dhabas have standards and benchmarks hat are far higher than their more stylish urban counterparts.

The logic was simple. If you went to a city restaurant and were served bad food or even less than satisfactory food, you could politely wrinkle your nose…maybe complain to the management…or even maybe make a fuss. But the end result was more often than not that the restaurant apologized to you and forgot about you the moment you stepped out of the premises.

Not so with a highway Dhaba. If the food was even a notch below expectations they would not only lose business to the next dhaba, but they also stood a good chance of being beaten up by the hardy truck driver tribe that frequented their places.

So Dhaba food…which was almost always made from farm fresh ingredients including slaughter fresh meat, always tasted better than its ‘taken from the freezer and simply recooked’ urban counterparts.

But the true magic of the dhaba was the ambience it created and the hospitality that it exuded. Between the dhaba owner, his wife and his children, dhabas were often the most welcoming and most sought after.

In Hyderabad when someone realized that dhaba food was becoming quite popular and that people were actually driving out of the city for a taste of some homegrown Punjabi, the more enterprising of them set up make shift dhabas in the city. If my memory serves me right, the first dhaba in Hyderabad was Papaji’s and the first one in Secunderabad was Mamaji’s.

Both were housed in small streetside mulgis and continued to be intimate eateries that served authentic dhaba dood…with all the sizzle and the simplicity that was called for.

Reshmi’s Classic Restaurant has retained its cozy, intimate interiors and with the owner couple and their children being present there and supervising the whole evening, it made it a true blue dhaba experience.

The Foodies in Hyderabad had worked out a special and sweet deal with them and the menu that awaited us was fairly exhaustive if not outright daunting.

I had with me my good friend Bhaskar who had been asking me to recommend a good ‘chicken’ place ever since he came to Hyderabad on holiday from Dubai.

We were welcomed with a quick drink of JalJeera/Soda…and even if as this was tickling our palates, the deluge began. Dish after dish of greater deliciousness and taste followed…served by polite waiters, supervised by the ever present, hovering owners.

The evening took us on a culinary journey through Amritsari Machli Tikka, Tandoori Chicken, Reshmi Kabab, Corn Cheese Balls, Lal Mirch Paneer Tikka, Butter Chicken, Mutton Rogan Josh, Kadai Sabzi, Smoked Paneer, Highwaywali Dal, Makhani Dal, Tawa Kheema, Cholle, Phulke, Punjabi Parathe, Mirch Parathe, Masala Kulcha, Roti, Butter Garlic Naan, Chicken Tikka Biryani, Methi Makai Biryani, Matka kulfi and Mukhwaas.

And each step of the journey was warm, friendly, loving and absolutely delicious. What stood out head and shoulders above the rest of the fare though were the Machli Tikka, the Reshmi Kabab, the Corn Cheese Balls, the Tawa Kheema and the Chicken Biryani.

The hosts for the evening, the Shahanis and the Foodies in Hyderabad representatives Navneet and Ashis all together made it a very pleasant evening and I can easily say that the taste of Punjab is alive and well in Secunderabad, thanks to Reshmi Classic…or Reshmi Dhaba as I still think of it.