The Dead Cockroach: Delhi Lahori - Butter Chicken Naan Set @ Tekka Market & Food Centre

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I have mentioned in the previous post that I love Indian cuisine but embarrassingly enough, my Indian culinary journey is only limited to the usual prata, thosai, putu mayam, rojak, and biryanis - dishes that are commonly found at a neighborhood Indian stall.

I always wanted to try something different that is not in the list above.

Well, what better chance to do just that since I am at Tekka Market & Food Centre?

After doing some research, I narrowed down my choice to the butter chicken naan set ($6) from Delhi Lahori.

I have not eaten butter chicken nor naan before so that is killing two birds with one stone!

Naan is a leavened flatbread that is traditionally baked inside a tandoor (a cylinder oven) and Delhi Lahori have exactly one right smack at the entrance of the stall.

The naans here are only baked upon order. The chef will flip the ball of dough rapidly between his hands to stretch it into shape before slapping it against the inner wall of the tandoor. All that is left to do was to wait for the naan to be baked to perfection.

No, it did not take 2000 years later...

It was ready in just a minute or two - a lot quicker than I expected! The naan is so huge the sides hang over the edge of the styrofoam plate! To give you some context, it is larger than both my palms placed side by side with the fingers outstretched.

I would like to encourage you to fold your naan into half so that the protruding parts does not come into contact with the surface of the table which could be pretty icky for some.

The butter chicken was served in a small styrofoam bowl (ugh!).

Boneless and skinless chicken chunks were smothered under a rich and creamy sauce.

Popping a piece of the tender chicken in my mouth, it felt like it has been seared or roasted in the tandoor beforehand.

Tear a bit of the naan and dip it in the sauce. At first bite, the sauce tastes predominantly sweet but watch out for the underlying spiciness that only start to kick in after a while.

The pillowy soft naan is best eaten while hot though they cool down pretty fast. I love the chewy mouthfeel which is good enough to eat on its own without any sauce.

I decided to eat with my hand but be reminded to eat with your right hand as the left one is destined for other worldly duties. I have to take the posed picture above with my left hand because the right index finger is required to press the shutter.

I am getting funny looks from the Indian uncle seated opposite watching me and it is annoying me so much. I was hoping he would finish his food and be on his merry way so I could do my thing in peace.

I ate very slowly on purpose so I could outlast him but no. He just sat there pretending to fiddle with his mobile phone while casually looking in my direction to see what I was doing. I even caught him aiming his camera at me out of the corner of my eye while I was taking photo of my food.

I just pray that my photo is not circulating on some weird WhatsApp group chat.