Shopping at Chandni Chowk: You must have heard about Chandni Chowk for sure. The food stalls serve lip-smacking dishes that you savor the taste for hours. The Chandni Chowk area is a huge marketplace known all over the world. It is the shopping paradise of Delhi and a trading hub for a large part of India. Also, it is not an easy thing to navigate all those crowded narrow lanes that behold one of the best and most interesting bazaars of Chandni Chowk. Let us have a look at all these intriguing places and their specialties.

Khari baoli: The largest spices market of Delhi. 

It is most aromatic of all the old Delhi bazaars. Khari baoli is probably the world’s largest spice market. It is very popular between the travel and culinary professionals whenever they talk about spices. All you need to do is to take a walk here and have a look at piles and piles of all types of spices and experience their amazing aroma. 

Dariba Kalan: This lane is specially for women who are fond of silver jewelry. All you’ll see around here is big and small shops of jewelry and other items like utensils and idols of various gods and goddesses. You will also see various shops selling precious and semi-precious stones that hold much importance from the zodiac point of view. Also, they are available in best prices and not as costly as found in various showrooms. You can also check out shops selling handmade perfumes at shops like ‘Gulab Singh Johri mal shop’.

Meena bazaar – bazaar you have heard but not seen.

This bazaar is very popular since the Mughal era. The name is adopted by a popular upmarket garment brand in Delhi that you can find in almost every mall and showroom. The name ‘Meena’ comes from the popular meenakari work that is done on lacquer bangles. It is done till date in various parts of Rajasthan and Hyderabad. It is located between Jama masjid and red fort.

Nai Sarak – for brand new books.

This place has nothing new about it and hence the name is ironical in itself. If you take a closer look at the area, you will be able to picturize the local past because of the architecture. Nowadays, this is the place where wholesale books are sold at cheap rates. Traders here are interested in selling wholesale books to traders and are not very fond of retail customers that require just a single or a smaller number of books. It is lane opposite to the town hall located in Chandni chowk. You can also reach there by taking the Delhi metro to chawri bazar and then walk to nai sarak.

Sita Ram Bazar – fashion jewelry 

This is bazaar located near to the Turkman gate which is one of the few existing gates of shahjahanabad. You can visit this place if you are fond of artificial or fashion jewelry available in a wide range of colors, shapes and sizes. Some of them are even carved out of animal bones, which is very rare.

Kinari Bazaar – most colorful of Old Delhi bazaar.

It is the most shining and shimmering market lane one could ever visit. It is a lane that runs parallel to Chandni chowk and ends at the paranthevali gali. This is the place where you can get anything and everything related to home décor. It is a magical lane for all tailors, costume designers, and fashion designers out there. It is a place full of beautiful laces, colorful borders related to sarees or suits, buttons and patches of all kinds. 

Old Delhi dinner walk.

Have a glimpse of the real essence of old Delhi while walking down the historic lanes of shahjahanabad that have experienced all types of situations since the Mughal era. Let’s start with a short story about the prestigious Lal quila, which was the residence of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, who had also built the Taj mahal. Next, we will briefly get to know about the jain and hindu religious architectures which are present alongside the narrow lanes of the street market. This will be followed by a visit to a gurudwara, which is the worshipping place of sikhs to gain some knowledge about the basic concepts of Sikhism and to have a look at their massive kitchen community that serve millions of people on a daily basis.

After a little sightseeing, we will start our culinary venture with the popular aloo tikki on the streets of Chandni chowk and enjoy a savouring meal of a parantha, in the centuries-old very popular paranthevali gali, which is basically a deep fried stuffed flat Indian type of bread. Next, we will move towards the very active and vibrant market which is super popular for wedding shopping. After that, we will venture out on a 17th century lane full of silver jewels present at the same place since the Mughal era and savour the very yummy samosa and jalebi, which is basically the Indian version of a pretzel, at an almost 150 year old eatery.

After the savouring meal, we will embark on a short tuk-tuk ride to Asia’s biggest spice market to have a look at the exotic as well as local spices followed by a visit to the exotic flower market. Here we’ll have a short tea break and the whole experience will be so divine that you’ll never forget.

Finally, we’ll have a look at the lip-smacking lane of kebabs, korma, butter chicken and yummy rice pudding while moving in the historic lanes around Jama masjid, which is Delhi’s biggest mosque. From there, we will head towards our final destination which would a century old kulfi shop, which is the Indian version of an ice-cream.