The Belly Giggles

- March 11, 2017

I have usually been choosy and confined when it comes to eateries. Taking that giant step out of the zone of comfort and deciding on a new place has always been a challenge. After the last review, an old friend notified of this new place that has come up in the very locality of the previous destination, Humayunpur, New Delhi.

“The Belly Giggles”, offering Naga, Tibetan and Chinese food is yet another place in New Delhi serving escape from the humdrum of quotidian gastronomy. For a foodie who also is a tea person like me and longs for peace over meals, TBG is the place to be given its extended menu serving few varieties of tea. For eating out is an exercise not merely of eating but also of going and being out the ambience of TBG is something worth talking about.

Being born and brought up at a place endowed with utmost greenery and open spaces I have forever had this pull for less claustrophobic zones of existence. TBG, above all provides this at once. Stuffed with considerable greenery, the place has been accessibly-gentrified and coupled with careful hospitality. The classy wooden paraphernalia, dangling lanterns, photographic representation of the traditional Naga way of life hanging on the whitewashed walls and the patches of greenery tucked into painted tubs makes the visit memorable and keeps you longing for more.

If coupled with a book shelf and ceaseless flow of internet, TBG qualifies to come up as a space for intellectual rendezvous suitable for typing out the remaining thousand words of the pending submission. Serving a not-very-lengthy list of savour TBG makes sure to be best at whatever is on offer redeeming the foodie off unsolicited teetering before ordering.

Unlike my fall for the love-at-first bite in other eateries something strange that passed on me at TBG is the love-at-first-sip. Tea, I have argued at other places too, has forever endured the superlative space in my soul and the two of us in a way have moored a bond of opulent sublimity. Ask me of one good reason to re-visit TBG and I would undoubtedly make a mention of the tea. After coming across the numerous heart-aching manifestations of chaai-sipping in the Orient I had almost given up on ordering tea at restaurants. The ruthless brewing of CTC in the weather-beaten, haftless saucepans across the sub-continent, I must mention, has stripped tea off its deserved glory and opulence. TBG for that matter stood up considerably to my aspirations for a tea-filled world. Rushing down the a la carte of tea I picked up the ‘Mint Green Tea’ which by all considerable means happened to be an interesting pre-prandial engagement.

Something on which I could lay hands-and-mouth on was the traditional ‘Pork Thali’ served as a combo of steamed sticky rice, pressure-cooked lentil, boiled cabbage, pork stewed with essential condiments and bamboo shoot and above all a pinch of the Naga signature king chilly chutney. Sufficiently enough in quantity, each platter is expected to suffice an individual gut but occasions of excessive starving might call for an additional bowl of rice for two.

TBG has an in house patisserie that serves a promising range of confectioneries which unfortunately could not be explored. This perhaps leaves the door open for the next visit very soon.