Dakhani Deg

The kitchen at Dakhani Deg gets hot early in the morning. Being at Tilak Nagar 29/1 means we see the whole neighborhood wake up while we’re already busy with the big pots. We call them degs, and they’re heavy. Handling them takes some muscle, especially when they’re full. We don’t have some big philosophy about food, we just cook what people want to eat. You can smell the spices from down the block before we even open the doors properly. It’s a lot of chopping onions and making sure the fire is just right under the pots. Some days the floor gets slippery and we have to be careful. Tilak Nagar is a busy spot so there's always someone poking their head in to ask when the food will be ready. We just tell them to wait a bit. We’ve got a few tables but it’s mostly people coming in and out. The walls could probably use a new coat of paint soon, but the stove is what matters most. We don’t use any of those fancy machines, just hands and heat. It’s loud, it’s sweaty, and it’s how we spend our whole day. By the time we clean up at night, we’re tired. But we come back and do it again the next day because that’s the business. We don't really bother with much else besides the cooking and cleaning, and maybe a quick tea break when things slow down in the late afternoon.