This Kebab is Delhi’s Holy Grail of Street Food

[background city noise]

Wow.

There's only one place on the planet this insane,

and it's gotta be old Delhi.

Here we are looking for the holy grail of meats,

the Seekh kebab,

ground meat seasoned with spices,

put on a skewer and fired on a sigri.

And the place that does it better

than almost any place here is Bismillah Kebab Point,

let's see how they do it.

Now, these are mutton seekh kebabs.

Most people think of mutton as like sheep.

Here in India, it means goat meat.

Irfan Singh. Yes, sir.

[host and Irfan speak foreign language]

So this is

[speaks foreign language]

12 kgs, and all he is got in it so far

that he's seasoned the meat with is ginger, garlic paste,

green chilies and cilantro, dhania,

fresh cilantro inside.

And now he's told me he's about to put in his,

of course, secret blend of spices.

First the salt,

and then this is just crushed red chili pepper.

Not too much of the cumin powder

because he is already got some

cumin powder in the garam masala.

And then chhena powder,

I mean the equivalent would be like a chickpea flour

and that's probably to help bind the meat.

And then fresh turmeric.

[Irfan] Last one, garam masala.

And then their house made garam masala.

Oh my god, it's a beautiful, aromatic, garam masala,

I could smell the star anise.

Okay, hands in.

It is only one way to work with 25 pounds of meat,

you gotta roll up your sleeves and just get up in it.

This particular technique of seasoning meats

is so different from how we in America look at

working with a burger or meatloaf, right?

We barely season the burger or the meat loaf,

we just add a little bit of salt

and then we want the condiments on the outside

to give flavor.

Well, here it's not about the condiments,

it's about the flavor inside of the meat.

I make burgers at home

exactly with a lot of seasoning in it.

My friends love it 'cause they're like,

oh, I didn't know you could season ground meat.

I'm like, well of course you can season ground meat.

Not just with salt and pepper but with spices.

And again, he's eyeballing the salt.

He didn't want too much in the beginning

'cause by putting too much salt in too early,

you're gonna actually start pulling moisture

out of the meat.

So he is adding the salt in stages.

Oh, dhania, this is the secret ingredient.

Dude, I put, may I put this in my lamb?

[Irfan] Yeah, this is very different.

Crazy. Yeah.

This is a very parsley thing to do also.

Yeah.

All right, fantastic.

Look at that.

[Irfan] This is last secret.

So this goes down to the skewering operation

where the kebab masters.

[speaks foreign language]

They're gonna be doing the skewing.

Yeah, I can make one.

The boss man's gonna do one for us.

First, little bit, I will take-

And little bit.

And water. Yeah.

He is making this look so easy.

I've tried this before.

It's really hard to not get the meat

to just fall off every time.

But the trick is to wet your hands all the time

and boom, done, moving fast.

He's starting from the center,

spreading the meat out towards the top

and spreading the meat out towards the bottom.

Keeping his hand wet all the time

so that the meat doesn't stick to his hands.

What's really remarkable is how by muscle memory,

he can make sure that the thickness is exactly the same

from the front to the end of the kebab.

This is what 16 years of repetition does.

You're just doing the same thing

over and over and over again

and you just get brilliant at it.

[Irfan and host speak foreign language]

So that's amazing technique.

It's on as a thin sheet.

There's a reason the skewer is so thick.

Yeah, it's made out of iron

and it essentially is gonna pick up the heat from the grill

and cook the kebab from the inside

while also also cooking from the outside,

making for a perfect, delicate kebab

that's not raw on the inside and cooked from the outside,

which is often what happens if your kebab's too thick.

Two minutes? Yeah, only two minutes.

That's how thin the meat is.

That's how thin this meat is,

two minutes and it'll be done.

This is going so fast and so furious,

it's just hard to keep track of what's going on.

He's obviously keeping track,

but he's got his mutton kebabs on the right,

he's got his seekh kebabs in the,

his chicken kebabs on the left.

These look like they're almost done,

so he's moved him off the heat.

I mean just the,

I mean it feels like I'm gonna inferno over here,

it's insane how much heat's coming off.

The fan is to keep the coal, obviously the charcoal going.

And then just in case we don't have enough good aromatics,

let's add some butter to the mix

and get the sucker really going.

I'm standing under a power strip.

Probably gonna electrocute myself.

But hey, all in the name of the best kebabs in the city.

This is a yakitori, a sigri, a charcoal brasier.

I struggle with American grills

because they're not narrow enough.

I like cooking like this.

I don't like cooking on the grates.

The meat sticks to the grates,

you don't get the flame hitting it.

The narrow brasier acts as both

as a holder for the skewer.

These guys by muscle memory

know exactly what size kebab to make

and essentially lets the meat be suspended over the flame

at exactly the right height

without any grate or grill touching it.

[cooks and host speak foreign language]

You guys are the experts, not me.

You can see the color is changing of the skewer.

The part of the skewer that's over the flame

is getting insanely hot

and cooking it from the inside.

But the handles themselves are cool.

So these things are sized also

to be where somebody can work it without of course,

scorching their hands.

I mean, look at this, it's just a beautiful sheath of kebab.

If butterfly wings are made out of ground oat meat,

this is what it might look like.

I mean, this is ethereal,

it's just so beautiful to visually see.

I can't wait to just get one of these into my mouth.

You can see the char on the outside.

I mean, as I get closer from here to here.

Woo, the inside is blazingly hot.

So you know the inside is cooked perfectly.

I mean, it's glistening,

you can see the little flecks of cilantro in there.

You can smell the fire in the wood and the spices.

I mean, this is a perfect morsel.

I think the word morsel was invented

to describe this little beautiful piece of meat

that we have right in front of us.

[host and cook speak foreign language]

So bear in mind,

the kebabs are selling faster

than he can put it on the grill right now.

This is nonstop.

[host and cook speak foreign language]

Holy [bleep].

This is gonna go until 4:00 AM.

The square shape is essential

for the kebab staying on and not sliding off and rotating.

Every kebab, seekh kebab is done on skewer the shape.

The word seekh itself means a stick.

And obviously this is not a stick anymore,

this is just a metal iron skewer.

But the name stuck

to being mean a kebab cooked on a stick.

[host and cook speak foreign language]

Thank you sir.

[host and cook speak foreign language]

He's offered me 10 orders, I told him just one is enough.

I'm gonna get outta here.

That tastes good.

Let's go outside.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you sir.

All right.

[host and cook speak foreign language]

Four pieces. Four pieces?

[host and cook speak foreign language]

Oh my god.

One plate is four skewers of meat for only 140 rupees.

What is that?

That's like less than $2 for a plate of.

I thought one plate would be one.

I mean, that's the other crazy part about the street food

is the amount of care, the amount of technique,

the amount of ingredients,

the spices, everything that's gone into this.

And you can still get a plate of so much food

for one person.

It's meant to be affordable.

They're not trying to get away with as much as they can,

they're trying to get away with at least as they can

to make sure that everybody has a chance to try the food.

This street is maximum stimulation.

This is why I love cities.

I mean, just the excitement of knowing

that it's two o'clock,

you can't sleep, you got the munchies,

and that you can come out here and get a plate of this.

I mean, tell me what country on earth,

what place on the planet is this possible

other than these mega metropolises,

especially like one like Delhi?

I can see the fresh garam masala that he finished it with.

And he also puts it at the kebab at the end.

The scent is just heady.

It's steaming, literally steaming off the plate.

I'm gonna get into this before the juices start leaking out.

Let me start with this.

Oh my God, it's so tender.

Absolutely perfectly cooked.

[vehicles hooting]

Mama Mia.

The end bits, the charred end bits

with that beautiful char on the end.

Soft, I mean, just so tender, it's just insane.

It's a delicacy, it truly is a Delicacy.

I mean, this should be up there

with caviar and foie gras

and perfectly made seekh kebab,

it's all in that category of foods that are unctuous,

that coat the palate

that just make you feel fuzzy inside.

It's absolutely delicious.

I was a little worried about four pieces on one plate,

I'm not worried about it right now.

Okay, so behind me right now,

you got the mutton kebabs going

and then you got the chicken seekh kebab going.

Basically the same thing except with ground chicken

seasoned differently.

He said seasoned much lighter

'cause he doesn't want the seasoning

to overpower the delicacy of the chicken.

And these things are flying out the door.

I mean, should we?

Chicken kebab?

Oh, look at the grill marks on this chicken.

I don't think you and I have ever had chicken this delicate

in I mean, I don't know

where chicken this delicate exists

except right here at Bismillah.

Wow, wow.

Completely different flavor profile.

This place is appropriately named Bismillah.

Another name of God, a call to God, a call to Allah,

an inauguration.

It's aptly named because this experience

is as close to heaven as I think I'm ever going to get.

Yes, Meherwan does a happy dance.

It's a meat dance.

It's a happy meat dance.

When you see a scene this insane, this much of a spectacle,

you just wonder, is this for real?

Is this just a show?

Is this just basically theater?

Is it just the fact that there's so many people here

that no matter what you do, you're gonna be busy?

It's for real.

It is probably one of the most holy grilled kebabs

that I've ever had the opportunity to taste.

It is incredible.

I mean, as the kids say, I'm shook.

You're gonna get jostled, you're gonna get pushed,

you're gonna get beeped at,

honked at possibly even pickpocketed.

But it's worth it 'cause that's what life is about.

It's about experiencing it all.

It's about being exposed, being vulnerable,

searching for that perfect bite

and letting all caution go to the wind.

It's so easy to live a sanitized life

where you want everything perfectly packaged,

in quiet, sanitary surroundings where you're comfortable.

It's the discomfort that makes it special.

And yes, it's uncomfortable, but my God, is it special

and absolutely worth the discomfort.

I may not remember that fancy meal in a fancy restaurant

with perfect service, but this,

I'll carry with me the rest of my life.

[vehicles hooting]