Various varieties of Chaat are some of most popular Indian street food dishes and quite more than just snacks for people in India. Chaat is among the lightest, cheapest and most convenient meal to have when someone is in a hurry. Indian street food is incomplete without a mention of chaat. A confusing point that many people don’t get is that a lot of Indian street food items are called chaat. Some of more popular chaat dishes are papdi chaat, gol gappa also called paani puri,and bhalla chaat. Chaat is a street food dish, but some kind of it always served during most parties in India. Even posh, high-end restaurants have started serving chaat items, but they are often beaten by the street food vendors who have been doing it for generations A large number of chaat food items exist in India, many with completely different flavours, looks and ingredients from the rest. Many chaats are eaten cool and thus are enjoyable even in summer. Pani puris for example, are just water flavoured with digestive spices served in hollow balls made of crisp flour. Sometimes they are garnished with chick peas and boiled mashed potatoes. The flavoured water is usually salty made using pudina (mint), rock salt, pepper, and some other ingredients depending upon where you eat it. For people who like sweetness, bit of sweet and tangy tamarind chutney is added. A number of different flavours among pani puris are available catering to almost every type of fan. The flavoured water is considered to help with digestion and is useful in preventing dehydration during hot summers of India. Many people drink pani puri water by cups.
Puris are the most common ingredients for other types of chaats. They are small, crisp and crackle loudly when broken. Boiled or fried potatoes and two or more types of chutney ( a type of sauce) are also used. One chutney, made of imli (tamarind) is sweet and tangy . Second one is spicy and made of pudina (mint), ginger and green chillies.
Many street food items, including chaat may or may not have dahi (curd, yooghurt), another popular food item in India. It helps with digestion and makes tolerating excess spiciness easy for people who are not used to it. Dahi bhalla chaat is a very popular and tasty street food item, specially popular during summers. The yoghurt is thickened and sometimes sweetened, giving it a smooth creamy texture which gels really well with bhalla . It is sometimes sprinkled with chaat masala, onion garnishing and bits of fried potatoes. Chaat masala is another thing which helps with digestion but is used more in a wa, not just to increase the flavours. It may have different varieties and ingredients in different places. Most popular are powders of , dried raw mango (aam choor), ginger, pepper, rock salt and dried pomegranates ( anaar daana). Apart from their use as chaat masala, these ingredients are also used in combination with other different ingredients as churan to help with digestion.
Bhel puri, from Maharashtra is a very tasty light snack made of sev ( thin noodle like crisps made of besan) and puffed rice. They are sprinkled with chaat masala, chutney and garnished with tomatoes and onions. It’s a good snack to have, light on stomach and low on oil.
Aaloo tikki is another very popular chaat dish made of boiled and then crisply fried potato cakes. They are served as soon as they are cooked, garnished with chaat masala, chutney and sometimes yoghurt. It’s a heavy dish due to fried potatoes but it’s popular all the same. McDonalds in India even launched a McAaloo Tikki burger to cash in on its popularity. Even if the chaat may seem heavy or tough to digest, yoghurt and chat masala make sure that your digestive system stays fit and healthy. As with everything else, it’s not good to eat chaat in excess, especially if you don’t know about Indian food in details
How to eat chaat or any other food in India
While traveling in Delhi or any other Indian city, you will find a number of street food vendors selling different varities of food with chaat vendors being a significant majority. Some of them will be there just to make a quick buck and be done with the whole thing, while others serve their food with pride and care for customers. Important thing is to know how to distinguish between the two. Good street food vendors care for their clientele and serve only the best quality food. You can tell it from their loyal customers.
Make sure that the food vendors you visit obey basic hygiene rules. Confirm that the food ingredients are covered and protected from dust and flies. Most street food vendors use disposable plates, but if they are not, make sure that they are clean. Read this article to know more about how to keep safe from water and food related problems while traveling.
We hope that this article will help you enjoy Indian street food, specially chaat better. Happy munching. Contact us for feedback, queries or for booking an Indian street food tour.
Paneer Curry Recipe Paneer is nothing but Cottage Cheese. A Paneer curry is just another curry where curry means sauce in Tamil, a language in South India. Combination of masalas with other ingredients is a curry. Paneer curry is very popular in North India. Ingredients: Paneer – 200 gms. Tomato puree – 2 nos. Cumin Seeds – ½ tsp. Garlic- Ginger paste -1 tsp. Turmeric powder – ½ tsp. Chilli powder- ½ tsp. Cumin Powder- ½ tsp. Garam masala powder – ½ tsp. Coriander powder – ½ tsp. Cashew nuts: 10-12 nos (ground to a paste). Salt as required. Methodology: Cut paneer into small cubes and keep aside. Add oil in a heavy bottomed pot, when hot enough add cumin seeds. Once they splutter add the ginger garlic paste. Do not let it stick to the bottom of the vessel. Keep adding little water. Now take little water add all the masalas in it and mix well. Add this to the pot and fry the masalas well till oil separates. Add tomato puree and sauté till oil separate. Add the cashew nut paste and then the cubed pieces of Paneer. In case the gravy is too dry add little water accordingly. Let the gravy boil a little and then serve hot.
Assam offers just the right kind of flavours to tickle your taste buds. With a wide variety of indigenous food to offer, Assamese food is famous for its distinct flavoring and influences. Delicious pork, chicken and mutton dishes are a must try. Baanhgaj or Lagot Kukura is essentially chicken cooked with bamboo shoots and lentil.The dish goes well with rice and it can be garnished with chopped green chillies and onions. Khaar is truly a unique Assamese preparation. Khaar is a heartwarming dish made with vegetables and pulses and the main ingredient being meat, fish or even duck. Even dried banana leaves which imparts burst of unexpected yet refreshing flavors. Lucchi is prepared by deep frying a roti made up of white flour, without making it crisp. It is served with a delicious potato curry. Lucchi is also known as Poori in other parts of the country. Masor Tenga is slow cooked fish with a broth made from outenga, tomatoes, and lemon and offers an extremely tangy refreshing flavour once done. Every Assamese definitely loves Masor Tenga. Payash is made using Joha rice and is loaded with ghee, dry fruits, and milk. Cooked on a low flame, one can also add cardamom and saffron for garnishing the dish. Overall, it is a must try dish for all those with a sweet tooth.
Idlis Recipe Idli is a very famous dish in India. It is originally from South India but is made everywhere and relished by everyone. It’s a breakfast recipe edible for old age to children as it is very soft. Diet conscious people have idlis as a first on their list. Ingredients: 1 cup – split black gram 1 cup –rice 1 tsp – fenugreek seeds (optional ) Salt to taste Methodology: Soak rice, split black gram, and fenugreek seeds in lots of water. Leave it overnight. Grind the mixture and leave it to ferment for a day. It should have the consistency of a batter after grinding. Grease the idli molds and set the batter into them. Heat water in the idli cooker till it starts boiling. Steam cook for about 12-15 minutes on a high flame. Turn off the gas and leave it for 15-20 minutes as it’s difficult to remove the idlis when extremely hot. Serve it with hot sambhar.
Indian Food Recipe : Green Chutney Ingredients Chopped Mint Leaves – 2 cups Chopped coriander – 1 cup Lemon juice – 1tbsp, Chopped green chillies – 1tbsp. Chopped ginger – 1 tsp. Salt to taste Yield: 1.25 cups Procedure Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend to a smooth paste, add some water if required. Serve with Tikkas, kebabs, Indian fried snacks, etc. Image Credit: https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/green-chutney-for-chaat-recipes/
For tourists all over the world, it’s hard job to avoid getting cheated by different kinds of tourist scams. Touts and middlemen are a bane of tourists everywhere. They are pesky, greedy, dishonest and always looking for a way to con unsuspecting tourists out of money by any means possible. This article is intended to help tourists avoid getting cheated by scams perpetrated by such touts and other scammers. But first, we’ll explain what we are talking about by the help of some real life incidents. Examples of travel scams 1) Tea tasting scams There are numerous versions of this tourist scam all over the world. In this, a very friendly local will ask you for a minor favour like taking a picture, then try to gain your trust by any means possible. Then they offer to take you to a very unique restaurant, festival etc for a special tea tasting session, best food in town or something similar. When it comes to the point of paying for it, they show their true colours by presenting an amount that could buy enough food to feed 100s of people for weeks. 2) Providing wrong information The most recent one we heard was from an American tourist who wanted to see Delh’s Red Fort (Lal Qila). He got out of his hotel from Paharganj, which is only 10-15 minutes drive from the fort and started looking for an auto-rickshaw to get there. A tout came up to him and offered him to take him there in his ‘private car’, which would have cost 5-6 times what auto-rickshaw would have charged. When the tourist refused, the tout told him that due to terrorist threat, only private cars were allowed inside the fort and auto-rickshaws and other vehicles are not. Fortunately, the tourist was smart and he ignored everything the tout said. He hired an auto-rickshaw and visited Red Fort without any issue. 3) Tour of workshops, showrooms One of the most infamous scams in many tourist hot-spots is touts, guides, taxi-drivers etc taking to you for a tour of a workshop, garments factory, rug factory etc and claim that it’s just part of the tour and they are under no pressure to buy anything. But the unsuspecting tourists are tricked in to buying some useless trinket at vastly inflated prices by the silver-tongued touts. 4) Recommending shady businesses Touts and middle-men like to recommend particular hotels, shops or relevant business establishment by promising good deals and discounts. Everyone from taxi drivers to guides to travel agents and hotel owners are guilty of this. In some cases, they can get you something you may or may not require, but it’s almost always at inflated prices due to commissions involved. The business owner is obligated to pay sums as high as 50% of the sale value to the referrer. How to avoid travel scams while traveling As evident, any tourist is very likely to be approached by unscrupulous touts in a wide variety of situations. Here is how you can avoid losing your money in any of common travel scams: 1) Read reviews Most of reputable businesses worth their salt have an online presence by the means of a website, reviews of forums and various travel related sites like Tripzar, Lonely Planet, Trip Advisor and many others. Look around for what other travelers are saying about them. Many businesses will have some bad reviews. In that case check how they responded or did anything to make up for the bad experience. There are many business with no online presence which can be good, but always ask fellow travelers before spending your money. People who are in business for long care about their reputation and are more trustworthy than small time touts who care only about money. 2) Contact in advance and keep things clear It’s important that a tourist knows every relevant detail before handing over the money. It’s easy to fall for common travel scams if you don’t know how your money will be spent by agents. If you are planning any trip, make sure to have information about every hotel, car, guide, driver, food, sightseeing etc. written down for quick reference. It’s helpful in more than one way. Not only you have a good idea of what you are paying for, but you can also weed out the things you don’t need or ask for upgrades and better facilities. 3) Avoid the shops random strangers and untrustworthy guides insist on As mentioned above, most business owners pay a very large percentage of their sales amount to whoever brings clients to them. . While a small commission is OK, most of the time, it’s so much that the tourists end up buying things at many times their reasonable cost. Taxi drivers may offer you reduced fare if you agree to visit some showrooms or shops on the way. Avoid them at all costs. If you absolutely have to go, then always check for reasonable price and bargain hard. 4) Keep low profile This may sound strange to some, but do not show off your expensive branded clothes, electronics, wads of cash etc as a status symbol. Keep a low profile, don’t let other people know of your economic status. People who look rich attract more unsavoury characters than simple and broke backpackers. 5) Ignore them, don’t engage A lot of places frequented by tourists will have numerous vendors, guides and beggars trying to sell you something or asking for money. Don’t pay any attention to them or make eye contact or do anything to make them think that you might be interested in buying something from them. Not everyone is a tout, but most such people are poor who just want to make some money qucik. 6) Call bluffs of fake officers Some travel scams involve scammers pose as officers of some government agency and try to fleece money.It’s rare but if you ever have the misfortune of meeting any such low-life, ask
Poha Recipe Poha has inherited quality of easy digestion and gets ready in minutes for a tummy full breakfast. It is suitable to consume for all age group, made from flattened rice. Best paired with onions, grated coconut and coriander leaves Ingredients Beaten Rice- 1 cup. Crushed Groundnuts- ¼ Cup. Coconut grated- ¼ Cup. Coriander leaves- ¼ Cup. Curry leaves- 1 stalk. Sugar- ¼ tsp. Salt to taste. Green chillies- 4. Lime Juice- 1 tsp. Oil- 1.5 tsp. Chopped onions-2. Chopped small potatoes- 2. Cumin and Mustard seeds- ½ tsp. Procedure In a vessel, Wash poha till clean. In a heavy sauce pan, heat little oil, add seeds and then potatoes. Add curry leaves and green chillies and stir it for 2-3 minutes. Add fried onions till tender. Now add poha and other ingredients. If you want little pungent taste, squeeze few drops of lemon. Garnish with little coriander and grated coconut. Serve with hot tea or coffee.
How to cook Chicken Biryani Biryani has been originated in Turkey or Persia. The Muslim travelers have brought this to India and other places on the map closer to Persia. You can make a vegetable, mutton, chicken, prawn, fish biryani. The famous and most consumed is the Chicken Biryani. Traditionally earthen pots are used to make biryani to bring out the best aroma from the best quality ingredients used in the dish. Ingredients:- 1 kg – chicken, cut into medium size pieces. ½ kg basmati rice. 1.5 glasses of water. 1 tsp. – Ginger paste. 1 tsp. – Garlic Paste. 3- Large onions finely sliced. 3 – Green chillies, chopped. 1 cup – chopped fresh mint leaves. 1 cup – chopped fresh coriander leaves. 1 tsp – red chilli powder. 10 strands of saffron. ½ cup – milk. 2 cups – yoghurt. 2-3 tbsp. – lemon juice. 7- Cloves. 2 – Bay leaves. 5 – Green cardamoms. 1 – Inch piece cinnamon. 2 tbsp. – ghee. ¾ cup – oil. Salt to taste. Grind to paste – 7 cloves, 4 cardamoms, ½ tsp – whole pepper, ½ inch piece – cinnamon. How to cook: Soak saffron in milk and keep aside. Fry the sliced onions till crispy golden brown in color. Set aside to cool. When cool, grind to a coarse texture and set aside Rub ginger and garlic paste all over the chicken Add red chilli powder, half of the mint and coriander, lemon juice, green chilles, the ground spices ,crushed onions, yoghurt and the oil in which the onions were fried .Marinate for 2 hours In a heavy-bottomed pan, put the chicken along with the marinade and cook on medium heat until the gravy is not fully fried. Boil 1.5 glasses of water, when hot enough add some whole cloves, bay leaves, cardamoms and cinnamon then add salt and the rice. Parboil the Rice Drain the water and keep the rice side To layer the biryani add ghee in an earthen pot and layer rice then chicken gravy then rice and add the saffron milk to it Put the remaining ghee , coriander, mint leaves to garnish Seal the biryani and cook till rice is fully cooked Serve hot with raita.
Gulab Jamun Recipe Gulab Jamun is a popular Indian sweet dish that can be served on ethnic festivals or events. In India, there are millions of people who love eating them. They can be best served with Ice-cream or simply served hot. Ingredients required:- 6 cups Water. 2.5 cups sugar. ¼ Cup Thickened milk. 1 tsp. semolina. Oil. 3 cups Milk Powder. Method:- In a medium sized container, mix semolina, flour, milk powder and then knead them with the thickened cream to make it soft. Make balls in the size that you want. Dry fry the balls on low heat. In other container, prepare sugar syrup and then add the cooked balls. Serve hot (plain) or top it up with vanilla ice-cream.
