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.
When it comes to food, Maharashtra will never disappoint you. From the world famous pav bhaji to the delicious bhelpuri, Maharashtra has a lot to offer to food lovers. It is food heaven for both vegetarians and non vegetarians alike. Basundi is a sweet dish made in Maharashtra. It is condensed by boiling the sweetened milk on low heat which gives it a nice flavour. Sugar, cardamom or saffron is added to augment the flavour and texture. Different types of basundi are custard apple basundi and angoor basundi. Bhelpuri is a savoury snack common in Maharashtra.It is a mixture of puffed rice, chopped onions,chopped tomatoes,tamarind chutney. Bhelpuri can be served in a lot of ways, but usually it is served on a paper which is folded in the form of a cone and is consumed using a paper spoon. Misal pav has a spicy and tangy lentil curry which is made with moth beans and is served with Pav bread. At times, it is eaten with yoghurt to lessen the spice.It is decorated with a slice of Lemon and Onion Coriander sprinkled on it. This street food is readily available at any street food joint and served hot. Modak is extensively eaten during the Ganesh Chaturthi Festival all around the state. The sweet filling is made up of fresh-grated coconut and jaggery, while the soft shell is made from rice flour, or wheat flour mixed with maida flour. The dumpling can be fried or steamed. Pav Bhaji is one of the spiciest, vegetarian dish. It is a mixture of boiled vegetables along with a lot of Spices and Onion Coriander mixture for garnish.Fresh and thick slices of bread, smothered in butter served with a delicious mix of moderately spiced vegetables. Vada Pav is the most favorite snack in Maharashtra.It is Potato Bhaji ball dipped in Besan Flour and fried in hot oil. It is stuffed in Pav with Garlic Chutney and fried Chilli. VadaPav is super delicious when served hot- hot spicy and slight crunchiness. It is also known as ‘INDIAN BURGER’.
A lot of people suffer from upset stomach and other related illness by consuming unsafe water and food while traveling. A few people are blessed with iron stomach and immune system better than Terminator. But for rest of us, a lot of effort is spent on not getting sick whenever we step outside our homes for any period of time. This issue is of particular importance for people who are traveling to foreign countries. You will find different notions of hygiene, cleanliness and even different pests and germs in different places. For example, communicable diseases like malaria are almost completely eradicated in western world, but they still claims hundreds of thousands of lives in many other countries. Although, this topic can be written about in a very detailed manner, time and space constraints dictate that I limit this article to basic precautions related to water and food safety only. Although, this article is written with India in mind, these are some general instructions which hold true almost everywhere. So let’s begin with Food Safety Rules For Travelers Taking even basic precautions related to food safety and hygiene can save you a lot of trouble. High end restaurants and hotels are considered cleaner than most road-side street food vendors. But this is not true everywhere in very case. One such case in example is freshness of ingredients used. A lot of ofstreet food vendors prepare their dishes earlier in day or during the work hours and serve them as fresh as possible. Meanwhile, restaurants usually prepare large quantities of their most popular food items or ingredients and store them in refrigerators to be heated up just before serving.Here are some points for you to keep in mind when eating food in India or almost anywhere else in the world: a) Get food only from a recommended and trusted source Many street food businesses have good reputations among their customers for solid reasons. If you don’t know much, then take advice from your local friends, guides etc . But make sure that they have no commercial stake in recommending you something. Observing the customers is also a good way of making a choice. A good food vendor will have large number of customers compared to a non-trusted one. Food safety is always important to good vendors. b) Always make sure that the utensils used in serving are clean. Most street food vendors use disposable plate, spoons made of plastic, leaves, cane etc. But if metal utensils are being used, ensure that they are clean first. Use your own wipes, napkins etc to clean them if not sure. c) Do not eat at any place where the food is not covered and exposed to dust and flies. These are major source of germs and observing this basic food safety precaution alone can save you from lots of trouble d) Have fresh food In some places, the food you ask for is prepared right in front of you out of semi-prepared ingredients. Not every vendor brings 100 % read to eat food with him. So, if you see food cooking before being served, it’s very likely that it’ll be fresh. A good food vendor will usually pay heed to your requests and prepare the food exactly to your requirements. But if there are other people waiting, he may have to pay more attention to others. e) Precautions related to food are can be very confusing. People may follow all the hygiene and cleanliness related precautions, but may still suffer from an upset stomach due to some unknown food intolerance or allergy they did not knew about earlier. It can be really difficult to avoid such incidents. In case you know about your food intolerance and allergies, confirm with the vendor before consuming anything. If that’s not possible , try only small portions to check whether you are okay with it. If you have no side-effects and like the dish, go on to enjoy larger portion. Also, always keep a basic first aid kit consisting of a few medicines for an upset stomach, antacid, antihistamines etc. Water Safety Rules For Travelers Contaminated water causes biggest source of preventable infectious diseases worldwide. A number of potentially fatal infectious diseases can be prevented from spreading by just using clean water. Fortunately for travelers, it’s pretty easy almost everywhere. One of the most convenient solutions is to use branded bottled water. It’s easily available almost everywhere and comparatively easily. Some people consider it expensive. It is if you consider that it’s just ordinary water, but considering the alternative of spending so much money on medicines, it’s good enough. Even with bottled water, make sure that you buy only the original brands and properly sealed bottles. If in doubt, leave it and buy it from some place else. But what happens when you are in a place with no bottled water ? Unless you are near a river source with clear fast moving water, glacier etc. you have to boil and filter before drinking. You can use water purifying tablets or drops. Sometimes it causes slight change in taste of water but most people will accept it. Portable filters are another option. There are many types of big and small filters available in market. One portable filter as big as a pen and is used as one would use a straw. It’s very lightweight and small and can be carried in a pocket. Additionally, you can use bottles which come with water filter already fitted in. Most of other filters are are usually too big to lug around comfortably. If you are not carrying your own water filter, then best option to quench thirst are bottled water, juice or soft drinks, in that order. We hope this article may help you keep safe while traveling in India. Contact us for any feedback or information.
What is flat, round, topped usually with cheese and tomato sauce and can be custom-made to suit each and every palate, be it vegetarian or non-vegetarian? No points for guessing; it’s a pizza! In the present society, where pizza rightfully claims (and actually does) get to your house before even the police can, there is an ever-increasing war of sorts between all the so-called ‘big’ pizza delivery chains in any city. For instance, in Mumbai itself, there are more than a dozen Pizza Hut Mumbai outlets to choose from! After all, a pizza is like the entire food pyramid rolled into one! And with more and more people warming up to this Italian delicacy, the types and varieties of pizzas available today is truly mind-boggling. That first delectable whiff of your pizza baking in the oven, the scalding of your tongue as you bite into your pizza slice sooner than you should have, the way your mozzarella leaves a trail leading from your mouth to the slice even as you try to pull away and let go, the burst of flavours on your tongue which leaves your taste buds tingling – truly speaking, eating a pizza is an all-encompassing culinary experience in its own right. And the best part of all, a pizza can be prepared in an infinite number of ways, with a different topping or combination of toppings each time. Interesting Facts About Pizzas: More than 5 billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year. The first restaurant which exclusively sold pizzas came up in Naples in the year 1830. The world record for the fastest pizza making currently stands at 14 pizzas in 2 minutes and 35 seconds. There’s actually an entire month dedicated to pizzas in the United States since the year 1987 – October is the ‘National Pizza Month’. The record for the world’s largest circular pizza was set at Norwood Hypermarket in South Africa in 1990 – 122 feet and 8 inches across, weighing 26883 pounds, containing 9920 pounds of flour, 3968 pounds of cheese and 1984 pounds of sauce. Cheese and tomatoes (considered to be essential components of all pizzas) weren’t added to the early versions of pizzas right upto the late 1800s. Is Pizza Actually Healthy? Contrary to popular belief, yes – pizzas are a healthy eating option. Though very often classified under the ‘junk food’ banner, a pizza can be a very wholesome meal, provided you choose the right toppings to go with it. Lycopene, an anti-oxidant found in the skin of tomatoes, is known to fight the destruction of healthy body cells. Studies indicate that it even has the ability to obstruct the growth of cancerous tissues. Also an excellent source of Vitamin C, the tomato sauce on your pizza is extremely good for your health. Nothing tastes better than a cheese-burst pizza, with dollops of cheese loaded onto and into the crust, right? Wrong. Though it may taste good, but too much of cheese may be more harmful than you think. Okay, we’re not telling you to eat your pizza without cheese (no way), but then, the cheese on top of your pizza crust is more than enough for your body’s calcium requirements at any given time. Also, a thin crust pizza is the healthiest option, as thick crust means nothing except some extra flour and bread, which ultimately adds up to needless calories and hardly any vitamins and minerals. Heard about paper blotting? Catch hold of a paper napkin and pat the very obvious oil from the top of your slice before biting into it. It’s hard to believe but this method alone is estimated to cut upto 30 calories. And if you love to sprinkle oregano all over your Pizza Corner pizza to give it that extra zing, go ahead by all means – your oregano is a good source of Vitamin K, fibre and manganese. So, as you can pretty much make out by now, there is no reason whatsoever to compromise with your taste when it comes to your favourite pizzas, as long as you don’t go overboard in the choices you make. On a lighter note: So then, what would be the best time or occasion to order in a pizza? Well, let’s see if we can make out. Woken up on a lazy Sunday morning and it’s almost noon? Don’t get down to cook, just order in a pizza. When your friends suddenly decide to jam at your place without prior notice, you have no option but to get pizza home delivered. And yes, a different flavour for everyone. If you’re almost out of cash and can’t afford a seven-course meal, the best and most-filling option that you have is a pizza. Down in the dumps at any random time of the day, weekday or weekend? It’s pizza time. Simply put, you’ll feel good by the time you finish your meal. Guest post by Nitya Marwah
Indian Food Recipe : Green Chutney Ingredients Urad Dal – ¾ cup Chana Dal – 1 tbsp. Rajma – 1 tbsp. Onion – 1 Ginger – 2 tbsp. Green chillies – 4 Tomato – 1 Fresh cream – ⅓ cup Yoghurt – ⅓ cup Chilli powder – 1/2 tsp. Turmeric powder – ½ tsp. Cumin seeds – 1 tsp. Ghee – 2 tbsp. Salt – to taste Serves : 6 Procedure Soak the dals for 5 hours. Chop green chillies, ginger, onions and tomatoes. Now pressure cook the dals with water. Mash well with a masher and boil again for 20 minutes. Add the yoghurt and cream to the dal. In a vessel heat ghee and fry the onions, chillies and ginger and cumin for a few minutes. Now add tomatoes, turmeric and chilli powder and fry. Add dal and balance the salt. Cook for some more time. Serve hot with chapati or rice Image Credit: By Radhikamprabhu82 – https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40987022
Manipur has been dubbed “The Jewelled Land” due to its natural beauty. The food of Manipur is considered to be very healthy as they use a fresh vegetables a lot. The preparations are simple yet, tasty. Manipuri food is spicy and contains less oil. Chakhao Kheer is a delicious kheer. It has a pleasing shade of purple and is prepared using milk, black sticky rice, and cardamom powder. It’s typically fancy with dried fruits like raisins,cashews or different nuts. It is usually prepared on special occasions like festivals and weddings. Eromba is prepared nearly always with a fish referred to as Ngari. Eromba is made by boiling a large number of vegetables together with some Ngari and king chili. It’s mixed till the mixture becomes sort of a paste. Kangsoi is a vegetable stew that consists of seasonal vegetables that are cooked and flavored with sliced cloves, garlic, onions, salt, maroi and a touch of ginger lidded with ngari, dried fish, or deep-fried fish items and water. The stew is mostly served with rice and consumed piping hot. Singju is a kind of dish that consists of chilies, tomatoes, onions ,finely cut banana stem, cabbage, banana flower, lotus stem, a reasonably scented herb, tree beans, coriander leaves, ginger mixed with ngari fish. Singju is seasoned with red chili powder, salt, roast chickpea powder and roast herb powder.
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.
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.
Malcha Marg is a nice, quiet place for spending a lazy day doing nothing away from deafening traffic and crowd of New Delhi. The opening of Schengen- Deli, Bistro, Pub in the area has added one more place to relax and have some good food and drinks. The property commands a nice, green view of the area from it’s small but well designed outdoor seating. Upon entering, the place looks small, but there are 3 floors and one basement, each with a different decor and ambiance including one outdoor section. We were particularly impressed by the wall art and innovative use of furniture and space. Interiors are an amalgam of different styles and are tastefully done. The designers have done a great job of getting the best out of small area on each floor and it doesn’t feel cramped or congested even with a fairly large number of guests. According to management, the basement will have a European themed deli soon. Our time of visit was late afternoon with a weak sun and we decided to sit on the balcony outdoors. Both food and drinks menu are fairly detailed and have a number of generic as well as special items. We were hungry and wanted to taste as many dishes as possible. We requested Chef Piyush to suggest a few dishes of his choice and after asking us about our preferences, he suggested a few which went on perfectly well with our palettes. To begin with, we were served Roast Pumpkin and Scamorza Soup with cinnamon. It was thick, mildly flavoured and had great aroma. Addition of a small cinnamon stick was a nice touch. Bread basket had 4 different breads and bread sticks. Each one was soft and freshly baked. Next serving was that of Rocket, Apple and Walnut salad along with Mushroom and Haloumi Kebabs. Not everyone is a big fan of salads, but this one with glazed walnuts, green apple slices and fragrant rocket leaves was a pleasant surprise. The flavours were quite good with no extras like olive oil, vinegar etc to mask the taste. The kebabs were made of shiitake mushrooms, button mushrooms, haloumi cheese, tomatoes and bell peppers served on a wooden skewer. Cheese and mushrooms were cooked to perfection while tomatoes and bell peppers were fresh and juicy. While we were tasting these, Gaurav the bartender of place served Monk’s Habit, a white rum based cocktail with cardamom, hazel nut and pineapple. The drink was slightly on the sweeter side with a mild alcohol kick. Next item on the serving menu was pasta cooked in red Arrabiata sauce. Normally it’s supposed to be spicy, but the most dominating flavour was that of ripe tomatoes which was slightly disappointing. By this time, we had finished Monk’s Habit and asked Gaurav for his specialty drinks. He came back with Raz Matazz and Garoth. Former is a vodka and cointreau drink mixed with grape juice and lime leaves. It comes with a nice refreshing fruity flavour and is a great drink for warm days. Garoth on the other hand was served warm as a winter drink and it was our unanimous favourite. It was a blend of brandy, cognac served with ginger, lemon slices, star anise. This is one thing that one should absolutely try. We requested Piyush to suggest something again for main course and he brought a delicious looking Braised Lamb Shanks on Ratatouille. If there is a benchmark for it, we’ll have to give full marks for the way of presentation. The lamb shank was served along with mashed potatoes and a mix of different vegetables like pumpkin, tomatoes etc. The meat was well cooked, soft and came off easily from the bone. We had it with a small helping of tabasco sauce. The dessert was a mouth watering double chocolate mousse which tasted as good as it looked with a strawberry topping. It had a thick texture, multiple chocolate layers and felt great in mouth. SUMMARY & COMMENTS: Overall it’s a beautiful place with great interior, peaceful location, good drinks and food menu with well trained and attentive staff. Food is cooked according to western palettes and is great choice for expatriates who live nearby as well as locals who want to taste good European cuisine. During the time we were there, there were 4-5 tables occupied by foreigners including families. The food is very good and only thing that we didn’t like that much was the pasta. Everything else including the salad, kebabs and lamb were cooked well and worth checking out. Cocktails are excellent and you can trust the staff to bring you the best according to your preferences. Prices are reasonable considering the quality of service, location and ambiance of the place. The bar is a nice place for hanging out with friends after work. Other two floors including the terrace are perfect for almost everything including long, leisurely meals and quick business lunches.
