The Indian Street Food Flavor: The Top Ten Picks

chillibreeze writer — Resham Sinha

"Street food in India: Ten most popular items"

India’s varied geographical regions, climate, religion, language and customs amply reflects in the country’s diversity in food and culture. Each region has its special cuisine. Some of them are cooked on occasions and others are sold every day on the streets. If you travel to the northern parts of the country you can relish chaat, samosa, desi boiled eggs, omelettes, jhaal-moodhi, litti, etc on the streets. Move to South India and the street favourites change to eating idlis, vadas, dosas and uttapums with spicy chutneys, sambhar and rasam.

Food in South India: An Expat Survival Guide

Street food is available everywhere in India. Even the tiny towns and hamlets have specialities of their own. However, metros such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru have a larger spread of street food as these cities belong to migrants of every class and region. Here there is food for every pocket. People who thrive in these expensive cities on very meagre salaries and stay at places where cooking is not possible depend completely on street food for their daily grub as they are cheap and filling. Hence apart from the local food one can find cuisines also migrating from other towns to these big cities.

The top ten rankers among street food that have crossed their state boundaries and become popular all over India or major parts of India are the following:

Panipuri – Puris are small hard hollow balls made of wheat flour that has to be popped into the mouth at one go and hence is just the size of your open mouth. Pani is the tangy lip-smacking water; it is prepared by adding the extract of tamarind along with mint and coriander leaves, cumin seeds and black salt to water. All the ingredients of panipuri are kept separate and the level of spice can be adjusted for every individual by adding more or less of the hot or sweet sauce. The filling also varies from region to region. In northern parts people generally prefer a filling of mashed potatoes whereas people in the western regions enjoy panipuri with piping hot boiled chickpeas.

Bhelpuri /Jhaal mudhi- Bhelpuri is the name given to a wonderful mixture. In western India, it is prepared from mixing puffed rice, which is the main ingredient, with onion, tomatoes and chutney. A slightly different recipe made from puffed rice is famous as jhaal mudhi in the northern and eastern parts of India. It differs from bhelpuri as here the chutney is substituted with a drop of mustard oil.

Chaat / ragda patties – Western India enjoys ragda patties that comprises potato chops topped with boiled chickpeas and a variety of other toppings. But the word chaat has a larger spread and is an endless variety in North India especially Delhi.

Samosa - Potato stuffed spicy triangles made of maida. Hot samosas eaten with or without chutney are a favourite with many.

Vada pav / aloo chop-vada pav- In western India vada pav is a fast and filling, non-messy snack which can be had even while walking and travelling. It has become a filler food item for many who are rushing from work to home. But there are many poor people who completely rely on this as a meal. Hence Maharashtra government has taken up plans to fortify pav (bun), an important part of daily meals for many below the poverty line. Chop is a similar version of vada eaten in the northern parts of India but is less spicy and more like a cutlet.

Pav bhaji - Bhaji is a mixture of boiled green vegetables and potatoes in a hot sauce made up of onions, tomatoes and garlic. Mumbai has a huge population of Jains to whom it serves bhaji without garlic, potatoes and onions (consumption of onion, garlic and potatoes is forbidden in Jainism).

Indian Chinese - Cannot be digested by the Chinese stomach, originality remains only in the noodle, rest all is altered to suit the Indian taste buds. Nevertheless, it has gained popularity even out of India.

Idli, vada, dosa sambhar - South Indian fare has gained popularity all over India as the fluffy hot idlis and crispy dosas are low calorific and topped with steaming hot sambhar and coconut chutney turns out to be a yummy delicacy.

Puri bhaji - Puri is fried soft bread made of wheat or maida and is eaten with potato bhaji. Again here, the potato bhaji differs in the north and south. North Indians prefer potato curry while South Indians eat the dry preparation of potato.

Eggs - Boiled eggs and omelette are generally eaten in the North whereas bhurji pav (scrambled eggs with bun) is eaten by South Indians.

If you are a tourist to India, visit it during winter. As in winter you have frequent hunger pangs and also this season is favourable to enjoy and digest the hot and spicy street food. You can walk down any of the Mumbai chowpatty and enjoy the cool breeze, with a coal roasted corncob and chana masala. Apart from this gamut of food, one can beat the heat in Mumbai with fresh coconut water, sugarcane juice (sugarcane is a major produce in Maharashtra) and the Punjabi lassi. One visit to the famous khau galli in Marine Lines (Mumbai) will give you a taste of street food in India and you should also not miss the food fair at Chandni Chowk in Delhi to get the true essence of India. If you love seafood you must take a trip along the coastal line to enjoy mouth-watering fiery fish fries served in small shacks.

Indians are culinary enthusiasts with a palette developed for hot and spicy food. The vibrancy of Indian culture is quite evident in its lip-smacking, hot and spicy cuisine. Irrespective of whether one is in the North, South, East or West, street food is available everywhere. Varied, delicious and economical, they are sure to satisfy taste buds and whet the appetite.

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Resham writes for chillibreeze.

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