There’s a lot to glean from food writer Sonal Ved’s new cookbook India Local beyond the wide variety of recipes. There are food history factoids that tickle the brain—some version of dahi vada can be traced to the 12th century text Manasollasa, Chennai’s street snack sundal finds a mention in literature dating back to the Chola period—and tidbits about the differences in the street food of North and South India, innovations with fascinating ingredients (like Wai Wai) in Northeast India and the many ways household chaat experiments yield ingenious results. Here, Ved speaks to CNT India about the things she loves and learned about the country’s beloved chaats.
What really defines chaat for you?
To answer this, Ved points me towards an excerpt from the introduction to her cookbook: There is an ongoing debate that questions if chaat is the same as street food. The answer is simple—all chaat is street food but all street food is not chaat. For example, a Bombay sandwich or Bihari kebab is street food, but it isn’t chaat. Street food can be a replacement for a meal, something that fills your stomach on a busy day. But chaat…chaat is made of moments like when that puri breaks apart as you try to break into it and a medley of flavours explode on your tongue, reminding you of the hot summer days when you used to climb up trees to pluck and eat imli pods.
Any bizarre street food combinations or experiments that somehow work?
“There are many dishes in the book that have some bizarre combinations and they work, which is why they have gotten so popular around the country. For example, a Darjeeling special is Lal Aloo Wai Wai—raw Wai Wai noodles, soaking in a red aloo gravy. I’ve refrained from including bizarre street food recipes like chocolate dosa or Fanta omelette in the cookbook, as I didn’t want to take the attention away from classic recipes that have survived the test of time and those are the ones I intend to chronicle and archive.
My favourite section is a whole section of unique chaats I have created in my own kitchen, or those I have grown up eating. Like a Vitamin Bhel, Bomb Batata, 8-Layer Dhokla Chaat, Guacamole Galouti or Cheeslings bhel. These are unique, but not bizarre. The flavours work together as well as diet Coke and samosa!”
What’s a destination- in India with an underrated street food scene?
“Definitely Kashmir. Very less is understood and spoken about Kashmiri street food, nor is it replicated elsewhere in the country (barring restaurants). This is mainly because Kashmir’s environment is unique and most street foods are best-suited for that weather. There is Kashmiri masalah tchot, which is a wrap filled with peas and spicy chutneys (almost taco-ey), monji gaade which are fish fritters, and their several morning breads (sold in tiny street shops) like katlam, bakarkhani, lavasa, girda and more. The cookbook even has a recipe for mutton tujj, the most popular boti kebab from this region.”
Given that you’re vegetarian, does the cookbook include meat-based street food?
“There are a lot! The book has recipes such as lamb bhel—something chef Hussain Shahzad taught me for my cooking show Chaats Of India, chicken chaat, Kashmiri mutton tujj, Amritsari macchi, Kolkata kathi roll, egg tikka and Indori egg banjo. I had done ample research on this for my previous books, Tiffin and Whose Samosa Is It Anyway, and stumbled upon these dishes and recipes during that time.”
What did you find out about Indian street food that you didn’t know before?
“I always thought most chaat was North India based. But turns out, there is so much that came out of my own city, Mumbai. Mumbai, as you know is a melting pot of cultures and classes, the rise in immigrant workers led to the need for quick bites to satisfy them on a working day, which is how the great Indian vada pav came into being. But it’s not just vada pav. Everything from a frankie, the Mumbai sandwich, faraali sev puri, Chinese bhel, regular bhel, jinni dosa, bun maska, khopra pattice and pav bhaji became popular here. Of course there are variations of these available across the country and no one place can lay claim on any of them, but a lot came out of Mumbai.”
Source : CondeNastTraveller
