Golgappa platter

Every now and then, I lead a band of salivating men and women to the street food lover’s paradise in Delhi. Friends and strangers call up, urging me to take them to Old Delhi, which is where the real action is. I know the area like the back of my hand — and a bit more — so I am always game to take people to some of my favourite food haunts there. We start our journey with a plate of soft dahi bhalla in Chandni Chowk, eat some fiery papri chaat at Chawri Bazar, round it off with a melting piece of kabab in the evening at Jama Masjid, and then tame the leaping flames with a bowl of chilled kheer in Lal Kuan.

This is street food —and I live for it. If food is my passion, street food is an obsession. I can spend hours in the little lanes and bylanes of the Walled City, trying out a kabab here, or a plate of biryani there. Old men — and their grandsons — line up on the road with makeshift kitchens. Somewhere you’ll find a gnarled old ustad skewering kababs; in another hole in the wall you’ll find a rotund young man mixing papris and boiled potatoes with creamy yoghurt, and doling out a wonderful dish called raj kachori. You can stop by in a corner and eat a kulha, which is a boiled and fried potato, where the centre has been scooped out and filled with a delicious mix of boiled potatoes, channa and chutneys.

Golgappa platter

There was a time when I used to worry about the future of street food. We were all in despair when a judge ruled that food could not be cooked on the streets, and had to be prepared at home and then sold on the roadside. But strangely, it gave a boost to street food instead of killing it. If you log on to the Internet, you’ll find a whole range of street food sites and blogs. My street food blog (delhistreetfood. blogspot.com) gets queries from friends and strangers alike.

Elsewhere too, street food is on a revival route. Some of the top hotels are doffing their caps to it. A few weeks ago I went to Fire at The Park in Delhi, and had a great meal of street food dishes from different parts of the country. The start itself was auspicious — for the meal opened with different kinds of golgappas or phuckhas.

Pav bhaji

Though many diehard phuckha lovers believe that the phuckha — crunchy papris filled with potatoes, channa and chutneys — are the be-all and end-all of street food, I have to point out that these are just a tiny part of the treasure trove. Street food includes hundreds of dishes — from jhal muri and telebhaja to pav bhaji and idlis, or even jalebi and milk.

What’s important is that street food is not just vegetarian. In parts of Delhi, as well as in cities such as Hyderabad, you’ll find hawkers with deghs of biryani or kababs. In parts of the west, you can eat your prawn Koliwada — a delicious dish of prawns mixed with spices and then fried. In the south you can eat a dosai with a hot meen kozhambu, a fish dish cooked with coconut. The east has its share of kobiraji cutlets and chops — mutton, fish, chicken or prawns — that you can get in the smallest of stalls.

This is the food of the people. And the greatest fun is in eating out in the open, immersed in the sounds and colours of India. This, to my mind, is Incredible India.

Raj Kachori

Ingredients (to serve 2)

• 25gm flour • 100gm semolina • 5gm salt • 10gm besan • Salt, to taste • 5gm red chilli powder • Oil for frying • 10gm chopped cucumber • 10gm chopped tomato • 10gm crushed papri • 10gm mint coriander chutney • 25gm sweetened curd • 10gm saunth chutney • Dal sev, to sprinkle • 5gm moong sprout • 5gm mixed channa sprout • 10gm fried potato strips • Red chilli powder, a pinch

Method

Mix the last five ingredients and set aside. Make a dough with flour, semolina, salt and water. Make another soft dough with besan, salt, chilli and oil. Make small balls out of the flour dough and then stuff it with the besan mix. Roll it into a roti-like disc. Fry in moderately hot oil and keep it aside. Fry it once more so that it puffs up. Store the kachori in a dry place. Make a hollow in the kachori from the top and fill it with crushed papri, chopped cucumber and tomato. Add the sprout mix to it. Top with chutneys and curd. Garnish with dal sev and serve.

Dahi bhalla

Ingredients (to serve 8)

• 500gm soaked urad dal dhuli (black gram) • 50gm cumin seeds • 10gm chopped coriander leaves • 10gm chopped ginger • 5gm chopped green chilli • Salt to taste • Oil for frying • 400gm thick curd • 100gm sugar

Method

Soak the urad dal for 2-3 hours. Grind it to a thick paste. Add cumin seeds and all the chopped ingredients. Mix well with the batter. Set aside for 15-20 minutes. Make dumplings and deep fry them. Mix sugar in the curd till the sugar dissolves.

Take the fried bhallas and soak them in lukewarm water. Dip each bhalla in the water for about 15 seconds. Take it out and squeeze it slightly so that the excess water drains out. Let the bhallas cool. Then pour the sweetened curd on it. Garnish the dahi bhalla with sweet tamarind chutney, ginger juliennes and pomegranate seeds. Serve.