A COOL CHAT ON CHAAT ITEMS
When in India, you cannot miss hitting the streets, finding food stalls lined up in every corner serving hot savories and chaats. The aroma that fills the evening streets, invite the locals as well as the tourists, and also the children and the adults alike to relax and relish each flavor served. The tangy mix of the sauces, the crunchy crisps, and the flavor of eating a hot savory lingers in your taste buds for a long time after.
A perfect mix of spiciness, crunchiness and tanginess, Samosa Chaat is one of the most popular savouries on the streets of India. You might already be familiar with Samosas, the triangular crisps filled with veggies on the inside, but what is Chaat? Samosa already has all the flavours we crave, why is there a need for this Chaat? We all have our secret sauces that make our dish stand apart, and Chaat is one of those secrets you are about to know.
Chaat can be quite an ambiguous recipe to define. Every region of the country has its own preparatory methods and ingredients for the dish. Making the perfect Chaat that goes with your dish takes practice but nevertheless it also gives one room to experiment with many different variations. A typical chaat is a savoury that comes with a mixture of potatoes, crisps, chickpea curry, sauces, chutney, a dash of salt and spices.
The chickpea curry is prepared separately and is added on top of the main ingredient, along with yoghurt, sev, and coriander leaves. It is then topped with Chutney and Sweet sauce. The three types of chutney: Sweet Tamarind chutney, Cilantro chutney and the Red garlic chutney used in any chaat dish bring all the flavors of sweet, tangy and spicy all together in one bite. By design, Chaat is every bit as addictive as potato chips, maybe more. Some of the other popular Chaats include Channa Chaat, Dahi Papdi Chaat, Pakoda Chaat, and Kachodi Chaat, and all these follow a similar recipe with a change in the main ingredient.
Samosa Chaat is one of the most popular snacks in the world because it has two of the most delicious savours in the world served together on a plate. Dahi Papri Chaat, is yet another that one cannot miss. Also known as Aloo Papdi Chaat or Sev Papdi Chaat, this chaat is native to the streets of Delhi. It’s also called as Papri chaat in the native lingo. It is a perfect balance of all tastes in one simple dish. You will feel the tanginess, sweet and spice of the chutneys coupled with the cooling yogurt finished off with a crunch from the thin gram flour sev.
Indian street foods are something for everyone to experience at least once in their life, and at Amma’s South Indian Restaurant, you are welcome to relish a variety of it every day.
