India is diverse! We’ve
heard that a thousand times over. With reference to the cultures, languages
spoken, geography, climate, cloth, clothes-dressing styles etcetera. Obviously the
diversity holds true with reference to food as well. You have regional
specialities and then the same dish made differently in each region and ‘food
fights’ break out all over the place with people vying for the titles of ‘best
biriyani’ or ‘best chaats’ or ‘best dosas’ and even ‘best golgappa’.
How can one objectively
decide though? How can one be the best universally? Taste is so subjective!
Food is so subjective! India’s diversity extends to the various dishes and
foods made, grown, cooked and produced in the country. There are diverse
ingredients, diverse gravies, diverse tastes that are produced, diverse
renditions of the same dish and diverse reactions rendered thus.
No matter what one’s
heart, stomach, tongue craves you can be sure you can find it on the streets of
India. I am of course referring to the thriving Street food ‘industry’ famous
in India.
As kids we’ve all been
told not to eat anything from the vendors on the street and told graphically
and extensively of the ‘untold’ miseries that those indulgences can result in
and in many a case the warnings have proved true and yet nothing deters the
street food industry! Maybe it is the sheer population and the basic necessity
for sustenance through consumption of food? Maybe it is the poverty in India
and the price of street food that acts as a motivating factor? Maybe it is the
population size and the poverty combined and the easy, quick and successful
employment opportunities provided by the ‘industry’. Or maybe it is just the
Food!? Maybe it is that unbeatable taste? Maybe it is the secret recipe with
that secret ingredient of it being sold on the dusty, dirty, grimy streets of
India. Maybe there is no other more authentic source for local flavour than
your street-corner food vendor. Perhaps the taste of India is on its streets
(in its street food).
An outsider when asked
what the most distinctive or characteristic flavour of Indian food is, usually has
a standard response of ‘spice’ or ‘lots of masala taste’. While certain foods
will of course be spicy or make use of some masala or the other, this response
is highly skewed and is hardly representative of the rich (with flavour) and
diverse palates that Indian street food caters to!
One can find almost
sickly sweet rasagullas, jalebis dripping with sticky gur on the streets of
India as often as spicy mollaga bhajjis (chillies deep fried in oil) and vada
pav with a spicy chutney and a dash of sour lemon essence squeezed into it with
a salted fried chilli stuck in the middle for dramatic effect. Diversity in
tastes is the real speciality of Indian street food and any Indian worth his
salt (and pepper and masala and gunpowder) can testify to that!
What I find truly
appreciable about the Indian street food industry is that it is so dynamic and
bounded by no limits. You have all sorts of cuisines available and by no means
just indigenous. Not only do you find dosas (of South India) in delhi and the
katti rolls (of kolkatta) in kerala but you find exotic international cuisines
surfacing in all streets of India! What, with momos becoming the rage and the
pizzas and burgers never going out of style.
There is seasonal
change too! In the summers you find fresh fruit juice vendors churning out
ice-cold sugar cane juice, mosambi juice, lime juice, watermelon juice, not to
mention the ice on sticks coloured with flavoured water (the ultimate kala
khatta!) and the many ice-cream vendors. You might not think it when you think
of Indian street food but health consciousness seeps in at some stage and you
find a lot of spiced watermelon pieces, salted cucumber strips and tender
coconuts with water and malai sellers to help you beat the heat.
In winter (of India...
basically not the summer season) one looks forward to the hot teas and hot
momos or the freshly made warm katti rolls that warm you inside and out and the
golden brown dosas with the tri-colour chutneys or the piping hot pav bhajji
that burns the hand that tries to quell it.
Tea is one of India’s
favourite beverages and you will always find a tea stand on every street corner
(which is the promise Cafe Coffee Day has been making, at least in Bangalore
but it is next to impossible to oust a chai walla from his chosen spot).
Chai walas are walking
talking caterers and you find them not just on the streets but also at railway
stations and on the trains. The difference between the chai wallas in various
regions of India is only in the way they say the word ‘chai’. From ‘choy’,
‘cha’, ‘che’, ‘chai’ to ‘tea’, the unmistakable wake up call to passengers
aboard a train - the word is a joy to hear and the first sip is literally an
eye-opening experience. The warmth spreads everywhere and a sense of purpose is
restored to weary travellers.
Railway food hawkers
are a class apart. Foods parcelled in newspapers have their own taste. The
chutney and side dish all mixed up with the breads or rice has a nicely deeply
settled, well mixed and absorbed feel to it.
Another great thing about
street food cooks is their constant experimentation and reinventing that allows
for brilliant breakthroughs that blow our minds and tantalize our taste buds.
Egg dosa is one such dish that I came across in a hole in the wall kind of
joint. So the proprietor, entrepreneur, cook, accountant and waiter are all one
and this enterprising guy makes this unique dosa which when he flips over on
the tava, smashes an egg yolk and white onto it in the nick of time to give it
an egg coating on one side which is of course flavoured with some salt and
chilli powder. This unique two in one concoction is served with a spicy and
salty side dish made of no one knows what and no one ever asks but is more
delicious than words can describe! Other testaments to experimental cooking in
Indian street food are Chinese bhel, flavoured boiled corn etcetera which are
as common as dirt (in Indian street food literally!) today.
A speciality snack
available on the beaches of Chennai is ‘manga orrapodi’ which is basically raw
mango strips slit into perforated pieces and spiced with salt and chilli
powder. It is hard to say how much on there is sand and salt blown in by the
sea breeze and how much is salted chilli powder but what can be said is it is
absolutely to die for and will give you a sore throat that’ll last a week after
just two pieces!
Boiled and salted
groundnuts or roasted peanuts with a dash of mustard oil and chopped onions,
tomatoes and chillies combined with a cornflakes like substitute is another
popular Indian street food that is sold in newspaper cones and cost hardly a
few rupees but goes a long way in satiating what the tongue wants.
Each region, state even
city in India have their speciality dishes which are hotly contested for by
others who claim to make it better but I suppose ‘to each his own’ fits here.
We’ve all heard of
A.P.J Abdul Kalam’s partiality to the golgappas from Juhu beach and Rahul
Gandhi’s fetish for Lucknow’s famous tunday kababs. We’re all slaves to our
preferences and tastes one way or another.
To a Mumbaikar the
Chowpatty Beach salty-spicy golgappa is God while the ‘Calcutta Chaat’ golgappa
is sweet and serene to a Bengali!
Fish fry on the streets
of every coastally situated land in India makes the ‘best’ fish fry without a
doubt!
Biriyani (chicken,
mutton, fish) is the speciality of Lucknow, Andhra, Kerala!? Well actually all
to be politically correct (and respectively).
Which
is the original and correct taste of sambar? Is it sweet or spicy? Is it salty
or sour? Which vegetables can be used in it?
Which
is the true rasam? Pepper? Lemon? Tomato
The
right answer is whichever you like best! That is the best part about street
food. There is so much scope for subjectivity. One can choose what one likes
best. There is customisation, innovation and endless choice! It is the dream
market scenario where demand and supply seem limitless and both the cook and
the consumer are king. Money is hardly an object and the divide between the
haves and have nots in monetary terms is much reduced when it is the love for
Indian street food that unites them.
Food
is a basic necessity,
Of
demand and supply there is no scarcity!
Salty,
Spicy, Sour and/or Sweet
The
four S’s that flavour what we eat.
Let
different regions and recipes not be a separator
Let
taste and love for good food be the uniter.
Food
in India is anything we eat
Authentic Indian food
is found on the street
Disclaimer
All
opinions expressed in the above are entirely my own. Formed basis years of
eating Indian street food (and surviving to tell the tale).
Food
is something that I’m very passionate about and I wrote what I felt about this
topic primarily through experiential learning’s and takeaways that I’ve gotten
over the years, personally. Certain facts have of course been picked up on the
way from the news and word of mouth, which I have cited informally in the above
piece.
