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Street food and chaat
Chaat is a category built on a single principle: every mouthful should be simultaneously sour, sweet, salty, spicy, crunchy and soft. It's engineered contrast.
The chaat family
| Pani puri / golgappa / puchka | Hollow crisp spheres filled with spiced water, potato and chickpea. Eaten whole, in one go, standing up — and the vendor keeps handing them over until you say stop |
| Bhel puri | Puffed rice tossed with onion, tomato, chutneys and sev. Must be eaten immediately or it goes soft |
| Sev puri & dahi puri | Flat crisp discs topped with potato, chutneys and either sev or sweetened yoghurt |
| Aloo tikki | Fried potato patties with chutney and yoghurt |
| Papdi chaat | Crisp wafers, yoghurt, chutneys, pomegranate |
Beyond chaat
- Vada pav — Mumbai's spiced potato fritter in a bread roll. The city's defining street food.
- Pav bhaji — mashed spiced vegetables with buttered rolls, cooked on an enormous flat griddle.
- Kathi roll — Kolkata's paratha wrap with kebab and onions.
- Bhutta — charcoal-roasted corn with lime, salt and chilli. The monsoon snack.
The three chutneys
Nearly all of it rests on the same trio: green (coriander-mint, sharp), tamarind-date (sweet-sour, dark), and a dry red garlic chutney. Making those three means you can assemble most chaat at home.
Last updated: 2026-08-11
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