STREET FOODS OF INDIA | hguy.blogspot.com

1. Paani Puri (also called Ghapchup or Gol Gappa)

It's a pan-India dish.  The puri is common everywhere. Made of atta or sooji. Flatbread fried till it puffs up. But it is the paani that makes the difference and this is what makes it mouth-watering.  Paani is the watery liquid added into the puri. Usually two kinds. One sweetish, the other green chili hot that should make you cry. 
So a hole is made in the puffed-up flat bread (simple thumb action no rocket science) and filled with mashed potato or peas or boondi mixed with chaat masala. This is then dipped in the liquid. Either one or both, depending on your taste.
You can take the dish one level higher if you add ice to the liquid.
Goes without saying, a very unhygienic dish.

2. Vada Pav

It's an east meets west dish. Pav is western for sure. English but most likely Portuguese. That's cut in half and a batata vada (potato bonda or bajji or pakoda) is placed in it. You add chutneys and powders to give it your special flavor but the best accompaniment is deep-fried green chilly whole.
A very Maharashtra dish.

3. Gobi Manchurian 

This is a created-in-India made-in-India Chinese dish. Cauliflower aka Gobi is chopped into bite-sized bits and soaked in a mixture of corn-starch, maida, and masalas and salt then fried to a nice crispy brown. From here it can take two paths. One dry, the other gravy. You saute it light to make it dry or wet it a little more for gravy. You have soy sauce, tomato ketchup, and chili sauce here to play with. 
We Bangaloreans had only this one dish for an evening outing for donkey's years. Now we have everything including momos and waffles.



4. Jalebi

More than what it contains, it's the tools and process that should be noted. First, you need a cloth pouch (1 ft by 1 ft) usually made of muslin with a hole in the center. Then you need a kadia that is special to jalebi making. It's flat bottom but low rise. Now you make the batter (all Indian batter is the same, almost) and keep it overnight. Place this semi-solid semi-liquid batter in the cloth and use the pressure of your palm to make small concentric circles in the flat bottom kadia now with hot oil. 
In another vessel make chasni.  Sugar syrup. Boil water and put sugar. It's that simple. Don't do rocket science here. But if you want to, learn about 1-tar 2-tar that's 1-string 2-string consistency.
Turn over the jalebi that is cooking in the aforementioned kadai and let it become sort of crispy brown. Remember the batter should start of white. If its not then artificial color has been added. beware. Now take it out, drain the oil and dip it in the sugar syrup. Not too long, 20 seconds at best - to preserves the crispy nature of jelebis. 
It's ready to serve. 
A yellow-orange, slightly transparent sweet.
We have cousins of jalebi called Imarti and Jhangeri. 




5. Bhel Puri

Take a handful of puffed rice (murmura), and mix it with tamarind juice, green chili juice, and chutneys. You get Bhel Puri with that sweet sour tangy taste that's so addictive. 

Did I mention it is low-calorie? Add onions and kothmir and top it with sev, boondi or ground nuts or small pieces of potatoes.

Its available all India and by god, tastes different everywhere. The best Bhel is from Mumbai.

6. Egg

Boiled egg, bread omelet, egg rice, egg roll, egg paratha, anda burger. This brings me to the fact that egg is the king of Indian street food.  You can add it any where. Maggi, biryani, half boiled, half fried, bull's eye, curry, or scrambled.

7. Butta

Corn on a cob sold either roasted or boiled. Add fresh lime juice to take it one level up.

8.    Samosa

Boil potatoes, and skin and mash them and add masalas and fry a little. Add peas, chole, carrots anything that gets you going. 

Then press down roti puri dough- small size, cut in half. In each half put some allo mash and fold to get a triangular pyramid. Now deep fry it and serve it with khatta chutney or ketchup.

You have the hyderabadi small samosa. Instead of allo (potato) you have pyaz (onion) fried here. These are crispier too. And with a totally different taste. Sold mostly in the Muslim areas and the Irani cafes.

Then you have halvai samosa. Big giants made richer with Kaju or Kismis. 

You can even make it non-veg by adding keema or small pieces of mutton or chicken.

9. Bajji aka Pakoda

Take big green mirchi (chillies) dipped in besan batter and deep fry it. Well, in the same batter you can dip sliced brinjal, spinach, capsicum, potato, bread, paneer and anything else you can think of including chicken. In the end, if nothing is left, the batter itself is deep fried to make boondi or plain fritters. 

There on you add accompaniment, chopped onions, and chutneys. 

A slight variation is masala or channa vada which is an entirely different animal.

You can value add to the samosa by dipping it in chasni aka sugar syrup or make samosa ragda with it.

Millions eke out a living selling these items roadside in India.

#streetfood #india