India Local review: A culinary ode to the street foods of the country

In India Local: Classic Street Food Recipes (Roli Books), Sonal Ved brings to us the recipes of well-loved street foods and chaats from different regions of the country. The rigorously detailed, yet easily approachable recipes are presented along with artful colour images of finished dishes and the history behind the emergence of this category of foods in India.

Going into the origin story of this beloved category of foods, Ved writes that references to some of the dishes can be seen in Manasollasa, a twelfth century Sanskrit text authored by the Kalyani Chalukya ruler, King Someshvara III, who ruled in the area around present-day Karnataka. The book, a socio-cultural treatise, contains chapters on foods and festivals and has references to vadas, purikas (resembling puris or papadis), curd, and mixtures of spices.

A multitude of irresistible flavours

In the introduction to India Local, the author writes, “A ubiquitous part of the collective Indian culinary identity, irrespective of background, of region, of affordability, the love for chaat is similar to a religion that suits everyone: you don’t like the teekha pani puri, let the sweet potato tikki chaat soothe your palate. You don’t like the zero-textured dahi vada, let the crunchy papdi chaat rescue you.”

Drawing the difference between chaats and street foods, Ved writes that while all chaat is street food, not all street food is chaat. She goes on to state that while street food can be a replacement for a meal, and eaten to fill your stomach, chaat is something you eat to experience a medley of flavours that bring back memories.

When you look at the places from where a majority of the chaats hail from, Maharashtra tops the list, sealing the debate of whether Mumbai or Delhi can claim to be the ‘chaat capital’ of the nation. Though a majority of the recipes are from foods associated with cities and towns in North India, the book also lists foods from the south, like dosa, sundal and the Burmese atho (noodle dish) from Tamil Nadu.

The ingredients in most of the recipes make up a signature set — coriander, potato, chillies, tomatoes, onions, pomegranate seeds, yoghurt, lentil batter, flours of wheat, corn, rice, semolina. It is fascinating to note the vastly different tastes and textures that can be conjured up through permutations and combinations of these basic set of ingredients with differing forms of assembling the foods and an array of chutneys assisting in creating a multitude of irresistible flavours.

Recipes from across the country

If there is one item that pops up in most of the foods, either singly or in combination with other worthy associates, it would be potatoes. It appears in various forms in the recipes —tikkis, mashed, fried, lending heft to paneer, lentil batters or even stuffed into chillies, a quiet but determined foreign entity that has marked its space in the food scape of India. Various lentils and pulses also play a starring role in the recipes along with yoghurt, which is almost a staple in the case of chaats especially.

The recipes, explained in a straightforward format with easy instructions, come labelled with the places they are associated with. While a majority of the recipes are traced to Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, the inclusion of recipes of foods from Sikkim, Kashmir, Manipur, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, showcases unique ingredients common to these regions. In the recipes we see items such as lotus root, walnut powder, perilla seeds, fermented fish providing a whiff of different flavours that can be sampled through the street foods of these regions.

Besides the well-loved and documented foods like dahi poori, raj kachori, ragda patties, recipes include those for some unique foods not known as widely as the others. Chaats served in edible-baskets made out of flour, fruit and vegetable cups, tikkis made out of purple yam, Tibetan empanadas, tomato chaat topped with sugar syrup and sev, flower-shaped pedas fried and drizzled with chutneys and powders, portray enticing flavours and textures that beg to be sampled.

An invaluable source of culinary reference

In addition to the classic recipes and the unique offering from different regions, Ved has also included recipes developed in her own kitchen, some of them born out of tips from celebrated chefs. In this section, we see how an avocado can be persuaded into taking a starring role in a galouti kebab, a lasagne that can be fashioned by layering papdi with cheese, potato (of course) and orange flavoured yoghurt sauce, waffle cones serving as the vehicle to serve a spicy textured chaat, besides other interesting combinations involving Tuscan kale leaves, dhokla, quinoa and olives.

The array of chutney recipes showcases classic ones that have long been flavouring street foods. It also includes unusual ones like the Kashmiri dip using radish, walnut and yoghurt, or the south Indian radish chutney flavoured with coconut and byadgi chillies.

Accompanying the recipes are photographs of vendors and shops selling street foods as well as pictures of some of the foods by Karam Puri. The vibrant colours of the book cover must also be mentioned here — reds, yellow, green and blue, juxtaposed with traditional motifs that define the culture of the country, making this recipe collection stand out and call for attention.

Saluting the work of iconic eateries in India who have been serving these beloved foods, Ved, author of two New York Times accredited books, provides a list of such eating places for those who want to sample the foods in a truly authentic setting.

India Local is an invaluable source of culinary reference for chefs and home cooks who are interested in recreating the flavours of beloved chaats and street foods, besides unique foods from other regions, in their own kitchens.