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Aloo tuk chaat at Zaffran.
Mumbai loves chaat, and those of us who eat on the streets here will ferociously proclaim the virtues of our favourite chaat wala. Often the chutneys are the magic ingredient, but occasionally it’s the quality of the sev, the way the veggies are sliced, the chaat masala used, or simply, somebody’s “haath” that elevates a snack into something you can’t get anywhere else but at that one stall. Street food vendors also come up with the most unusual innovations, and sometimes it’s their chaat “invention” that earns them a faithful following. Here’s my pick of the most crazy – and tasty – chaat creations available across the city.
Channa Jor Bhel and Fried Dal Bhel
Available at: Gupta Bhel Wala, on the pavement outside Khyber and Fabindia in Kala Ghoda.
Price: Rs20 each
This third-generation bhel and pani puri vendor, who sets up shop right next to Sanjay Singh’s sandwich stall, sells over a dozen varieties of chaat. If you manage to resist his regular bhel and half-hot-half-cold ragda pani puri, try his fried channa chor (chana jor) bhel or fried dal bhel, in which chanar jor and fried dal respectively replace kurmura or puffed rice. The bhels even travel well, as slightly moist chana chor or fried dal doesn’t taste bad at all. Douse the heat on your palate at either the nariyal pani wala or the nimbu pani wala, both of whom have stalls close by.
Crazy scale: ★★☆☆☆
Mirchi Kachori Chaat With Only Mirchis
Available at: Kailash Parbat, Luis Belle Building, corner of 16th Road and 30th Road, opposite Shiv Sagar, Pali Naka, Bandra (West). Tel: 022 2648 0080. For other locations, see here.
Price: Rs50
“One mirchi kachori chaat, no kachori please” has been one of my standard orders at Kailash Parbat for years. What I get is six tangy and spicy masala-stuffed green chilli pakodas swathed in yoghurt and KP’s three delicious chutneys, chilli, tamarind, and kothmir-mint. Be warned though, it’s not for the faint of heart – this off-the-menu item will have you waving your hand in front of your face, wiping your watering eyes, and cooling down with spoonfuls of chilled yoghurt.
Crazy scale: ★★1/2
Manchurian Locho
Available at: Jani Khaman And Locho House, Shop No.11, Star Trade Centre, Sodawala Lane, opposite Chamunda Circle, Borivali (West). Tel: 022 2893 5653.
Price: Rs40
Locho is a bad mistake made good through the spirit of entrepreneurship. When a cook in Surat added too much water to his khaman batter, it became the base for locho. At Jani, which recently opened in Mumbai after years of success in Surat, locho has gone the way Mumbai’s street dosa and bhel have – it’s got a Chindian version, with a topping of Manchurian or Szechuan sauce along with butter, chaat masala, sev, and onions. For an additional Rs10, they’ll add cheese.
Crazy scale: ★★★★★
Aloo Bomb
Available at: Street stall behind SIES College lane, in front of National Kannada Education Society High School, Wadala.
Price: Rs2 per piece
Baby potatoes are boiled in haldi, scooped out until they are hollow (like pani puri shells) and then filled with three chutneys (a runny but potent imli chutney, a green chutney, and a red chutney), chopped onions, lime and sev to make an aloo bomb (or “bum” as it’s often pronounced). Because it substitutes deep-fried puris with boiled potatoes, the aloo bomb is healthier than both sev or pani puri. But that’s not why it’s popular. Just three pieces of this ridiculously addictive snack make for a very satisfactory meal.
Crazy scale: ★★★★1/2
Aloo Tuk Chaat
Available at: Zaffran, Infiniti Mall 2, Link Road, Malad (West). Tel: 022 6450 2828. For other locations, see here.
Price: Rs250
This inventive take on the traditional Sindhi appetiser known as aloo tuk is so popular that each outlet of Zaffran gets 50 orders for it per day. Here, after unpeeled baby potatoes are fried until almost cooked through, drained, left to cool, smashed until flattened and re-fried until crunchy, they are tossed with a tangy, sweet and spicy tamarind chutney, onions, green chillies, chaat masala, and lime juice. Unlike the Sindhi version, which is prepared with mirchi and amchur powder, Zaffran’s aloo tuk is transformed from a fried, starchy snack to a filling chaat that works as a quick meal.
Crazy scale: ★★★1/2
Toast Sev Puri
Available at: Gupta Chaat Corner, near Chheda Dry Fruit Stores, Bhanu Jyoti Building, Lakhamsi Napoo Road, Matunga (East). Tel: 98333 25573.
Price: Rs40; Rs10 extra for cheese
Imagine this: a slice of bread is buttered, slathered with green chutney, topped with six sev puris with all the fixings of chutney, boiled potato, onions, and of course sev, and then covered with another buttered slice of bread. This is then grilled and buttered some more, before being garnished with another sprinkling of sev. Gupta Chaat Corner’s bestsellers are bhel, sev puri, dahi puri, and pani puri but the toast sev puri is how it found fame.
Crazy scale: ★★★★★
Bhelpuri Sandwich
Available at: Food For Thought, Kitab Khana, Somaiya Bhavan, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Flora Fountain, Fort. Tel: 022 2284 4242.
Price: Rs220
During the period when owner Resham Sanghi was trying to come with ideas for sandwich fillings for her bookshop’s cafe, she served bhel inside a toasted sandwich to her kids. They loved it, and so it made it to the menu. Soon after, the bhelpuri sandwich became the cafe’s bestseller. Ask for extra chutney, chopped onions and tomatoes in the bhel to give the sandwich both juiciness and bite.
Crazy scale: ★★★★☆
Vitamin Bhel
Available at: Soam, Sadguru Sadan, Ground Floor, opposite Babulnath Temple, Chowpatty. Tel: 022 2369 8080.
Price: Rs155
Vitamin bhel is a mix of sprouted lentils and legumes topped with chilled yoghurt, jaggery chutney, green chutney and chopped capsicum, tomato and cucumber. It sounds like it’s good for you, and it is, but it hardly tastes like health food. Owner Pinky Chandan Dixit says the light and refreshing snack sells the most during summer, when about 30 or 40 plates are served up every day.
Crazy scale: ★★★1/2
Chicken Chaat
Available at: Food First, DLH Park, Third Floor, S. V. Road, Sundar Nagar, Goregaon (West). Tel: 022 2876 2222.
Price: Rs245
Not everything works at Food First, but their chicken chaat has become quite popular among patrons. Spicy tandoori chicken is chopped into tiny bits, and then left to chill and marinate a second time in a “chef’s special sauce”, which is dominated by the flavours of Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, sesame seeds and olive oil. Just before it’s moved to a customer’s table, the chicken chaat is tossed with kachumber and served cold.
Crazy scale: ★★★1/2
Dayaram’s Chhappan Bhog
Available at: Dayaram’s, Shop No.2, 191 Kapadiya Building, 2nd Agiary Lane, Zaveri Bazaar. Tel: 98191 59658.
Price: Rs15 per plate, Rs200 per kilogram for takeaway orders
At Dayaram’s, at least half-a-dozen busy staff members can be seen briskly tossing up chhappan bhog chaat, while a clutch of customers either wait to be served, or pay for their grab-n-go pouch of chaat and secret masala. The chaat – which may not be prepared with 56 ingredients but is divine nonetheless – is made with fried channa dal, channa chor, two kinds of chiwda, nylon sev, Kabuli channa, peanut bhajiya, and mung dal. The secret masala contains, among other things, dhaniya powder, jeera powder, black pepper, cloves, and elaichi.
Crazy scale: ★★★1/2
Pappu’s Chivda Bhel
Available at: Pappu’s, corner of Dhanji Street and 1st Agiary Lane, Zaveri Bazaar.
Price: Rs15
Pappu has a little stool with a basket, a loyal but small cult following, and a poha-chivda-chilli-lime bhel that he says is his invention. Like Dayaram, Pappu sells only one item, and claims that his chaat is not to be found anywhere else in the world.
Crazy scale: ★★★☆☆
Roshni Bajaj Sanghvi is a Mumbai-based food journalist, a contributing editor at Vogue magazine, a graduate of the French Culinary Institute in New York City, and the restaurant reviewer for the Hindustan Times newspaper in Mumbai.