Food is an important part of every day’s celebration. Food plays an important role in an individual’s life by providing various nutrients to the body. They are also eaten for pleasure. Indian street foods are among those foods. They have a wide variety and various exotic flavors.
The availability of food at a lower cost also plays a major role in making the food reach great success. This is because this Indian Street food has been breakfast and dinner in many households. These Indian street foods have also been major popular attractions from foreign tourists because of their varieties and multiplicity.
The Indian Street food depends upon the place where it is available. For example, vada pav is one of the Indian street foods which is commonly available in Northern parts of India where pav ( a type of milk bun) and potato food are famous.
Every year there is a national food festival which happens every year for five days. It is organized by the National Association of Street Vendors of India. It can be abbreviated as NASVI. The food festival consists of Indian street food sold by street vendors. There are also various fulfilled games. It is basically like a funfair. This is mainly conducted to support the vendors with extra employment opportunities in order to increase their income.
This event has greatly impacted in breaking the prejudices of street food being unhygienic. It has made a great effect on the initiative. There is also various food festival which also happens in various states of India. The images of food refer to the locality, staple crops of a particular place. The spices in the particular food reflect the climate of the food. The food variety has undergone various changes with reference to various invasions which have happened in various places. Thus Indian street food is an untold story of history that has been passed through various foods.
Famous Indian Street Food:
There are some of the Indian street foods which are greatly famous. They can be identified as special markers. The famous Indian street foods are as follows:
- Roti- it is a type of bread which is made with wheat flour or atta and water. It is cooked using ghee. This type of food is most popular in northern parts of India. There have many varieties in roti by creating rumali roti which is a variant of roti. The dough prepared for the rotti is similar to that of pizza dough. This dough does not rise like a pizza dough because there is an absence of yeast in the ingredient. It can be eaten with veg curry and non-veg curry.
Tikka- Tikka is a type of food that is cooked on the fire. It is similar to a barbecue. It is most popular in Punjab. The tikka is mostly made with boneless chicken which is coated with various spices and cooked on fire without oil. It is served with chutney. The vegan version consists of using paneer, potato and mushroom as a substitute for chicken.
- Paratha- It is also a type of roti which is made by maida. There have been many parathas such as garlic paratha and cabbage paratha. It is usually served with spicy gravy and chicken curry.
- Dosa- It is a food mostly found in Southern parts of India. The dosa is like a pancake in appearance but it consists of the batter made with rice and urad dal being fermented overnight. The dosa can be eaten with various kinds of sambhar and chutney. The dosa has various kinds of variants such as podi dosa which is made with idli podi, masala dosa which is made with potato stuffed into the dosa and Rava dosa.
- Vadapav- It consists of vada made with potato mixture and stuffed into pav bun along with green chutney, garlic chutney. It is popular in Mumbai. It came into being in the year 1960 and 1970 by a vendor known as Ashok Vaidya. He introduced this Indian street food as food in terms of its affordability and portability.
- Chana masala- It is popular in Gujarat. It consists of chickpeas cooked with various spicy and flavorful masalas. They are garnished with onions, chutney or curd. There is also a variant of it in Pakistan. It is one of the famous plant-based foods famous among all kinds of people.
- Samosa- It is a fried food that uses samosa sheets. The samosa is mostly made with maida. They are made into a cone shape. They are stuffed with onions, peas or meat. They are deep-fried in oil. These are eaten with chutneys.
- Chaat- It is a kind of snack which is made with chutneys, boiled potato and crispy namkeen.It is very flavorful and tasty.
- Appam- It is a south Indian popular in Kerala. It consists of rice grains, coconut and banana which is mixed into a batter. It is cooked in steam. The corner parts are crisp while the middle part consists of a peak and it is soft. It is eaten with coconut milk and goat payaa.
- Panipuri- It is known as golgappa puri. It consists of puri made with maida. It is served with green colour water, potato and chutneys. It has a combination of many flavours. There is also a variant of panipuri known as Dahi puri.
- Kulfi- It is a kind of ice cream made with milk, sugar, food coloring and nuts. It is very famous among all kinds of ages in India.
- Chhole bhatture- It consists of Maida flour frying into the oil.it looks like a giant stuffing. It is served with channa masala.
These Indian street foods are famous in their parent country. Their popularity has resulted in it being spread into other parts of India.
The one great aspect is that we can make these days Indian street foods. There are a variety of semi-finished packets of Indian street food which can be made at home. For eg. haldirams. The person can also make the recipes from scratch. The instructions are available in the form of YouTube videos and blogs. The names of some YouTube channels are as follows:
1.Hebbars kitchen.
2.Tara Dalal
There are a variety of channels available on youtube so one needn’t fix onto these channels for Indian street food recipes.
North Indian Street Food:
The list and description of the North Indian street food are as follows:
- Aloo tikki- It consists of a cutlet-like structure made with potato and served with chutney, namkeen , curd and pomegranate seeds.
- Pav bhaji- It is made with milk bun which is known as pav and served with vegetable gravy. It is topped with onions and lemon.
- Poha Jalebi- It is made with poha. Poha is a flattened kind of rice. It is served with flavoured poha , sev , pomegranate and jalebi.it is found in Indore.
- Litti chokka- It is made with sattu flour and served with potato, brinjal gravy and chutney. It is famous in the streets of Patna.
- Tunday Kebabi- It is a type of kebabs made with meat and various other flavours. It is famous in Lucknow.
- Galouti kebabs- These are also kebabs made with meat, papaya and different spices. They are served with spices.
- Moong dal bhajiya- It is a popular food in Gujarat. it is made with moong dal. It consists of sweet and salty flavors.
- Kachori- It is a maida crust that is stuffed with lentils, peas and served with chutneys.
- Ghungi chat- It is commonly seen in the streets of Bengal. It consists of lentils and peas served with different flavors.
- Egg rolls- It consists of egg omelet rolled with flavorful stuffing. It is popular in Calcutta.
South Indian Street Food
These Indian street foods are most common in southern parts of India. They are as follows:
- Idli- It is one of the south Indian street food which consists of two pancakes like structured cooked in steam. The batter is made with rice and urad dhal. It is served with sambhar, chutney and idli podi. It can also be eaten with non-veg curry. There are various varieties such as Rava idli and masala idli.
- Vada- it is a fried crispy snack. It is one of the south Indian street foods made with dhal, onion, green chilli, ginger. There are variants of vadai known as medu vada, paruppu vada.
- Puttu and channa- It is a food made with rice flour, coconut and salt. It is served with boiled black channa. It can also be eaten with a banana. It is one of the popular lightweight Indian street foods in Kerala.
- Idiyappam- It is a noodle-like structure made with rice flour. It is steam cooked. It is served with coconut milk and gravy too.
- Paniyaram – It can also be known as appam. It is a batter that can be made both sweet and spicy. It is based on the ingredients. The paniyaram consists of banana and jaggery, it is sweet. If the paniyaram is made with spices, it can be eaten with chutney. This snack has its deep roots in Kerala.
- Baji – is a snack that consists of frying veggies such as potato, onion, chili and green banana. It is served with chutney.
- Murukku – it is a snack fried in oil. The flour commonly used is gram flour, rice flour. There is also murukku sandwich which uses murukku as the bread base.
- Bun parotta – it is a variant of parotta made with maida flour . The parotta is fried in oil. It looks like a bun. It is very common in Virudhunagar.
- Pakoda – It is a crispy fried food enjoyed with a hot cup of tea. It is usually made with onions, curry leaves, gram flour and spices. There are various variants to the pakoda. It is also popular as North Indian street food.
- Punugulu- It is like a bonda round in shape. It is made with rice and dhal. It is served with chutney. It is popular in Andhra Pradesh.
- Liver kebab- It is similar to other meat kebabs but it is made with the part of goat’s liver. It is very rich in flavours. It can be found in Vishakapatnam.
- Gobi Manchurian- It is one of the Indian street foods which one should try in Karnataka. It is a gracious blend of various flavours.
- Uttapam- It is another version of appam. It is thick in nature and garnished with various vegetables.
- Sweetcorn- It is a snack added with various spices and sold in Andhra Pradesh.
Indian street food has also been developed from other parts of the world. Foods such as biryani have a strong base with a lot of spices based in different parts of the country where they are cooked even the originality of the dish comes from the different rulers who have ruled India.
If a particular food is only non-veg, the food has been non-veg. The Indian vegetarian alternatives have been created. Indian street food has also grown to suit contemporary tastes. For eg, there is a dish named dosa pizza. It is a special blend of dosa and pizza.
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