Dilli Ki Chaat

As Delhi is a melting pot of various cultures, in the similar way Delhi's Chaat is also an ideal exemplar of “Unity in diversity”.

Chaat is a plate of savoury snacks that have a fine blend of sweet and tangy taste. It is an amalgamation of various ingredients like fried potato pieces, crispy fried bread, gram bean, chopped onions, coriander leaves and spices.

There are various kinds of relishing chaats are available in Delhi such as Aloo Chaat, Bhel puri, Sev Puri, Dahi puri, Panipuri, Dahi vada, Papdi chaat. All these forms of chaat have some common elements in them like curd, chopped onions, coriander, sev (small fried yellow noodles made up of besan) and Chaat masala which is a mixture of amchoor (dried mango powder), cumin, black salt, dried ginger, coriander powder, black pepper, red pepper and salt.

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Aloo Chaat: Potatoes are cut into small pieces and fried till crisp brown and served with chopped onion, coriander leaves, chaat masala and a mixture of sweet and tangy chutney.

Aloo Tikki: Aloo tikki or potato cutlets is also a chaat in which boiled potoes are mashed and mixed with the piled green peas, chopped onion, green chilies, and spices. After mixing they are shaped into small balls and press them with the help of palm. Than they are fried till golden brown. These are serve with chole, tamarind-date chutney, drizzle of dahi, and cilantro chutney.

Bhel Puri: It is a puffed rice dish with mash boiled potatoes, sev, a mixture of various fried ingredients as base, coriander powder, grated coconut, tomato and tangy tamarind sauce.

Sev Puri: It is also another variant of Chaat. It is mainly a mixture of bhel puri, chutney, papdi and sev.

Pani Puri: Pani puri or Phuchka or Gol Gappa or Bataashaa or Gup Shup all are same. It comprises a round hollow “puri”, fried crisp and filled with water mixture of tamarind, chili, chaat masala, potato, onion and chick peas. Pani puri's are very small in size so that they can easily fit into the mouth.

Dahi puri: As the name suggest, dahi puri is chaat that has excess amount of curd in it. Similar to sev puri, it is a mixture of bhel puri, chutney, papdi and with lot of yoghurt.

Dahi Vada: Dahi vadas are prepared by soaking vadas in yoghurt. Vadas are made up of urad daal which are deep fried till golden brown. Before serving they are kept in yoghurt and watermix for some time. Tamarind and mint-coriander chutney are used to garnish and give some tangy taste to the dahi vada.

Sev Papdi Chaat: It is also like sevpuri but with having 2-3 types of chutney, potatoes, chana masala

Papri Chaat: Papri chaat is a mixture of crispy fried dough wafers made from refined wheat flour and oil, boiled potatoes and chick peas, green chilies, yoghurt, tamarind chutney and garnished with chaat masala and sev.

Delhi has no dearth of chaatwallas, that serves mouth-watering chaats. Beside the road side stalls, chaats are also prime attraction of some big sweet shops of Delhi like UPSC Chaatwallas next to UPSC at Shahjahan Road, Bengali sweets shop at South Extension part 1, and inlets of Bikanerwalla, Haldiram and Nathu's.