India lives on its street food. Day or night, north or south, there’s something to be savoured around every corner. Especially chaat, an entire food category that defies description and is an addictive combination of sweet, salty, sour, tangy, spicy, crispy and crunchy flavours and textures.
While this quintessential street food has moved into fancy restaurants, almost everyone swears their soul food comes from a favourite roadside stall or push-cart. The pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns brought the industry to a crashing halt. Like many others, author Sonal Ved missed chaat so much she began making it at home, leading to her new book India Local: Classic Street Food Recipes (Roli Books), a loving rumination on India’s street food, out on August 30.
For Ved, the play on temperature, texture and colour of chaat epitomises Indian food. “Indian food overall can be summed up with these words – temperature, texture and colour, and chaat has all of that. For me chaat is an ideal representation of Indian cuisine abroad. The way tapas is for Spain, I think chaat and street food is that for India,” she says.
The book is an ode to the country’s regional diversity seen through the lens of street food. Replete with chaat and street food recipes from all over the country and seasoned with stories, the book took almost two years to come together.
Ved's passion for food is clear, and for readers it is elevated by her attention to detail and evocative storytelling. This is evident in her first book, Tiffin: 500 Authentic Recipes Celebrating India’s Regional Cuisine, (Roli Books, 2018) and is the backbone of Whose Samosa Is It Anyway? (Penguin Random House, 2021), a book that examines the global influences on Indian food from the times of the Indus Valley Civilisation to the present. Before these, in 2016, she put together Gujju Goes Gourmet, published as a digital book primarily for mobile phones.
Ved is obsessed with origin stories. She talks about the roots of chaat and the differing stories: one posits that 16th-century Emperor Shah Jahan was prescribed spice-loaded foods to boost immunity during illness, while another suggests that court hakims told Delhi’s citizens to cook with herbs and spices to counter polluted river water. She knows these to be tales and points out that the 12th-century Sanskrit text Manasollasa indicates the existence of versions of some popular types of chaat. “Though chaat may have become well defined during the Mughal period, they existed in various forms earlier too,” she writes in the introduction.
She defines the dish, saying: “All chaat is street food, but not all street food is chaat.” But she is more fascinated by the unique back stories of many of the dishes. “When I started putting geographical identification to street foods I realised that not everything is north-centric. There is this perception that all chaat is Lucknowi or from Indore, or at least from the general north. Of course, a lot of it is from there, but there is so much that came out of Mumbai. The city created street food culture because of industrial development and a lot of migrant workers who needed quick food,” she says.
This gave birth to some of Mumbai’s most famous street food such as Bombay sandwich (buttered bread filled with slices of boiled potatoes, beetroot, tomatoes, onions and cucumber, slathered with green chutney and spice powder), vada pav (spicy mashed potato fritter in a square bun) and pav bhaji (spongy bun served with a spicy vegetable gravy), even the street dosa (rice and lentil crepe, a South Indian breakfast staple) which has several variations.
In the process Ved stumbled upon examples of street food that are a products of historical influences. Although a noodle dish with shredded cabbage, spices and tamarind is unique to Chennai, it has overt Burmese influence brought by Burmese Indians when they returned during the 1962 coup.
And in Kolkata, Chinese immigrants produced Chinese bhel, a spicy, tangy, version of crisp noodles. Darjeeling in the Himalayan foothills is famous for lal aloo Wai Wai. She describes the preparation of this dish, using half a packet of Wai Wai noodles mixed with a hot potato and tomato curry, which is topped with the spice mix and oil from the packet. The curry poaches the noodles and then the crispy raw noodles are added. “It is eaten straight out of the packet,” she says. “It is fascinating to see people eating this all over town.” There are similar stories about Sikkimese sel roti and Indore’s egg banjo, among others, she says.
Towards the end, she lets the reader peek into her kitchen and lists chaat and street foods that she has grown up with and the recipes she has developed, such as kale chaat, quinoa and olive tikki chaat and avocado taco chaat.
Above all, it’s her evocative narrative that is compelling and enduring. It’s best exemplified by her nostalgic description of eating pani puri, the beloved and ubiquitous chaat with myriad versions and names across the country: “Moments when that puri breaks apart as you try to bite into it, and a medley of flavours explodes on your tongue and reminds you of when you climbed up trees on hot summer days to break off imli and eat it.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Favourite things
Luxury: Enjoys window shopping for high-end bags and jewellery
Discount: She works in luxury retail, but is careful about spending, waits for sales, festivals and only buys on discount
University: The only person in her family to go to college, Jiang secured a bachelor’s degree in business management in China
Masters: Studying part-time for a master’s degree in international business marketing in Dubai
Vacation: Heads back home to see family in China
Community work: Member of the Chinese Business Women’s Association of the UAE to encourage other women entrepreneurs
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
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Aayan%E2%80%99s%20records
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START-UPS%20IN%20BATCH%204%20OF%20SANABIL%20500'S%20ACCELERATOR%20PROGRAMME
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THE%C2%A0SPECS
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Three trading apps to try
Sharad Nair recommends three investment apps for UAE residents:
- For beginners or people who want to start investing with limited capital, Mr Nair suggests eToro. “The low fees and low minimum balance requirements make the platform more accessible,” he says. “The user interface is straightforward to understand and operate, while its social element may help ease beginners into the idea of investing money by looking to a virtual community.”
- If you’re an experienced investor, and have $10,000 or more to invest, consider Saxo Bank. “Saxo Bank offers a more comprehensive trading platform with advanced features and insight for more experienced users. It offers a more personalised approach to opening and operating an account on their platform,” he says.
- Finally, StashAway could work for those who want a hands-off approach to their investing. “It removes one of the biggest challenges for novice traders: picking the securities in their portfolio,” Mr Nair says. “A goal-based approach or view towards investing can help motivate residents who may usually shy away from investment platforms.”
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
EGYPT SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Ahmed El Shennawy, Mohamed El Shennawy, Mohamed Abou-Gabal, Mahmoud Abdel Rehem "Genesh"
Defenders: Ahmed Elmohamady, Ahmed Hegazi, Omar Gaber, Ali Gazal, Ayman Ahsraf, Mahmoud Hamdy, Baher Elmohamady, Ahmed Ayman Mansour, Mahmoud Alaa, Ahmed Abou-Elfotouh
Midfielders: Walid Soliman, Abdallah El Said, Mohamed Elneny, Tarek Hamed, Mahmoud “Trezeguet” Hassan, Amr Warda, Nabil Emad
Forwards: Ahmed Ali, Mohamed Salah, Marwan Mohsen, Ahmed "Kouka" Hassan.
The specS: 2018 Toyota Camry
Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 298hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 356Nm @ 4,700rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin
Director: Shawn Levy
Rating: 3/5
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
How to get there
Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
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Jawan
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