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Chaat masala
For the real thing, go to old Delhi. No point being content with the second-best
The South Delhification of Purani Dilli’s chatpata chaat has been one of the unfortunate fallouts of the seismic shift that has taken place in the city’s social fabric. With the city’s aspirational centre of gravity moving from Chandni Chowk to Vasant Vihar, many of the old favourites that defined Delhi have been distorted beyond recognition. One such dish is the chaat.
There’s a world of difference between the real thing that you get at Chandni Chowk and Bazaar Sitaram (the best time to go is between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. when it gets a little cooler) and what passes off as chaat from Bengali Market to Greater Kailash-II via Sunder Nagar. Even Haldiram’s offerings taste different when you’re at Chandni Chowk.
But how does one know whether one particular chaat is better than the other?The first indicator is the consistency of the dahi. If it’s like cream, it’s right; if it isn’t, it’s obvious that it has been watered down. Then there’s the question of the taste of the saunth that goes in. If it’s cloyingly sweet, it may be straight out of a Dabur Hommade bottle; if it’s a happy balance between sweet, sour and spicy, then it’s right. A good chaat also strikes a delicate balance between what’s smooth and what’s crunchy (in fact, a good chaat, like a good risotto, must be al dente) — the papri must not be soggy and the bhalla should soak in the dahi, saunth and masala so that it doesn’t taste like a squeezed-out sponge.
To discover this rainbow coalition of tastes and textures, you’ve got to hit the streets of Purani Dilli — you can’t enjoy a good chaat unless you’re jostled by traders and frenetic shoppers and maybe an occasional cow at Chandni Chowk, or you lose your way in the confusing bylanes of Chowk Hauz Qazi, or you wait endlessly for your turn to come at the Shahjahan Road chaatwallah’s ever-popular stall. Here’s a quick recce of the city’s ten top chaat stalls:
At Ashok Chaat Bhandar, Chowk Hauz Qazi, check out the kalmi vada, a crispy savoury made from chana and moong dal, soaked in creamy dahi and mango chutney (instead of the standard saunth).
The delicacy re-surfaces at the hole-in-the-wall called Shri Balaji Chaat Bhandar, beside Annapurna Sweets across the road from Gurudwara Sis Ganj on Chandni Chowk. At the end of your meal, don’t forget to ask for the complimentary jal jeera spiked with a digestive ingredient that gives it a different taste altogether.
Go further down the road from Shri Balaji and you won’t miss the swanky new Haldiram’s. The chaat here is miles ahead of what you get at Haldiram’s outlets elsewhere. Everyone raves about the raj kachori, but my favourite is the masala kachori chaat.
Walk a little more and you’ll hit Natraj Café, which does brisk business selling two items — divine dahi bhallas and aloo tikkis with a tasty urad dal filling. Go there to discover the taste of a good dahi bhalla.
Vaishnav Chat Bhandar, located at the Panchayati Dharamshala, Kamla Nagar Market, has been recommended to us by TV anchor and passionate foodie Vinod Dua. Go for their bhalla papri chaat, but don’t miss their spicy aloo chaat.
A formidable name in the chaat business is that of the Standard Chaat Shop at Dev Nagar, Karol Bagh, which also doubles as Chhote Lal Caterers. A favourite in the marriage circuit, this shop is famous for its bhalla papri chaat.
Prince Pan at GK-I’s M-Block Market is as famous for its chocolate paan and masala colas as for its chaats, but its raj kachori is a pale imitation of Haldiram’s.
The man who’s famous as the ‘UPSC Chaatwallah’ because of his stall’s location in the lane next to the UPSC Building on Shahjahan Road, frankly, doesn’t have anything special about his chaats. Maybe they taste exceptional after a gruelling UPSC exam.
The two shops across the road at Bengali Market are where most of Delhi goes for its chaat fix, but their chaat somehow doesn’t have the kind of zing that you’ll get in Chandni Chowk. The one at Bengali Sweets, incidentally, is presided over by a man who looks straight out of the sets of Bandit Queen and the second at Nathu’s Sweets is better known for using bottled water in its offerings. The bhalla papri chaat at these two outlets will remind you of my warning about squeezed-out blobs of sponge.
Our last entry, Bharat Nagar’s Raju Chaat Bhandar, may be located near a drain, but it doesn’t deter its fan club from braving the traffic and the chaos to check out his bhalla papri chaat.
