A look at the rising popularity of the Indian street food chaat

From the Mughal Empire to the streets of South Asia and far beyond, we trace the incredible rise and enduring global appeal of chaat, the most humble of Indian street foods.

Indian street food papdi chaat, from Indian by Nature, Abu Dhabi. Mona Al Marzooqi / The National

Chaat – the popular Indian street food, with its ball-shaped crispy fried batter, vegetables and a variety of spicy sweet and sour sauces – is a savoury dish enjoyed by the masses all over the world.

The full-of-flavour snacks, traditionally sold from carts that line the streets of major cities in India, are said to have originated in Uttar Pradesh. But, the global popularity of the tangy offerings has resulted in many Indian states trying to lay claim to the bite-sized morsels.

They blend a flavour profile so wonderfully greasy and spicy, it brings tears of joy to the eye.

The Netflix series Raja, Rasoi Aur Anya Kahaniyaan recently explored the idea that the royal kitchen of the Mughal Empire was, in fact, responsible for developing a snack that has grown into a global taste sensation.

Culinary historians on the show suggested that when Delhi-based Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built his empire, his physician, who he consulted about everything, told him that if his people started using the water of the Yamuna river to cook they would fall seriously ill, because it was so contaminated. The only way to counter that would be to eat very spicy food cooked in copious amounts of clarified butter. To make such dishes vegetarian, the concept of chaat was created, which added to the mix chillies, sourness and ingredients such as potatoes, sprouted beans, wheat and yoghurt.

Whether this story is true or not, there is a consensus that chaat originated in North India before making its way to other parts of the country, where cooks put their own regional twists on the dish to suit local palates.

When Indians began migrating to the ­Arabian Gulf in the 1970s, they brought the varieties of the modest street food with them, setting up hole-in-the-wall joints in some of the oldest parts of the UAE.

And while the dish, which costs between Dh6 and Dh10 a serving, has made its way into the international culinary spotlight, with deconstructed versions on the menus of high-end fusion restaurants, the original, downright messy version is still very popular in Old Dubai.

“My father first began selling chaat in 1972,” says Jayesh Joshi, the owner of Rangoli ­restaurant in Meena Bazaar. “There were very few restaurants selling Indian food back then.”

Now the restaurant has two branches, with a third on the way.

“Chaat is very popular here,” adds Joshi. “We don’t just have people from the subcontinent enjoying chaat, but also Emiratis enjoy it immensely – they prefer dahi puris [stuffed fried dough with yoghurt] and samosas.”

In her upcoming book Street Food: Everything You Need to Know About Open-Air Stands, Carts and Food Trucks Across the Globe, Canadian-American author and Indian-food expert Colleen Sen notes that every city and region in India has special street food. She writes that as people from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh move to other parts of the world, chaat has travelled with them and, as a result, become a universal comfort food.

“Chaat comes from the Hindi word meaning lick,” says Sen, who co-edited her book with food historian and author Bruce Kraig. “It is a generic term for the savoury fried spicy snacks that are ­archetypal Indian street food, and in recent years have appeared on the menus of many top ­restaurants.”

Chaat is a mixture of crumbled fried dough, potatoes, sometimes lentils and chickpeas, a spice blend called chaat masala, jaggery, coriander leaves, yoghurt and two or three chutneys.

“One of the most popular chaats is called gol gappa in Delhi, pani puri in Mumbai and phhuchka in Kolkata,” says Sen.

“[In some chaats], yoghurt is added on top to aid digestion. Each serving is made to order, served in a paper cone and eaten on the spot.”

South Asians love to snack, Sen adds. “Indians eat street food at breakfast, lunch and dinner, as an afternoon snack and during festivals,” she says.

Traditionally, vendors set up stalls or shops near offices, schools, railway stations, beaches and crowded markets. They cook the chaat on grills, tawas (flat heavy griddles) or karahis (woks). In the UAE, restaurants have strict hygiene rules to follow, so most opt to serve chaat indoors.

“There are an estimated 300,000 street-food vendors in Delhi and 130,000 vendors in Kolkata alone,” says Sen.

Farida Ahmed is a co-founder of Dubai food-trail company Frying Pan Adventures, which bases one of its tours – Little India on a Plate tour in Bur Dubai – around Indian street food. The tour opens with references to Bollywood films and chaat for non-Indians who sign up.

“Chaat, or street food, is one thing about Indian cuisine that not many people outside of the Indian subcontinent are aware of,” says Ahmed. “So everyone is aware of food trucks in New York or the markets in London, but not many realise that India has a huge street-food culture.”

Indian food is often associated with butter chicken or dosa (a type of pancake made from a fermented batter of rice and lentils), she says.

“There isn’t a pan-Indian cuisine because food is pretty much dictated by your family and state, so chaat is the one thing that unites us all,” she adds.

Ahmed’s first stop is always the 25-year-old ­Rangoli restaurant for pani puri, the fried puff-pastry balls stuffed with mashed potatoes or boiled chickpeas and topped with tamarind and mint sauce. Each puri must be popped whole into the mouth.

“Every time I [have] introduced chaat to non-­Indians, it has been a hit,” says Ahmed. “The reason I open with chaat is because right from the get-go, I need to destroy this stereotype of Indian food. There is a lot more beyond chicken tikka and butter naan. Right then and there, people’s minds and palates are opened up to a whole new world of desi flavours.”

Dubai-resident Renee Keller recently tried chaat for the first time.

“I opted for the mild pani puri, which is a mix of spices and sweet chutney,” the 52-year-old American says. “It was just the right amount of heat for me to handle. It’s sweet, but then there is a warm aftertaste. I can’t associate what the spices are because these flavours are new to me, but it was really enjoyable.”

Ahmed explains that the flavour profile is called “chatpata”.

“It’s like how the Japanese have umami – the ­Indian equivalent of that is chatpata,” she says. “It is basically a combination of salty, sweet, sour and spicy. This flavour profile is the mainstay of any kind of chaat that you have.”

Liria Gjidija was introduced to chaat when she moved from New York to the UAE.

“For someone who had a very conservative ­palate, my first reaction was that this was an explosion of flavours,” says Gjidija, who gets her chaat fix at Indian By Nature on Najda Street in Abu Dhabi. She often orders samosas and papdi chaat.

“Tangy, tender and spicy – the contrasting textures and even temperatures had my taste buds buzzing,” she says. “When I lived in New York, I had only tried different naans or the standard butter chicken dishes, which is more consistent with the north. Since moving to the UAE, I’ve learnt to decipher different regions and enjoy different flavours and cooking methods.”

Emirati comedian Abdullah Al Qassab says he learnt about chaat from Bollywood movies. He and his wife usually have it at Bombay Chowpatty after they watch a Hindi film at the cinema.

"I never knew it was called chaat until we watched Shah Rukh Khan's movie, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, in which there is this entire scene on chaat," says the Abu Dhabi resident. "All my life, I just called it a crispy stuffed samosa.

“Arabs use a lot of spices, so such Indian food is right up my alley – and it is cheap.”​