Mind Blowing Street Food I Ever Tasted..

My new line of writing will feature some of India most unique cuisines, they are not found on the À la carte menus in any restaurant. These are primarily street side delicacies; adopting and evolving all the time.

I have been a self certified connoisseur of food and my stay and wide travel across many states, & interaction with people of varied gastronomic background gave me this rare opportunity to relish food items of diverse cultures. I have tried to recollect the moment and the rough recipes as close as possible.

Bhurji Paratha, that is what it is called. Discovered by a great pal, Bobby. Looks like a common dish when you read the name, but absolutely rare when you see it being prepared. On backside of Cannaught Place, this guy prepares the omelet mix as we do, beaten eggs, diced onions, tomatoes, green chillies, masala etc. and puts a triangular parantha to bake, after a few seconds the parantha, still not fully baked, is slitted open from one side and omelet mix is poured in, with the slit boarder sealed with a little dough.

The beauty is that, as the parantha bakes from outside, the omelet simultaneously takes shape inside. Me and Bobby were so impressed that we wished to see a few more being prepared, before we ordered 2 for us.

The taste? Heavenly is the word. My mouth waters as I write this !! The art is to slit the parantha open on right time, pour the mix, seal it and you are done. We tried it, and let me tell you, the mix poured out bursting open the parantha each time.. :)

A friend in Delhi, hailing from Bihar, made me taste a 'niboo ka achaar'. I thought, what great stuff this would be, my mom makes it too!! But I tasted was one if it kinds, just fantastic. Niboos' have thin outer skin, it is removed by scraping the skin on a rough stone (like we use pumice stone on our heels). The roughly scrapped lemons are then put in a small 'kali matki', spices like lahori namak (a pink color salt), kali mirch, red chilly powder, some methi, roughly ground yellow mustard, kalonji etc. are added. With its mouth sealed, the matki stays in sunlight for a fortnight.

In these 2 weeks, niboo tends to dry out, its juice oozes to mix with the exotic spices. The spices, on their part, travel deep within each fake. The result, an astonishingly aromatic, oil free achaar, the aroma of mitti (from the pot) gives a rural flavour, the unique method gives it a finger licking taste!! Try it with garma-garam 'aloo' or 'mooli' ka parantha, with a blob of makhhan :) Trust me people, you will never forget the experience.

Next I will take you on a culinary journey in Kumaon region, where my parents stayed for 13 long years, and I visited very often.

Until then.. try these at home.

Happy eating !!