New York Street Food

CNNGo Asia recently had a feature on Mumbai’s best chaat as part of their Best Eats 2010.

Chaat is a  plate of snacks, typically served at road-side stalls or carts in India and Pakistan.  It started in the northwestern state of Gujarat and has become immensely popular in the rest of India and South Asia. The word chaat derives from Hindi and Prakrit and is a combination of the words for a tasting or delicacy and to devour with relish or eat noisily.  Thanks Wikipedia.

Chowpatty's bhel puri has a Mumbai-style beach flavor

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alu paratha

Whenever you travel to a new country, be sure to try as much of the local food as possible.  The best way to do this is to sample the street food.  Kevin Burke of CMC Forum talks about some of the basics of Indian street food:

“India’s got a great tradition of food stands.  India is also a great place to try out vegetarianism. Cows are sacred, and pigs are unclean animals, so there’s no beef or pork anywhere. Furthermore many more people here are “veg,” so there are more options for vegetarians here than there are in the US.  Because meat is so expensive relative to vegetables and rice, we cook meat once a week or less. The food here is so good that you really don’t notice the lack of meat in your diet.

In India they take “we don’t make it till you order it” seriously.   Street vendors prepare the food right in front of you.  When we cook at home, we purchase the ingredients from a vendor on the street about an hour before we cook, ensuring that it’s fresh.

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Indian street food

If you would like to learn how to cook Indian street food, here’s another option in addition to the Indian street food cooking class we took at Miette Culinary Studio earlier this year.  We really enjoyed the class at Miette, but if you’re in Brooklyn, this class might be closer to home.

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Nainital India – This film invites viewers to explore the wonderful word of food making, eating, and consuming on Indian streets. This short film has a particularly entrancing music accompanying its scenes.  You can watch the people order food, prepare it and consume it.  Unlike in Western culture, the relationship people have with their food in India is much more intimate and “natural”.  No cutlery, no polite etiquette, no small mouthfuls; eating consists of a very simplistic arrangement between one’s hands, food and mouth.  Jessica Bunn- (Media Studies BA, Sussex University) [Here and Now - second short film from SönJò on Vimeo]

The real street food action starts after the first 20 seconds of cuteness.

On Monday night, my wife and I took a class on how to cook Indian Street Food.  The cooking class was a present I gave her for the holidays.  She is an excellent (non-professional) cook who can make many different types of cuisines, but has never been able to get Indian down.  Now, after this class, we’re looking forward to trying it again.

The class was held at Miette Culinary Studio at 109 MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village.  The studio is on the 2nd floor of an old townhouse in a fun part of the Village.   This particular class was taught by Chef Rati, a former instructor at ICE (Institute for Culinary Education) who had the Indian cooking knowledge, and Chef Paul, a Belgian chef who has worked at Tartine and Titou in the Village and now owns the school.  He ably assisted Chef Rati, and also had plenty of general cooking technique and knife knowledge to impart.

The class was limited to 12 people and cost $95 per person.  It was mostly young 20-something couples ranging from culinary beginners to somewhat more experienced cooks, but by no means was cooking experience needed for this class.  A few bottles of wine were on the table to loosen things up a little and to go with the food later.  The class was very casual, but well done, which perfect for us.

The menu consisted of chicken kathi rolls, bhel puri (kind of like Indian Chex mix with potatoes and chutney), vegetable samosas, gol gappas (puffed crispy pooris stuffed with potatoes and tamarind sauce), zeera pani (cumin water), cilantro chutney and tamarind chutney.  Most of the recipes were in Chef Rati’s family for generations.

All of the spices were explained, passed around and sampled, and the difference between the fresh chutneys and jarred chutney was driven home by tasting each side-by-side, both the tamarind chutney and the cilantro chutney.  As we saw first-hand, there was no comparison between jarred and fresh chutney.  We also found out that fresh chutney will last in the fridge for up to 6 months if it’s kept free of moisture.

We all got to make our own samosas, with Chef Rati providing some great instruction and tips.  The chefs did most of the cooking, but everything was fully explained and recipes were provided for us to use at home.  We all asked questions, which were happily answered, and we sat down for a wonderful meal at the end of the class.  To give you an idea of the feel of the class, it was scheduled for 2 hours, but lasted slightly over 3 hours.  Nobody rushed anything, and it was all very informative, interesting, and fun.  We definitely feel knowledgeable enough now to make these dishes at home.

If you’re interested in taking a cooking class, many other types of classes are offered: Italian, French, Dim Sum, Brunch, and many others.  We highly recommend the experience, and will likely be taking more classes at Miette Culinary Studio.