Wikipedia:VideoWiki/Chaat

Introduction
Chaat is a savory snack that originated in India, typically served as an hors d'oeuvre at roadside tracks from stalls or food carts across the Indian subcontinent in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.



Overview
The chaat variants are all based on fried dough, with various other ingredients. The original chaat is a mixture of potato pieces, crisp fried bread dahi vada or dahi bhalla, gram or chickpeas and tangy-salty spices, with sour Indian chili and saunth, coriander leaves and yogurt for garnish.





Variants
But other popular variants included aloo tikkis or samosa (garnished with onion, coriander, hot spices and a dash of curd), bhel puri, dahi puri, panipuri, dahi vada, papri chaat, and sev puri.







Pav
Variants are the results of cultural syncretism - for instance, pav bhaji (Bread/bun with cooked and mashed vegetables) originated in Mumbai but reflects a Portuguese influence, in the form of a bun, and bhel puri and Sevpuri, which originated in Mumbai, Maharashtra.





Regions
In cities where chaat is popular, there are popular chaat-houses or dhabas, such as Mumbai's Chowpatty Beach. The chaat specialities vary from city to city. Chaat from Delhi, Lucknow, Azamgarh, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, and Mathura are famous throughout India.

Hyderabad
In Hyderabad, chaat is mostly prepared by vendors hailing from Bihar, and is different in taste.



Variations
Most chaats originated in some parts of Uttar Pradesh in India, but they are now eaten all across the Indian Sub-continent. Various kinds of chaats are;

Aloo chaat
Aloo chaat is prepared by frying potatoes in oil and adding spices and chutney.

Aloo tikki
Aloo tikki is made out of boiled potatoes, peas, and various curry spices.



Bhelpuri
Bhelpuri is made of puffed rice, vegetables and a tangy tamarind sauce.



Chotpoti
Chotpoti is mainly made of potatoes, chickpeas, and onions and is usually topped with additional diced chillies or grated boiled eggs.

Dahi puri
Dahi puri is a form of chaat and originates from the city of Mumbai.

Dahi vada
Dahi vada is prepared by soaking vadas (fried flour balls) in thick dahi (yogurt).

Kachori
Kachori is made of round flattened ball made of fine flour filled with a stuffing of baked mixture of yellow moong dal or Urad Dal (crushed and washed horse beans), besan (crushed and washed gram flour), black pepper, red chili powder, salt and other spices.

Pakora
Pakoras are created by choosing one or two main ingredients, such as onion, eggplant, potato, spinach, plantain, paneer, cauliflower, tomato, or chili pepper. They are also occasionally prepared with bread,



Panipuri
Panipuri consists of a round, hollow puri, deep-fried crisp crepe and filled with a mixture of flavored water (known as imli pani), tamarind chutney, chili, chaat masala, potato, onion or chickpeas.

Masalapuri
For Masalapuri, crushed puris are soaked in hot masala gravy made up of puffed rice, green peas, chili powder, garam masala, chaat masala, coriander powder, etc.

Papri chaat
Papri chaat is traditionally prepared using crisp fried dough wafers known as papri, along with boiled chick peas, boiled potatoes, dahi (yogurt) and tamarind chutney and topped with chaat masala and sev.

Sevpuri
Sevpuri is essentially made of puri which is loaded with diced potatoes, onions, three types of chutneys: tamarind, chili and garlic and topped with sev.

Pav bhaji
Pav bhaji consists of a thick vegetable curry served with a soft bread roll.