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Written by
Laura Siciliano-Rosen
Fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Hindi:
- “to lick” or “to taste”
- Related Topics:
- India
- dish
- aloo tikki
- papri chaat
- gol gappa
chaat, a traditional savory snack sold by street vendors in India that originated in the country’s northern region and is now popular throughout South Asia and at Indian restaurants worldwide.
Chaat is an umbrella term for a wide range of roadside foods that usually feature some kind of fried dough with various ingredients that typically create a spicy, tangy, or salty flavour, though some chaat are sweet. Papri chaat (or papdi chaat) is crispy fried-dough wafers served with typical chaat ingredients such as chickpeas, boiled potatoes, yogurt sauce, and tamarind and coriander chutneys; it may also contain pomegranate seeds and sev (noodles made from fried gram flour). Aloo tikki is a golden fried-potato patty that is often stuffed with peas or dal and served with a variety of spicy chutneys and sometimes chickpeas, while aloo chaat is simply boiled potatoes that are cubed, fried, seasoned, and served hot.
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Other types of chaat include kulle, which consists of fruits or vegetables that have been peeled, hollowed out, and filled with salty, tangy spices, chickpeas, and pomegranate seeds. Creamy dahi bhalla (or dahi vada) is fritters—which are often made from lentils or dal—that are smothered in a spicy yogurt sauce and often topped with various spices and pomegranate seeds. Gol gappa (also known as pani puri) is a popular bite-size chaat consisting of a hollow, crispy-fried puffed ball that is filled with potato, chickpeas, onions, spices, and flavoured water, usually tamarind or mint, and popped into one’s mouth whole. Many types of chaat are served with a spicy seasoning known as chaat masala.
