'Bazaar Bites' book review: Celebrating generosity, resilience, and community spirit of street vendors
To say that India has a street food scene that is vibrant, diverse, and utterly delicious is not an understatement. Almost every city has its own unique repertoire of dishes, and the variety of local ingredients, flavours, and cooking techniques is truly mind-boggling. Capturing this diversity of Indian street food is Bazaar Bites, a book written by well-known writer and seasoned food critic Priya Bala and restaurateur Jayanth Narayanan.
The well-researched book chronicles the street food scene of over 40 cities from all over India. According to the authors, work on the book commenced in 2019, but due to the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, the manuscript was completed in late 2023.
While the street food of cities like Delhi, Amritsar, Mumbai, Kolkata, and even Lucknow is fairly well known, the book covers other cities like Davangere, Kottakal, Cuttack, Jodhpur, and Srinagar whose food scene is relatively unknown.
So, from the fluffy benne (butter) dosas of Davangere that have mandakki (puffed rice) as the secret ingredient and the avil milk (a Malabar cooler made with cold milk, soaked flattened rice, local bananas, puffed rice, and peanuts) of Kottakal to the chakuli (dumplings made from a fermented batter of urad dal and rice and steamed on a cloth stretched over simmering water) of Cuttack, the fini (a 1 am snack of jalebi with warm milk) of Jodhpur, and lotus stem fritters, as well as walnut fudge of Srinagar, the book covers a multitude of local and hyperlocal dishes.
The cities are organised as chapters, and each chapter gives a comprehensive account of the city’s character, culture and cuisine. From pushcarts and hole in the wall eateries to temple fare and beach snacks, the book encompasses great detail.
For example, while Kozhikode’s biryani is famous, the city’s beach snacks like deep-fried mussels as well as masala quail eggs are a revelation. So is the papdi-chutney of Hubli that is made from chickpea flour, green chillies, mint, ginger, garlic, and tamarind.
The book touches upon the history and stories behind several legendary preparations like the caramelised pedas of Dharwad, the delectable maddur vada of Karnataka, and the locho, which is Surat’s famous snack. The latter is interestingly a ‘failed’ dhokla, and the term is derived from the expression ‘locha ho gaya’ which means things have gone wrong.
If you are a fan of history, you can eat sandesh made by one of Kolkata’s oldest sweet makers, Bhim Chandra Nag, in Bow Bazaar. The latter was set up in 1826, and the sandesh was much loved by none other than renowned religious leader Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
The book celebrates the generosity, resilience, and community spirit of street vendors and outlines the hardships faced by them.
Bazaar Bites
By: Priya Bala, Jayanth Narayanan
Publisher: Rupa
Pages: 312
Price: Rs 395