Get flavour-bombed

Bamboo biryani from the Araku valley, omelettes from Surat and every bite in between. Delhi's Street Food Festival may be our best guide to how India eats now

- VIR SANGHVI

If you have been reading this column for a while, you will know that I can be a repetitive bore on the subject of street food. Fortunately, many people seem to share my obsession. The dish that made Gaggan Anand famous is his Yoghurt Explosion, a spherical take on the flavours of street chaat. Manish Mehrotra created the greatest dessert in Indian restaurant cuisine by reworking Daulat Ki Chaat. Every single menu that Himanshu Saini introduces at Tresind Studio begins with a new version of pani puri.

These great chefs have helped Indian street food dishes gain the respect they deserve. But despite the joy and happiness they bring people, our street food vendors are treated like dirt. They are pushed around by municipal officials. Cops routinely shake them down. And there is no safety net. If they can't work for two or three days, their families go hungry.

A few years ago, I met someone who felt the same way as I did. As part of the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) Sangeeta Singh fights for the rights of street-food sellers. Each year Sangeeta and NASVI organise a massive Street Food Festival in Delhi, with vendors from all over India.

I wrote about the festival the first few times I attended, but always felt I should do more. When Sameer Sain and I founded Culinary Culture, I discovered that he felt the same way as I did.