Get flavour-bombed

Bamboo biryani from the Araku valley, omelettes from Surat and every bite in between. Delhi’s Street Food Festival champions talent from all over

- 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. Indian street food has long been one of my obsessions, and I can bore you senseless by holding forth for hours on the differences between pani puri, golgappas and puchkas.

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 it has been much harder to get people to respect the vendors and cooks who create the food of India’s streets.

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 for street food sellers. If they can’t work for two or three days, then their families go hungry. They live from day to day.

A few years ago, I met someone who felt the same way as I did. But unlike me, she did more than just write articles about the plight of these poor vendors. As part of the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) Sangeeta Singh fights for the rights of street-food sellers every day, offering them help and hope at a time when most people take them for granted.