Snacks & street food

Chaat, fritters and tea-time bites

• Paneer Tikka Salad · Indian fusion. Cubes of paneer, peppers and onion in a tangy tandoori marinade, seared until blistered and tossed over a crisp salad with mint-yoghurt dressing.
• Chicken Tikka Salad · Indian fusion. Smoky tandoori-spiced chicken, charred hot from the grill, on a crunchy salad of cucumber, onion, tomato and lettuce with a cool mint-yoghurt dressing.
• Baby Corn Fry · Indo-Chinese. Indo-Chinese crispy baby corn: batter-fried batons tossed with garlic, green chilli, spring onion and a splash of soy until they crackle.
• Fried Maggi Noodles · Indian fusion. Street-style fried Maggi: the noodles boiled just short of done, then pan-fried with onion, capsicum and the masala tastemaker until crisp and toasty in spots.
• Chicken Manchurian · Indo-Chinese. The Indo-Chinese classic: crisp fried chicken bites tossed in a glossy garlic, ginger, soy and chilli sauce, made dry as a starter or saucy to eat with fried rice.
• Malabar Tawa Fish · Kerala. Kerala fish rubbed with a shallot, pepper and Kashmiri chilli masala and slow-fried on a hot tawa in coconut oil, finished under a heap of crisp curry leaves.
• Andhra Prawns Fry · Andhra Pradesh. Royyala vepudu: prawns dry-fried with curry leaves, Guntur chilli and a freshly ground coriander and fennel masala until crisp, dark and clinging to every curl.
• Easy Fish Fry (Andhra Style) · Andhra Pradesh. Thick fish steaks rubbed with a fiery Guntur chilli, garlic and lemon paste and shallow-fried until the crust is crisp and the flesh stays juicy.
• Mutton Chilli Roast · Andhra Pradesh. A fierce Andhra dry roast: tender mutton fried down in a paste of soaked Guntur chillies and garlic, then hit with a tempering of whole dried chillies and curry leaves.
• Chettinad Goat Pepper Fry · Chettinad. Bone-in goat cooked soft, then roasted dark with shallots, curry leaves and a freshly ground masala of black pepper and fennel. Hot, fragrant and dry enough to pick up with your fingers.
• Mutton Liver Fry (Kaleja Fry) · Telangana. Telangana's Sunday-morning kaleja fry: tender cubes of goat liver tossed fast in onion, ginger-garlic, green chilli and curry leaves until glossy and peppery. Best eaten straight from the pan.
• Pepper Chicken Fry · Tamil Nadu. A South Indian dry fry where chicken, shallots and curry leaves are roasted in a heap of freshly crushed black pepper until dark, glossy and warmly fiery.
• Mirapakaya Kodi Vepudu · Andhra Pradesh. Andhra green chilli chicken fry: boneless chicken tossed dry with a coarse paste of green chillies, garlic and coriander until it is blistered, fragrant and searingly hot.
• KFC-Style Fried Chicken · International. A copycat of the famous bucket: bone-in chicken brined overnight in buttermilk, double dredged in an 11-spice seasoned flour and deep fried until craggy, golden and juicy.
• Bombay Masala Toast · Maharashtra. Mumbai's street sandwich: spiced potato, green chutney, onion, tomato and cucumber between buttered bread, toasted crisp in a pan.
• Masala Veg Noodles · Indian fusion. A packet of instant noodles turned into a proper meal with onion, tomato, peas and carrot and a little extra masala.
• Khaman Dhokla · Gujarat. Soft, spongy steamed gram-flour cake from Gujarat, soaked with a sweet-sour mustard seed and curry leaf tempering.
• Vada Pav · Maharashtra. Mumbai's everyday snack: a spiced potato fritter in besan batter, tucked into a soft pav with fiery dry garlic chutney, green chutney and a fried chilli.
• Pav Bhaji · Maharashtra. Mumbai's beach-stall favourite: mashed spiced vegetables cooked down in plenty of butter, scooped up with soft pav toasted on the same griddle.
• Tandoori Chicken · Punjab. Chicken legs slashed, marinated twice in lemon, chilli and spiced yogurt, then roasted hot until charred at the edges and juicy inside.
• Vegetable Bullets · Telangana. A Hyderabadi bakery and street snack: spiced potato and mixed-vegetable filling rolled in thin pastry, shaped like bullets and fried until shatteringly crisp.
• Paneer Tikka Kathi Roll · Kolkata. Charred, smoky paneer tikka and peppers wrapped in a warm roti with spicy makhani gravy, crisp lettuce, vinegar onions and mint chutney.
• Apollo Fish · Telangana. A Hyderabad restaurant classic: crisp fried fish tossed in a tangy yogurt, garlic and curry-leaf sauce.
• Guntur Kodi Vepudu · Andhra Pradesh. A dry, peppery chicken fry from Guntur, tossed with fried curry leaves, cashews and plenty of red chilli.
• Punugulu · Andhra Pradesh. Vijayawada's street-side fritters: crisp outside, soft inside, made from leftover idli-dosa batter and eaten with peanut chutney.