One of the lunchtime Kolkata Camac Street lunch buffets

Camac Street, which apparently has been renamed Abanindranath Tagore Sarani, is a low-key (and pleasantly calm compared to other Kolkata streets) commercial street in the heart of Kolkata.

Businesses, stores of many kinds, cafe’s, and residential condos all flourish along Camac Street.

And there’s one other thing, Kolkata street food, which happens to be widely represented and quite famous along the street.

With many businesses, Camac Street is especially well known for its lunch time stalls; So one day, I went on a food adventure at about 11:30 am in search of something tasty for lunch.

Street food lunchtime rush

Passing plenty of tea stalls and fresh roti vendors, I finally decided on a curry stall that was receiving plenty of business.

With no seating space or any sort of seating, most of the customers (mainly males), were standing around the eatery while quickly downing delicious looking plates of rice topped with a variety of Indian dishes.

Having no idea what to order, I just asked for rice, fish curry, and a few vegetable sides.

The vendor quickly dished up my lunch, and as he handed it to me, I handed him back 30 Rupees ($0.55); I must say, even coming from Bangkok where there are plenty of $1 Thai dishes, Kolkata street food is still remarkably cheap.

Eating street food in Kolkata, India

Just like all the other hungry eaters, I found a little standing area on the sidewalk next to an electricity pole and began to dig in, fingers first.

Camac street food in Kolkata, India

Rice, fish curry, some kind of mixed vegetables, a from of aloo gobi made with spiced cauliflower, and a garnish of red onions and carrots was my meal; Indian food but Bengali flavors.

It came piled on one of the most flimsy styrofoam plates I’ve ever held, a plate where it was mandatory to hold it from the bottom instead of the edges for fear the plate might capsize.

If eating is on your list of top things to do in Kolkata, like it was for me, you’ll want to go on an eating rampage at both Camac Street and James Hickey Sarani when in Kolkata.

Catfish Curry, Vegetables, and Rice on Kolkata’s Camac Street is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

Thank you for watching!

(If you can’t see the video, click here to watch it on YouTube)

You may remember this delicious Indian street food stall that I wrote about a few weeks ago. And finally, here’s the video.

Camamc Street is a business office street in the heart of Kolkata, India, and everyday for lunch people pour out of their jobs looking for a delicious satisfying meal.

Nope, I didn’t come from the office, but I was ready for lunch, that’s for sure.

I chose a rice and curry stall that served specifically Bengali food. I was first served a nice plate of rice which was then topped with catfish curry, some cauliflower, and daal on the side.

The food was flavorful and the ambiance was pretty fun too!

VIDEO: Fish Curry and Rice on Camac Street, Kolkata, India is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

Grandpa breaking the banana leaf

After spending time in Kolkata, I had an opportunity to visit a friend of mine in the Northeastern Indian region of Nagaland.

Eating pork is a big part of the local culture, especially around holidays and celebrations. I got to taste many different Naga food dishes, including lots of pork, fish, and some incredible chili paste sauces (similar to Thai nam prik chili sauces).

But one day, we got Grandpa to show us the real way to cook and eat pig intestines, the Naga way!

First, he grabbed a fresh banana leaf, which would later be the serving platter for our hot roasted intestines.

Pig intestines on the chopping block

The intestines took to the chopping block and were sliced into 3 – 4 inch chunks.

Preparing for the roast

Grandpa then heated up the fire until we had a nice flame going.

Making skewers for the intestines

Grabbing some bamboo, grandpa then sharpened some skewers before piercing each intestine on the skewer. Prep work done, we were ready to cook these Nagaland intestines!

Cooking the intestines in flames

Forget about slow roasting them over hot coals, in Nagaland, intestines are placed directly into the flames so they cook fast, char on the outside, and drip with grease – that’s the way!

They didn’t take much longer than a few moments, and a couple of the intestines even caught on fire as grandpa blew them out. When the intestines were fully cooked, grandpa placed them on the banana leaf and they were ready to be served.

Piping hot pig intestines – don’t you want to grab one?!

He sliced them into smaller pieces before we dug into these natural pig sausages.

They were very fatty and had the flavor of a gamey pig. That being said they were pretty delicious, especially when sprinkled with a bit of salt.

These were even more delicious!

The next day we had the small intestines, cooked in the same way. These were even better, like crunchy pieces of pork jerky that melted in my mouth.

Similar to Korean soondae, they don’t look too good, but they sure are marvelously tasty!

Do you like intestines?

Roasting and Eating Pig Intestines in Nagaland, India is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

Nagaland Food

Nagaland, located in very Northeastern India, is a state that’s just north of Myanmar and just south of China and Bhutan.

There are sixteen main tribes in Nagaland, each with similar yet unique traditions and practices. While food from each tribe overlaps, there are also certain dishes that are specifically known from a certain tribe. Rice, pork, chicken, dog, insects and worms, vegetables, and famous chili sauces are essential in the Naga diet.

After a 30 hour train ride on the Kamrup Express from Kolkata, I was ready to eat; Nagaland food was calling my name!

In Nagaland, as my local friends mentioned, it’s most common to hang out at homes of friends and family. So not that many locals go to restaurants for meals, but eating at home or eating at friends’ homes is still very much a part of their culture.

That’s part of the reason why you won’t find many restaurants serving traditional Naga food in Nagaland. There are quite a few restaurants serving North Indian food or Tibetan momos (similar to mandu), but real Naga cuisine is harder to come by.

For real Nagaland food, it’s best to eat it at someones home.

Butchering pigs in Nagaland

In Nagaland many things are still done traditionally. Since I was visiting a friend, and we were celebrating a marriage in his family, I was treated to watching a number of pigs butchered for the occasion.

The huge pigs were chopped up using traditional long handled Naga knives on top of a stilted bamboo slaughterhouse.

Our pig was fresh, and for an entire week we kept eating from the same pigs, meal after meal, happy stomach after happy stomach.

Eating Nagaland food in Nagaland

Since it was winter, and quite chilly at night, we’d normally eat all our meals around a fire, eating and drinking hot tea from bamboo cups.

A normal Naga food meal would include rice, some kind of meat (either dry or pork with bamboo shoots), boiled vegetables, and spicy chili sauces. Just like Sri Lankan food or Indian food, meals are eaten with your hands.

Some of the dishes reminded me of Burmese cuisine while others even tasted similar to Northern Thai dishes, yet all the foods were uniquely Naga.

Dried Pork

Dried Pork

A traditional Naga kitchen is outdoors because a fire is one of the most essential components of cooking. Hanging above any Naga kitchen fire will be pieces of meat (both pork and beef), that slowly dry out and smoke high above the flames.

After weeks or sometimes much longer than that, the meat is ready to be consumed. For one meal we just ate some of the smoked pork, and another time we enjoyed a stew made from the meat.

It was crispy on the outside, a little like jerky, but just saturated with an intensely delicious smokiness. It was so good along with rice.

Smoked Pork Stew

Smoked Pork Stew

Just as good as the plain smoked meat, was the smoked pork stew. The dried smoky pork was chopped into bite sized pieces before being boiled in a thin soup that included potatoes, tomatoes, and chillies.

It was salty, and so smoky that I could almost taste the fire – a great thing in my books!

Nagaland Pork w/ Dry Bamboo Shoots

Nagaland Pork w/ Dry Bamboo Shoots

One of the most famous Nagaland food dishes is dry bamboo shoots cooked with pork. This was one of the first dishes I had as soon as I arrived to Nagaland, and I was thrilled.

In Nagaland, just like in Thailand or Korea, they are serious when it comes to pork. So you won’t be eating thin strips of bite sized pork, they cook with huge chunks of pig. Often the pork is quite fatty, often big cubes of pork belly mixed in. If you’re a pork lover, you’ll have a blast in Nagaland.

To make this dish, the pork is fried with the Naga signature dry bamboo shoots and lots of chilies. The bamboo gives the pork a lovely aroma and unique flavor. I thought it was wonderful.

Nagaland Food – Boiled Vegetables

Boiled Vegetables

With nearly every meal I ate in Nagaland, we had a number of different boiled vegetables – most of the time cabbage, long beans, and melon. Vegetables are most commonly boiled without any seasoning.

The boiled vegetables accompany the meat and rice and also go with the different chili sauces (more listed below). Boiled vegetables are a big part of Nagaland food.

Bamboo Steamed Fish

Bamboo Steamed Fish

Bamboo grows everywhere in Nagaland, and it has many different uses. One of the common ways to cook is using tubes of bamboo.

Cooked by Grandfather himself, fish were stuffed into a hollow tube of bamboo with a few light spices and then placed in the ash of the fire to cook.

After the fish were cooked, they were simply emptied out of the bamboo into a bowl and ready to be served. They were quite plain and boney, but I could detect a nice hint of bamboo flavor in the fish. Along with some of the chili sauce, they were really good.

Roasted Intestines

Roasted Intestines

Since pig is such a huge part of Naga food culture, you can be assured that nothing is wasted, and internal organs happen to be some of the most prized possessions (and rightfully so, they are some of the most flavorful).

These roasted intestines were amazing, like naturally cured strips of bacon combined with sausage!

Beans Mix

Beans Mix

This healthy earthy mixture included beans, tomatoes, peas, cabbage and all sort of other natural Nagaland ingredients. It was a delicious concoction that wasn’t overly strong in flavor, but more of a garnish for rice and intended to be eaten with other stronger chili sauces and curries.

Bitter Melon

Bitter Melon

Being a huge fan of bitter melon, I was happy to see a big bowl of it for one of our meals in Nagaland. They were the little Indian bitter melons.

I think they were just boiled, as they were quite shriveled up with little flavor other than their bitterness, but the chili sauce again is what made them so delightful.

Chicken Glutinous Rice Soup

Chicken Glutinous Rice Soup

Few things are as pleasing a purchasing a live chicken at the market and eating her just a few moments later.

We went to the market in Dimapur, chose a nice little chicken, a free range village chicken that is, and went back to the house. The chicken was cooked in a glutinous rice sauce. Just like many other Nagaland foods, it wasn’t cooked overly spiced, but it was served along with some chili sauced which provided extreme flavor.

I particularly loved this chicken glutinous rice soup. It was extremely soothing, similar to eating congee or Thai joke, and it was warm and comforting… and the chicken was tasty too!

Kongshia Lon – Eel Chili Sauce

Kongshia Lon – Eel Chili Sauce

Of all the Nagaland food I was able to sample on my weeklong visit to Nagaland, it was the different assortment of chili sauces and garnishes that I enjoyed most.

This eel chili sauce was excellent, dry eel pounded with lots of chilies, garlic, and salt. I was quite satisfied with just a spoonful of this eel chili sauce and rice.

Nagaland food – Crab Chili Sauce

Crab Chili Sauce

Another great combination was the crab version. It was a little runnier than the dry eel chili sauce, but this was also very good. I was surprised how non-fishy it tasted.

Naga Ghost Chili Sauce

Naga Ghost Chili Sauce

On my last night in Nagaland, a friend cooked up a feast that contained dishes specifically from her home village in Nagaland. This blend of ingredients (I’m sorry, I honestly don’t know what all was in here) was miraculous.

There were only 4 Naga ghost chillies (the world’s hottest chili) within this sauce, and that was enough to make it tear flowing spicy. It wasn’t a long lasting hot chili spice though, it was more of an extreme sharp pain in your mouth that didn’t last too long, but really added wonderful flavor.

The entire chili sauce tasted kind of like mashed beans mixed with all sorts of herbs, onions, garlic and the Naga ghost chillies.

Though in a week I was barely able to scratch the surface of Nagaland food, what I was able to try I really enjoyed.

Let me know if you can recommend any other Nagaland foods!

Nagaland Food – An Overview of Delicious Naga Cuisine is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

Where to eat in New Jalpaiguri, India

There’s really not much to do in New Jalpaiguri (known by train code as NJP), India, except it’s a big train railroad junction – sort of the station that connects North India with Northeastern India.

After spending time in both Darjeeling and Gangtok and I had to go back to NJP. And apart from waiting for your train, the only other thing to do is EAT!

So if you find yourself waiting in NJP I would recommend checking out Hotel Subhankar (not really a hotel), a restaurant just across the parking lot from the railroad station.

Sitting down at Hotel Subhankar for lunch (and waiting for my train)

I ordered their thali which was delivered on the all familiar metal pan with a variety of dishes each full of some kind of vegetable curry and dal.

Being quite hungry we also had a few sides of chicken curry which was wonderful.

A thali – full set meal

This is my favorite way to pass time while waiting for a train in India…

Egg curry at NJP

One of the best things about eating thali’s at normal hole-in-the-wall restaurants throughout India is that they are happy to serve you as much rice and vegetable dishes as you want – until you’re stuffed – no extra charge.

But since we were still hungry we then had the boiled egg curry, a pair of boiled eggs that were deep fried and stewed in a lovely greasy curry sauce.

Thali with chicken curry runs 80 Rupees ($1.47).

Stomach satisfied, I was much more happy to board my train to Varanasi!

Hotel Subhankar

Here’s the restaurant. It’s just outside the NJP Railroad Station, across the parking lot from the exit. If you happen to be on your way to Darjeeling or Gangtok and arrive to NJP Railroad station, and need lunch, this is a good spot!

Delightful Meal at the New Jalpaiguri Railroad Station in India (NJP) is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

Eating in Darjeeling, India

It’s often in circumstances when you’re not searching, that you find exactly what you’re looking for.

Same goes for good restaurants.

After a 4 hour zigzagging mountain jeep ride from New Jalpaigur to Darjeeling, we were hungry. And so hungry in fact, that even though I wanted to find somewhere good, I was willing to eat just about anything.

And that’s when we stumbled right into a restaurant that was just like Vishalatchi Food and Catering in Kuala Lumpur (not by the genre of food they served, but by the deliciousness) – a restaurant so good I’d have to return to eat multiple meals in a row.

Pork curry

Singalila Restaurant is very simple.

Open the curtain, walk down 2 steps, and you’re in the little dining section where there are about 3 long tables paired with benches. The kitchen is just to the left hand side and during lunchtime hours the restaurant is always filled with jeep drivers satisfying themselves with delicious food.

It’s a family restaurant, mainly operated by another incredible motherly cook and her daughters.

The toughest thing about eating at Singalila Restaurant were the near freezing temperatures outside and inside… but once that food arrived, I nearly forgot about the outside temperature.

Piping hot beef curry

There’s no menu at Singalila Restaurant, and you get whatever is available that particular day.

The food is mostly native dishes from the area, a mixture of Sikkimese and Tibetan flavors accompanied by a bit of Indian influence.

You always start off with a plate of rice, a couple of mixed vegetable curries of the day, and a side of dal.

From there, you can order a meat addition. The first day I had the beef curry and pork curry (pictured above), a powerfully flavorful concoction of chunks of meat that were ridiculously tender, warm, and so flavorful.

Chicken curry to die for

The next day I had the chicken curry, an equally delightful curry.

Plate of garnishes and a killer green sauce

And one of my personal favorite things about Singalila Restaurant was the communal plate of garnishes and hot sauce.

The little ball chillies were about the size of marbles, but they were indeed fiery, and warmed me right up. The green sauce, which I still haven’t been able to fully identify what it all included, was one of the top sauces I’ve ever had.

Just like pol sambol, I had dreams about the green sauce.

Beef thukpa noodle soup

Though I ate the rice meal at Singalila Restaurant nearly everyday I was in Darjeeling, India, I hadn’t tried their Tibetan style thukpa noodle soup.

So on my last day in Darjeeling, in addition to a plate of marvelous rice and curry, I had a bowl of the motherly beef noodles. It was served quite plain, but after adding a few squeezes of lime, those insane chillies, and some onions to the mix, it was quite a beefy delightful bowl of noodles. Still, I preferred the rice.

A extremely satisfying meal in Darjeeling, India

There are few things more rewarding than finding and eating motherly meals when you travel!

Singalila Restaurant, Darjeeling, India

Singalila Restaurant – Darjeeling, India

Hours: Opens around 12 pm or so, best to eat here for lunch

How to get there: The restaurant is located in a jeep driver hangout parking lot, across the street from Hotel Capital and across the intersection from Keventer’s (a famous restaurant). It’s just down the main road from Chowrasta Square at the 4 way intersection.

If you’re on your way to Darjeeling, be sure to check out my Darjeeling travel guide.

Singalila Restaurant – Home Cooked Flavors in Darjeeling, India is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

Tibetan food in Gangtok, India

Before visiting India, I can’t say I had ever eaten Tibetan food.

And when I traveled to India, little did I realize I’d be dining on some traditional Tibetan dishes, but I did! The province of Sikkim is located in Northeastern India in the Himalaya mountains, bordering Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan.

Sikkim is the only province in India where the majority of the population is Nepali and Tibetan. So it feels quite a bit different from mainland North or South India.

After enjoying Tibetan cuisine at a number of restaurants in Gangtok (biggest town in Sikkim), and even at the canteen of the Ranka Tibetan monastery, I decided to try out a popular restaurant known as Taste of Tibet.

Couldn’t get enough of this stuff!

Tibetan food is a little plain, dishes are often served not overly spicy, salty, or even too much flavor. However, accompanying all tables at every restaurant I visited was a dish of outstanding, and fiery hot, chili sauce.

I couldn’t get enough of the Tibetan style chili sauce!

Fresh hot momo dumplings

First up were a plate of steaming hot fresh momos, this time filled with chicken. Momos are similar to Chinese jaozi or Korean mandu, they are little dough pockets filled with a choice of ingredients, wrapped up, and either steamed or deep fried.

Though I’d had plenty of momos throughout my travels in Northeastern India and even in Kolkata, these were among the tastiest – especially with that chili sauce.

Tibetan shapale – meat pies

Similar to a large-scale deep fried momo, or a samosa, Tibetan shapale are essentially meat pies. The dough is crunchy on the outside and gooey on the interior, and I ordered them filled with minced chicken, onions, and spices.

Like much of the Tibetan food, it wasn’t overly strong in flavor, but after adding some more chili sauce, they were very comforting.

Chicken Chili

For main course I tried a number of things, the Chicken Chili being most excellent.

The little bits of chicken were initially deep fried to a serious crisp and then coated in a tangy sweet red sauce while tossed with tomatoes, onions, and chillies. It was really good with rice.

Lamian with sauce

Not sure if this dish is truly Tibetan, but it was on the menu at Taste of Tibet and I decided to order it. The noodles, on the menu, said they were lamian, like those insanely good hand pulled Chinese noodles.

On top of the bed of noodles was a meaty sauce that was tomatoey, and around the outside were a few garnishing vegetables. The bizarre thing was that a few pieces of rice were sprinkled on the very top… decoration? I’m not sure.

Tibetan thenthuk

After momos and shapale, one of the most famous Tibetan dishes are variations of soup noodles. This particular version known as thenthuk, is homemade style noodles sliced into bite sized pieces.

It was a bit flour-y, but thick and hearty, and I thought it would be a good dish to eat during cold weather – it sort of warmed me internally with the thick soup.

Taste of Tibet, Gangtok, India

Taste of Tibet Restaurant, Gangtok, India

When you’re in Gangtok, head to Taste of Tibet restaurant, located right along the walking street (you can’t miss it). The food is good, and it’s constantly busy.
Prices: Dishes are around 100 INR ($1.85), and this entire meal came to about 500 INR ($9.28).
Open: Noon – 8 pm (or so, as always in India)

A Taste of Tibetan Food in Sikkim, India is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

Within the lanes of Varanasi, I discovered a small stall with a man serving a delightful snack known as baati chokha, or round roti.

Theses little balls of dough about the size of a golf ball were filled with garam masala spices and grilled before being served with a curry sauce made form potatoes and chillies.

Watch the video now…

(If you can’t see the video, watch baati chokha here)

Thank you for watching!

Simple, fresh, and extremely tasty. I really enjoyed eating these baati chokha round rotis while visiting Varanasi!

VIDEO: Indian Round Roti in Varanasi, India is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

Tucked into the peaceful green district of Dusit, is a Bangkok culinary gem known as Krua OV (ครัว OV) restaurant.

They serve mostly amazing Thai curries, but they are also particularly famous for their royal Thai food, and their Khao Chae (ข้าวแช่), a dish that consists of iced jasmine water rice served with deep fried little tidbits – unique and very good!

Watch the video now!

(If you can’t see the video, click here to watch it on YouTube)

Thank you for watching!

Krua OV (ครัว OV) Restaurant

Address: 199 Thanon Pichai, Kwang, Nakhon Chaisi, Kate Dusit, Bangkok
Phone: 0-22431980
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ov.catering
Prices: You’ll pay around 100 – 200 THB per person for a feast

199 ถนน.พิชัย แขวง ถนนนครไชยศรี เขตดุสิต กรุงเทพ
เปิด จันทร์ – เสาร์
โทร. 0-22431980

VIDEO: Royal Thai Food at Krua OV (ครัว OV) Restaurant is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

Varanasi, India

I was exploring the ancient narrow lanes of Varanasi, searching for something delicious to eat, when a man smiled and cheerfully invited me to his restaurant from across the lane.

He was serving something known as round roti, more commonly known in India as baati chokha.

Soon, I’d find out this was the funeral lane (where bodies were ushered down to the Ganges River).

But more on that later.

Cooking the baati chokha

Perched in a window, the man sat in front of the grill, facing the alley lane while rolling and grilling up his spheres of dough.

Just like many of the Kolkata street food vendors, this man was excited to serve me, and he also wanted to explain to me exactly what he was cooking.

Though he was chewing a mouthful of paan, saliva nearly dripping off his lips, I tried to listen.

“This is round roti, baati chokha,” he said. “There is garam masala inside.”

The baati chokha vendor explaining something to me

A baati chokha, or round roti, is basically a ball of dough that’s filled with spices and grilled over charcoal. From the grilled char, it’s slightly crunchy on the outside, but really flavorful from the addition of spices.

Cooking the round rotis over charcoal

The round roti balls are moved around the grill every few seconds so as not to burn.

The finished ones are placed on the edges of the grill, remaining warm, until being ordered and served (the good thing is, they stay hot and fresh).

A fresh plate of baati chokha (round roti)

When you order baati chokha, he pulls a couple rounds off the grill, places them on a little paper plate (not a leaf bowl this time), adds a scoop of sauce, some red onions, and a chili on the side.

The sauce was a flavorful blend of what tasted like mashed potatoes mixed with lots of spices, oil, and coriander. It was perfect for the dry roti balls.

As I broke my first roti ball in half, generously dipped it into the sauce, and inserted the bite into my mouth was when I heard the chanting and saw a crew of men running down the lane carrying a bamboo stretcher with an orange cloth wrapped dead body on top…

I literally had to duck my head to avoid colliding with the corpse.

Despite the deliciousness of the baati chokha, I suddenly wasn’t quite as hungry as I previously was.

So I had another bite, and boom, another funeral procession and corpse came straight through the lane again, but this time I was more prepared for it.

Varanasi, India

It’s quite an interesting experience to be munching on delicious Indian street food while sharing the lane with corpses being ushered down to the Ganges River to be cremated.

So if you do visit Varanasi, India, take a walk down Manikarnika burning ghat lane (heavily guarded by armed military) and you’ll find the man grilling baati chokha.

He’ll probably say a gurgled “hello,” from his mouthful of areca nut and tobacco, and you may have to duck under a corpse or a few, but his snack is sure tasty!

Eating Baati Chokha (Round Roti) on the Funeral Lane in Varanasi, India is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

The lively streets of Varanasi, India

While walking around the main streets of Varanasi, I couldn’t help but notice huge pots and pans full of a yellow fluffy substance topped with little green sprinkles.

A vendor in Varanasi serving maiyoo – a foam milk dessert

Every now and then someone would stop by, grab a quick clay cup full, and speedily nurse it down with a sigh of satisfaction, before smashing the clay cup on the ground (just like the chai in Kolkata).

It’s not hard to spot a vendor that serves maiyoo in Varanasi

I was of course interested to test it for myself, and without having a clue as to what this Indian street food was, I ordered a serving.

Soon I learned it is a sweet Indian dessert called malaiyo, and it’s a winter sweet treat specifically famous in Varanasi as opposed to other parts of India.

Ready to eat Maiyoo!

In order to handle the crowds of pedestrian foot traffic on the streets of Varanasi (video), the malaiyo vendor had dished out about 20 or so clay cups and lined them up on the top of his street food cabinet, all of them waiting to entice a customer.

I grabbed one from the line, paid my 10 Rupees ($0.18) and stood on the side of the extremely chaotic road for my first taste.

Maiyoo – delicious suds!

It tasted like egg nog, thick and creamy, but had the texture of airy foam – it was that light. Within the milk there was lots of cardamom, giving it a lovely flavor and on top were a few slivers of pistachio nuts.

I really thought I was eating soap suds, but it was creamy, buttery, and full of cardamom.

If you are traveling to Varanasi in the winter month, take a walk away from the Ganges River and onto the main streets where you’ll find vendors serving up huge pans of malaiyo!

Malaiyo – Seasonal Varanasi Dessert Foam is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

Time 2 Eat Mama Chicken Mama Franky House

With a name like “Time 2 Eat Mama Chicken Mama Franky House,” and huge smiley faces on the sign, how could you not eat there?

I sure couldn’t resist.

But let me tell you, this street pop-up kiosk in Agra, India, is not a motherly home cooked meal establishment like the name may suggest, but it’s a rather male dominated street kitchen where they’ve got a pretty good recipe for tandoori chicken and roti and other delicious things like that.

There are two branches of Time 2 Eat Mama Chicken – the Non-Veg and the Veg side – separated by about 50 meters of parking lot, a segregation of the non-veg versus veg eaters.

Getting ready to dig into some tandoori chicken in Agra, India!

I chose Non-Veg.

It was about 11 am when I arrived, and the crew of grillers and cooks were moving extremely slowly, the way many restaurants and businesses in India begin their days.

Mama Chicken House is more of an afternoon / night restaurant spot.

They have a pretty big menu actually, not just tandoori chicken, but kebabs, kati rolls, curries, and a variety of other North Indian tasty food specials.

At night, the restaurant is a munchers hang out, similar to wondrous Rajinder Da Dhaba restaurant – one of the top food things to do in Delhi.

Chicken and roti prepared in the tandoor clay oven

One thing you won’t be able to get enough of in North India is the fresh and always hot breads – tandoori roti being one of the most popular.

The balls of dough were slapped on the outside of the tandoor clay over into thin rotis before being placed on the side of the oven to cook in just a few moments.

A thing of beauty

Big, juicy, succulent, chunks of poultry…

I could hear the soft sizzle of the oozing meat juice hitting the coals at the bottom of the tandoor oven… music to my ears!

Tandoori chicken and tandoori roti at Mama Chicken House!

My 1/4 tandoori chicken arrived on a styrofoam plate accompanied by a wonderful yogurt corriander puree and a side of sliced red onions.

The chicken on its own was so flavorful it didn’t need anything extra. However, grabbing some tandoori roti, adding a piece of chicken, some onions, and then dipping it in the sauce was a heavenly combo as well.

Marvelous tandoori rotis

The tandoori rotis, cooked in the same oven and bathed in chicken smoke, were hot, crispy on the edges, and fluffy all around.

You’ll want to lick these bones clean

Now that’s what I call finger-lickin’ goodness!

Tandoori Chicken in Agra, India

Total bill came to 150 INR for 1/4 tandoori chicken and 4 tandoori rotis.

Time 2 Eat Mama Chicken Mama Franky House is located right at the Sadar Bazar in Agra, India. You’ll see it in the parking lot of a small strip mall – you can’t miss their signs!

I’m sure many of the items listed on the menu are delicious, but all I tried was the tandoori chicken and tandoori rotis, which I very much enjoyed.

Address: Sadar Bazar, Agra, Uttar Pradesh 282001

Here’s the map:

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Mama Chicken – You’ll Want to Lick Her Bones Clean! is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

The Green Pea Man of Varanasi, India

So, green peas.

What could be so special about them?

That’s what I thought too.

We often think of them as those mushy little green balls that are sometimes added to mixed vegetables, but are sort of an awkward and hard to cook with vegetable.

But in India, peas (known more commonly as mutter), play a significant role in Indian food. Mixed veg curry, one of North India’s most common dishes, always includes peas; Aloo mutter, potatoes and peas, is another favorite. I even had a parantha bread at Parantha Wali Gali stuffed with green peas.

Varanasi, India, is famous for its chaat snacks and Indian desserts, and it’s also where I met the Varanasi pea man.

Shelled green peas

His street cart was filled with shelled green peas placed on an orange table cloth, plus a few pea shells sprinkled on top to add some decoration.

Green peas in Varanasi, India

On one side of his street cart was a India wok-like pan and cooking station where he stir fried his peas and created them into yet another tasty Indian street food snack.

His cart was positioned not on the side of the road, but right in the middle of the road – we could call this a street food median.

Frying up a fresh batch of green peas

With permanently green stained hands, you know this man was dedicated to serving green peas!

So I ordered up a couple portions to see just how good his green peas were.

Batch of bright green peas

Slow cooking on a candle like flame, fueled by a small camp stove propane cylinder, the pea man stirred his peas every now and then while serving hungry snackers at the same time.

Green peas in a green leaf

After ordering, he would grab a small stack of fresh leaves, form them into a little cone shape, and pile in some of the hot green peas.

A few scoops of masala spices, some chili flakes, a dash of salt, fresh chopped red onions, and a squeeze of lime made the green peas complete. He’d give it a quick stir to half-mix the different ingredients, and then hand it to you with a smile.

Just like ghugni chaat, this was another super affordable 10 INR ($0.19) street snack.

Fried mutter (fried green peas)

A little slice of the same leaf was folded up and used conveniently as a spoon.

Forget about those mushy flavorless green peas.

The Varanasi pea man served slightly crisp, full of texture, and wonderfully flavorful green peas. The spices, the chili, the red onions, and the sourness from lime juice made it a delicious and healthy snack. Eating from a stack of leaves, with a leaf spoon, was another extra fun bonus!

The Green Pea Man of Varanasi is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

While walking around the Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal, I came across a very friendly looking couple serving a Nepali street food selection that looked and smelled very tasty.

So I stopped by and soon had myself a buffalo shapale (which is a Tibetan food meat pie), a spiced potato cutlet, and a marvelous piece of fried chicken. All topped with a spoon of chili sauce, they were all crunchy, a bit greasy, and delicious.

Here’s the full video here…

(If you can’t see the video, watch this Nepali street food video here)

Thank you for watching!

VIDEO: Nepali Street Food Snacks in Kathmandu is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

I’m waiting in line at the Kashi Chaat Bhandar

Varanasi, located in the Uttar Pradesh state of India, is famous as being the most sacred Hindu city in India. However, it’s also home some famous sweets and also Indian snacks known as chaat.

One day, I headed over to the Kashi Chaat Bhandar, a well known Varanasi munchers establishment.

Kashi Chaat Bhandar – Varanasi, India

What is Indian chaat?

Chaat is a term used for little Indian street food snacks – perhaps a more accurate English cultural translation is an appetizer (but not necessarily preceding a larger meal), or light snack.

To me, chaat is like a bag of potato chips… except it’s fresh, more flavorful, and filled with countless tasty ingredients.

Chaat is normally a combination of junk food (like fried crunchy things), spices, yogurt (curd), onions, or a varied assortment of other ingredients. It’s normally considered savory  as opposed to sweet, but then again, chaat is often a mind blowing combination of all flavors, sweetness sometimes being mingled with spicy and sour.

Throughout India, I enjoyed eating at many chaat stalls; They are great places to stand up while shoveling in a quick snack that bursts with flavor. Pani puri and ghugni chaat can both be considered varieties of Indian chaat.

Special Kashi Chaat

Having little clue what to actually eat, I let the friendly owner decide my order.

“Just wait one moment,” he said with a smile, “I’ll take care of you.”

Special Kashi Chaat

First up was what he called the special Kashi chaat. It was a mixture of slow cooked chickpeas, spices, butter, oils, chopped corriander, and I watched a host of other ingredients get stirred up before it was all scooped into a clay bowl and handed to me.

It was like bean dip, rich and creamy, salty and sour with lime juice. It was excellent as is, but I thought it would have even been better with a chapati or plate of rice as it was rich.

Dahi Puri

Dahi Puri

Next he handed me a plate of dahi puri.

Now these are the same little puris (hollow deep fried chips) that are used in preparing pani puri, but instead of being filled with tamarind water, these are first filled with spicy potatoes and drowned in thick curd (which is like unflavored yoghurt).

Then a few sprinkles of sauces and spices are tossed on top to complete the chaat.

It think Dahi Puri is marvelous. Each round puri is supposed to be eaten in a single bite so the diversity of flavors are blend together in your mouth, and let me tell you, it’s quite a burst of deliciousness.

Palak Chaat at Kashi Chaat Bhandar

Palak Chaat

Before I had to surrender of richness overdose (I can’t eat too many snacks without eating some rice and carbs to break the richness), he handed me one more concoction: Palak (spinach) Chaat.

Ok, there wasn’t much spinach in this chaat despite its name, but there were a few leaves embedded into a deep freed crispy fritter that was then smothered in thick curd and the same host of spices and garnishes on top. It was a crunchy, yoghurty, spicy, sour mishmash, that was delicious too.

Triplets!

Here are the three Indian chaat dishes I enjoyed at the Kashi Chaat Bhandar in Varanasi, all lined up and looking beautiful.

Gulab Jamun

Gulab Jamun

After polishing off the trio of chaat’s, the owner handed me a gulab jamun – a golf ball sized famous Indian dessert – and said, “here, this is for free.”

The best gulab jamun I’v ever had

I had had gulab jamun a number of times, but this happened to be one of the best gulab jamun’s I’ve ever had in my life. It was sweet like honey and crumbly like a soft half cooked cookie.

It honestly melted in my mouth, chewing was unnecessary.

Kashi Chaat (Chat) Bhandar

Kashi Chaat (Chat) Bhandar

Hours: About 4 pm – 11 pm daily
How to get there: Kashi Chat Bhandar is located across the Gondawar intersection in Varanasi India. It’s about a 10 minute walk from the Main Ghat (along the Ganges River).

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This famous Varanasi food establishment is a true winner, a place you shouldn’t miss if you love Indian street food as much as I do! I also included this spot on my Varanasi travel guide.

Tasty Indian Chaat at the Kashi Chaat Bhandar in Varanasi is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

While in Kathmandu, we stopped at a small restaurant to eat a traditional plate of samay baji, a common Newari food meal.

Newari cuisine is a genre of Nepali food that originates from the Kathmandu valley area of Nepal. While other cuisines in Nepal are similar to Tibetan food, Newari food is unique and extremely delicious!

(if you can’t see the video, watch it on YouTube here)

Thank you for watching!

VIDEO: Newari Food – A Plate of Samay Baji is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

Old Famous Jalebi Wala in Delhi, India

Does crispy fried dough dunked in sweet syrup sound good to you?

I had seen them many times walking around Indian influenced cities like Kuala Lumpur, but before traveling to India, I had never sunk my teeth into a jalebi.

Located right in the midst of chaotic Chandni Chowk market in Delhi, India, is Old Famous Jalebi Wala, a street stall that serves one of India’s most beloved desserts.

It’s been featured in just about every Delhi travel guide (including mine), and for good reason, because it’s such a legendary establishment.

A fresh platter of jalebis

What is a jalebi?

There are a number of different stories of how the jalebi came to India, but most believe that it was originally a Persian treat known as zulubiya, that was served at special feasts.

During the spread of the Islamic Mughal Empire, jalebis likely came too, filtering into all parts of India and adapting to the Indian taste buds.

There are a few different variations, but it all begins with a flour based batter that’s whipped up into a paste. The batter is loaded into a funnel and swirled into unique coil shapes within hot oil. When the jalebis have cooked and are crunchy all the way through, they are drained, and then immediately bathed in the sweet fragrant syrup for a precise amount of time.

Hot and dripping with both oil and sweet syrup, the jalebis are ready for consumption.

Ready for my first bite

Standing on the side of the crazy street in front of Old Famous Jalebi Wala, you can see the process of the cooking as your mouth begins to water.

Even with long lines it doesn’t take long before you’re handed a silver lined paper plate with your little coil of glory upon it.

Taking a bite you’ll get the crunch of dough complemented with an oozing of sweet saffron infused syrup that tastes like honey. The combination, especially if you have a sweet tooth, is sensational.

Old Famous Jalebi Wala – can you taste it?

Some locals will travel long distances to get a taste of Old Famous, others say that it’s overrated and there are better places.

Since I have only had a few jalebis in my lifetime, I’m no expert on the subject and nor do I have many to compare it to, but I can say with certainty that for anyone who loves sweets, these jalebis are to die for.

Here’s a video sampling the jalebi at Old Famous Jalebi Wala:

Old Famous Jalebi Wala

Prices: The hot fresh jalebis cost 300 INR ($5.45) per kilo, but if you just want a good individual portion, it costs 50 INR ($0.91). That was more than enough to satisfy my sweet tooth. And just so you know, they are much more expensive here than other street stalls – due to their fame.
How to get there: Old Famous is located in Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi, and you can take the Metro to Chandni Chowk station, walk east past the Sheeshganj Gurudwara Sikh Temple and it will be on your right hand side (south side) on the corner of Dariba Kalan lane.
Address: At the intersection of Dariba Kalan and Chandni Chowk, New Delhi
Open Hours: Around 8 am – 10 pm daily

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If you haven’t already seen my Delhi travel guide, click here now.

Old Famous Jalebi Wala – Crunchy donuts dripping with sweet syrup! is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

Seng Wa Goong Pao (แสร้งว่ากุ้งเผา)

From years of traveling and living in Thailand, I’ve been able to sample a lot of Thai food.

While most of my meals have either consisted of Thai street food and home-cooked Thai meals, it’s a rare event when I get to eat upscale Thai cuisine.

Paste Bangkok is an incredible restaurant in Bangkok that specializes in modern Thai food.

By using traditional recipes mixed with freshly creative ideas, making use of extremely high quality ingredients (that are often local, organic, and free-range), and paying acute attention to preparation details, the duo of chefs at Paste have developed a dangerously tempting menu.

Having eaten at Paste Bangkok a number of times now, I just wanted to share the dishes I’ve sampled and a video that I put together (you can watch the Paste Bangkok video of my meal below).

On my first visit I ate a dish called Seng Wa Goong Pao (แสร้งว่ากุ้งเผา), which is actually a royal Thai dish made with wild ocean king prawns and crispy catfish. Plenty of herbs and a dressing that consisted primarily of kaffir lime juice, gave this salad a tongue pleasing zing.

Pork neck salad at Paste Bangkok

One thing chef Jason and Bee of Paste Bangkok are quick to announce is, while they do care about food presentation, they prefer to let the ingredients of each dish and the flavor combinations speak for themselves.

While many fancy restaurants, both Thai and international, go crazy with presentation including things that aren’t “supposed” to be eaten on the plate and squirting droplets of sauce around the edges of the plate for decoration, Paste Bangkok is less about unnecessary fancy, and all about exquisite flavors.

“Straight forward honest cooking,” is what chef Jason told me.

One of their signature dishes is the poached organic pork neck mixed with red grapefruit, basil, avocado, and toasted rice (หมูตุ๋นเสริฟ์กับเกรฟฟรุ๊ตและดอกไม้ไทย). It’s a beautiful Thai dish that tastes even more amazing than it looks!

Wild sea bass

Being a lover of fish, I was excited to try a wild sea bass fillet that was steamed and then combined with a sauce made from turmeric, honey and fennel. Garnished with thinly shaved kaffir lime leaves and deep fried shallots gave this modern Thai dish a fantastic touch.

The ultimate pork leg!

Ka moo, or tender stewed pork leg is an extremely common Bangkok street food dish.

But at Paste they don’t just served a few slices of pork leg over a plate of rice with some pork juice drizzled over it, they prepare what they call “the ultimate-twice cooked-caramelised-pork leg (สุดยอดขาหมูเสริฟ์กับหน่อไม้ดอง, ผักกาดดองและผักชี).”

The pork leg was marinated, then flash deep fried to give each piece or pork a crispy exterior. It was then assembled with pickled bamboo shoots, shaved red chillies, pomelo, coriander, and finally a lightly sweet caramel glaze.

Yet again, this spectacular combination of pork melted in my mouth.

Free-range fried duck at Paste Bangkok

Before sampling the duck, chef Jason Bailey let me taste some northern Thai pepper (actually a berry), in the same family as the Sichuan pepper (the kind that makes you mouth numb). It tasted incredible, a little less strong than the actual Sichuan pepper, but it did tingle my tongue and offered an almost citrus flavor.

This half a free-range duck (เป็ดมะแขว่นเสิร์ฟกับซอสส้มและโป๊ยกั๊ก) was intensely rubbed with the northern Thai pepper (mahkween มะแขว่น) and sea salt before being submerged in hot oil.

After being cooked, the duck was drizzled in a fresh orange glaze that was well flavored with anise and cinnamon and then garnished with orange segments and sticks of cinnamon. It was another stunner, extremely flavorful and the duck had that lovely natural texture to it, while being crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.

Mangosteen scallop salad

The final Thai dish we sampled was a scallop and mangosteen salad  with roasted chili jam (ยำมังคุดกับหอยเชลล์).

This is another example of the modern Thai philosophy that the chefs at Paste Bangkok push for: mangosteen and scallops, and all the other ingredients in the dish are popular in Thailand, yet mangosteen is seldom (if ever) used in Thai cooking. So their version of mangosteen salad is a creative combination of Thai ingredients, a progression of Thai cuisine – modern Thai food!

Paste Bangkok Video

Ok, so finally, above is the video of my meal, only including the latter three dishes mentioned above. It was an awesome feast and the high quality ingredients and flavors that Paste Bangkok promotes, are absolutely amazing!

Paste Bangkok Restaurant

If you’re are looking for an exciting upscale Thai restaurant that will tingle your taste buds and make you melt with satisfaction, Paste Bangkok is one of the top choices in Bangkok.

Prices are around 900 – 1000 THB per person, including a drink.

Check out their full menu on their website here.

I think the food at Paste Bangkok is creative and extraordinarily delicious. Enjoy the food and the video!

Paste Bangkok – A Mouthwatering Meal of Modern Thai Food (Video) is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

While in Jaipur, I was excited to try local Rajasthani food.

In this video I sample a Rajasthani thali that includes one of the main stapes, dal baati, which are hard wheat balls that are crumbled and then served with a variety of Rajasthan style curries and dals.

It was a delicious meal!

(If you can’t see it, watch it in YouTube here)

Thank you for watching!

VIDEO: Rajasthani Food in Jaipur is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology

Street food in Kathmandu

If there’s one way to make your street food product stand out… make it pink – HOT PINK!

While walking around Kathmandu I kept noticing restaurants and street stalls selling bright pink little deep fried discs.

They looked sort of like an Indian paratha and sort of like a Mexican corn tortilla, only pinker than anything else I’d ever seen.

My curiosity couldn’t take it any longer, so on the outskirts of Kathmandu’s Durbar Square, I found a friendly man serving his deep fried greasy goodies.

Sitting in a little room that looked like a closet with open shutter doors, he sat in the dark while rolling out and deep frying bright pink circles of dough as well as something more recognizable to me, onion pakoras.

Pink balls of dough

As soon as I stopped and inquired, he informed me that the pink snacks were in fact pink puris.

A puri is basically an Indian fried bread.

I had quite a few of them in India, specifically in Delhi where I enjoyed many meals and snacks of chole bhature – bhature being a variation of a puri – but none in India were pink.

The balls of divvied out dough sat upon a clean metal counter top, waiting their turn to be slapped into discs and tossed into the oil.

Freshly fried pink puris

A few moments on each side and the puris came out crispy on all sides, oil soaked, and still as pink as ever.

Pink puris wrapped in newspaper

When you order pink puris in Nepal, just like ordering jhal muri or other Indian street foods snacks, they are wrapped up into yesterday’s newspaper.

The oil immediately penetrates the paper, and my hope is that the ink doesn’t bleed onto the edible puris, but that’s just the way it is!

I’m not totally sure how local Nepalis eat these pink puris, but since I was so curious, I ate one immediately on spot.

It was greasy indeed, and didn’t have much flavor other than oil and crunchiness. In India as I mentioned I ate puris with chickpea curry and various forms of dal, but at this stall he was just making the deep fried side of things.

These hot pink puris would have definitely been tastier paired with some curry.

Pakoras draining

Along with pink puris, the vendor also had a metal colander full of onion pakoras.

These deep fried fritters are basically onion little pancake bites deep fried into chips. They are crispy, oniony, and salty through and through.

Onion pakoras in Kathmandu, Nepal

Though the onions pakoras were extremely greasy, they were also extremely tasty.

A big newspaper bag full of pink puris and onion pakoras cost only 40 Nepalese Rupees ($0.41).

Having successfully satisfied my curiosity for the pinkest street food I had ever seen, I continued my exploration of Kathmandu!

Have you ever seen a pinker food than pink puris?

Hot Pink Puris and Onion Pakoras – The Brightest Snack You’ve Ever Seen? is a post from: Cultural Travel and Street Food Around the World | Migrationology