16 Comments

My mom brought my sister and I some chakli and banana chips when she visited last! This piece is making me hungry and nostalgic. I still love visiting and Indian store, they are so alive and smell amazing 😍

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So great, Perzen! I love snacks!

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Haha Perzen, this was like a walk though my childhood, and I am still a child, so that's saying something. I'm just going to add Aloo Bhujia (a spicy type of sev) to this list. Nicely done dude :)

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Thanks so much! I wanted to add so many like Gathia, Shakarpada and Kachori. May be I need to do a part two!

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Chakli for life, or maybe chakli is life?! My mum in law is one of those special mindset folks who batch makes them for us at home. I can never eat store bought chakli again. I’m surprised to learn they originated in West India. I cheekily assumed we invented them here in the south. 😛

I love your spotlighting of these snacks Perzen - a real service to humankind I say! I love all of these too especially all variants of puffed rice snacks, khakra, and bhakarwadi.

Some favourites besides these:

- makhana based snacks of all types (not sure what they're called in English) - so easy and healthy too.

- kadbu - maida or rice flour pockets stuffed with various sweet fillings

- kodbale - a Bangalore-Mysore favourite, made out of lentils and flour (i think) and looks and tastes like a spicy bangle

- shankarpali - those sweet and sometimes savoury diamond shaped cuts of maida

- all forms of patra - from Gujarat down to the Coromandel coast 🤤

I could go on and on.

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Thank you for your thoughts on service to humankind being in the form of food haha, I appreciate it more than you know. Makhana was a late discovery for me but I'm loving them! I'm thinking of doing a proper feature on them. I've seen small packets now of pre-seasoned, roasted Makhana which makes them accessible to a wider audience! Also, not allowed to buy Shankarpali because i normally scoff the whole packet all at once, normally outside the shop.

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I stand by moong dal namkeen being one of the best dang snacks in the whole desi food universe. Ah, childhood. 😁

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It always reminds me of old uncles drinking whiskey for some reason. But so tasty!

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I love sev, and I'm glad to hear you sprinkle it onto curries because I use it in place of salli to add texture and crunch when I'm making the chicken curry just for the two of us and I'm not going to go frying potato just for us. I also just eat it in fistfuls from the packet, it is very addictive!

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It’s a shame Indian stores overseas don’t stock Salli! The one we make at home is never quite the same. Whenever anyone is coming from india my mum orders 2kg and then hoards it so she never has to share 😝😝

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You should look at jackfruit chips, hot potato chips and the variety of fried snacks. It's amazing with the variety and the concept of food preservation that created these snacks. Human ingenuity at its best

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When I was 8-9 we had a wafer shop next to our house. I have vivid memories of going there with my grandpa at about 4.30 when they always made a fresh batch of wafers. Back then in India there were no packet chips so these were so precious to eat

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The hot chips and savoury snack stores in Bangalore will always remain innovative and as good as any packet chips. 😋😋 They made all sorts of chips and namkeen there 😍😍.

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Murmura chivda oooo I love that snack

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Have you eaten this before Fi? You should try the Poha Chivda too then

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My friend made some one day, flavours were incredible.

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