The evening air around Technopark campus now smells different. Spicier. Makeshift stalls line either side of the road, chaat vendors mix papdi, sev, tomatoes, mashed potatoes and chutneys in their big mixing bowl as techies wearing red and blue identity cards around their neck, patiently wait for their turn.
Gargi Basu and Amit Jain sneak out early one evening from their office at the Leela building, to enjoy platefuls of bhelpuri and kachori chaat. Situated ten minutes away from the Technopark campus, is their favourite chaat place. “Many new chaat places have sprung up. But it tastes nothing like the chaat we had back in our hometown,” Gargi, a native of Calcutta, complains. When you are away from home and all things familiar, you miss food. Be it homemade or street food.
Adjacent to a massive statue of a man looking onto the expanse of green and partially constructed buildings, is Cafe Planet and the breezy restaurant named Rangoli. If you have been to Technopark, it is not likely that you would have missed this name. With five outlets inside the campus, Rangoli sells much more than just chaat and maybe that is why Moorthy, the owner cringes to just talk about chaat. He introduces us to Ranganathan, who makes chaat at the restaurant. “Evenings are mostly crowded with people and not just north Indians, even Malayalis enjoy chaat. The most selling items are definitely the most common ones like bhelpuri, panipuri and samosa chaat,” says this chaat expert who has been making chaat for the last fifteen years.
If you drop in at Rangoli then make sure to taste their Anarkali chaat and Raj kachori. Anarkali chaat is chaat with fresh fruits and pomegranate. Raj kachori can satisfy a starving belly, it is gigantic and filling. The stuffing of the kachori has almost all essential chaat ingredients from chic peas, curd, pudhina chutney, sev, masalas and black salt. Do try their variations of pav bhaji, which includes paneer, cheese, and mushroom.
Options for chaat inside the city are scarce. Dakhani Degh, a Hyderabadi take away has a chaat counter with decent chaat options. Sindhoor Palace, Kowdiar has chaat along with their buffet fiesta. “We have over forty chaat items, but our specialty is the dahi papdi chaat,” says Nagendran, who makes chaat at the restaurant. For many it would be a surprise that Sweet Mahal, known for its laddos and ghee sweets has a small chaat counter as well.
Born and brought up in Bombay, Anuja Bhaskar, a software engineer, has recently relocated to Thiruvananthapuram and isn’t satisfied with the list on offer. “None of these places have vada paav or dabeli,” she says. Though with complaints and grumpy faces the northies have begun to enjoy rasavada and unniappams, but they still long for familiar tastes and the streetfood vendors from their hometown still visit them occasionally in their daydreams.
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