Sunday, November 13, 2016

Hungry in Bangalore: Delite Chaat House at Indiranagar



Delite is a bonafide Gujju Chaat place (got directions to their new place in Gujarati) which serves 'authentic' (as per me) chaat. So Mumbaikars in Bangalore might travel through 1 hour of traffic to get here for Delite's really amazing and authentic fare. The Dabeli is incredible. For 30 bucks in Indiranagar, you will fill up and just get a cold drink at all the snooty places you were planning to hit when short on cash.The sev puri, bhelpuri are great. Except the Pani Poori which was disappointing, which they promised to fix. Great place, well setup, good tasty chaat and very reasonably priced. In short, unmissable.

Now the long. Chaat (or Chat) is subjective. Different people, different tastes. What the hell is wrong with Chaat in Bangalore, the general chaat fare to be precise?! I know, Mumbai would hear the same from a Bangalorean when the said Bangalorean samples a Dosa Sambar. Its kinda a dosa and remotely a sambar. But it works! We have authentic Croissants and Baos and bubble teas but no, not the chaat in Bangalore. Curry / sambar powder and boiled peas gravy (that mysterious green stuff ) in 'Chaat' gives me nightmares. My brethren from the Eastern belt equate Golgappa with Pani Poori in Mumbai (blasphemy!), yet every corner in Bangalore has a Golgappa guy handing out insipid watery stale pooris and call it Pani Poori. My reaction is over the top, but I been avoiding Chaat in Bangalore for years. Its bad, to my tastes. And so agree a lot of other folks. We just give it a miss, unless its at a wedding. Respectable mentions - Anand Sweets, Calcutta Victoria Chat (yet to try) and a few others who do get it just right.

The flip side, Bangalore has incredible indigenous chaat  - Bullet chaat, pineapple chat, congress chaat, nippat chaat, capsicum chaat (entire globe of fried capsicum stuffed with chaat) are outstanding. If not tried cause all you come across when talking about chaat is bhel puri etc, these have to be sampled. I would recommend getting this fare from VV Puram, Jayanagar (near the playground behind Amoeba) and Banashankari where I discovered this stuff.