Back to Delhi

Back to Delhi after long time from Mumbai, this Avinash is like something you can always count on, got welcome note from him it was refreshing....not used to writing blog but cant reject this man request either, such is his value in his friend circle, you cant say no to him. So my first wrting on his blog is bout Chaat, yes chaat - the word which excites girls like anything. Every couple of months, we drive down to Oak Tree Road, a street in New Jersey that straddles the municipalities of Edison and Iselin, for a slice of “Little India.”
A land where the grocery store aisles are crowded with women dressed in sarees, speaking a multitude of Indian languages. They jostle to sniff and squeeze vegetables they’ve been denied by their local A&Ps, and all of a sudden, I am transported back to the general chaos that is Mumbai’s bustling Dadar market.
Drumsticks (the green pods of the Moringa tree) vie for shelf space next to fenugreek leaves, ridge gourds cozy upto white pumpkins and the latest Bollywood music thumps through the speakers, lending to my faux India experience.
Nostalgia takes hold every single time, and we walk out of the store with our cart overflowing with Maggie Noodles, Glucose biscuits, Tutti-Frutti ice cream and vegetables I have no idea how to prepare. (Meanwhile, my younger sister, Rekha, loads up her cart at the Haiko Supermarket in Mumbai with Emeril’s Home Style Marinara sauce, but I digress.)
By the time the groceries are crammed into the van, the smell of samosa chaat wafts through the air, and we head to the closest eatery serving chaat (snacks) from the streets of Mumbai and Delhi. But nothing beats the pleasure of watching our American-born progeny gobbling up pani puris and wolfing down the spicy dahi papdi chaat.
“Can you make this at home?” is a question I’m asked every time.