Spicy And Sweet Popcorn Chaat To Tickle Your Palate

Today was a work from home day and I was restless even after going to the gym! I was craving some comfort food and immediately I thought of Chaat! Looked for bhel or puffed rice and I didn’t have any so, I popped some corn and made the best chaat I have ever eaten! Talk about necessity being the mother of invention! Popcorn is healthier than puffed rice and has more texture so it made a delish chaat which I ate my fill of and am waiting to treat my family to. I chopped up some onion, cilantro, tomato and jalapeno and added it to the popped corn. Then some paprika, cayenne, pepper, cumin, salt and chat masala. Mixed everything up and it was yum! I felt it needed some sweet so I drizzled some tamarind sauce that I happened to have from when my husband bought samosas over the weekend. Ooh it was delish! It tasted crisp and crunch, with a spicy kick and just a hint of sweet! I can’t wait to make a new batch and decided to blog the recipe just in case there are some chaat lovers like me who don’t have bhel lying around!! Thanks to chaat, a comfort food that I love, I broke my blogger’s block that I have been experiencing and hopefully I am going to blog more often!

Memories of Chaat

My fondest memories of chaat are from my college days. Studying Nutrition or the Dietitian’s course at CMC Vellore was a hectic year. We would study, work with patients all day, go to our hostel in the evening and relax, all evening. We would talk, listen to music, read, play trade which is like monopoly and only at about 11 we would sit down to our books. I lived on the 8 th floor of the Student Nurses Hostel along with other paramedics and our curfew was 1.am. After that, gates closed and the elevator stopped working and even if we jumped the gates, who would want to walk up 8 flights of stairs? So, exactly at 11.30 we would sneak out, go to the famous ‘hole in the wall’ coffee shop at the gates and drink coffee. Those were the days I could handle coffee late in the day and still fall sleep. Along with coffee there was this chaat guy who had chaat late night too. Tangy sweet and spicy bhel -puri for 3 rs/ plate was our second dinner. We wolfed it down and ran back by 1.am just before they stopped the elevators. Don’t ask me why we waited till 12.30 to venture out! It was just the thrill I guess of cutting it fine and racing against time!Living dangerously!! It worked because I can remember only a few times that we had to climb the stairs! Good times that I remember fondly when I think of chaat!