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Madhya Pradesh

Must-Try Street Food In Indore

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Here’s a look at typical treats from Madhya Pradesh To Try in IndoreBedai



Gwalior’s local snack bedai is a puri stuffed with spiced lentils. Every morning, regulars queue up at local sweet shops to savour bedai, samosa, kachori, scrumptious jalebis and gulab jamuns.

Khopra patties

A specialty from the western MP region of Malwa, khopra patties are golden-hued deep-fried aloo bondas with a stuffing of khopra (grated coconut) and dry fruits like cashews and raisins! Insanely delicious, it’s served with green mint-coriander chutney and red tamarind chutney.

Shikanji

Indore’s shikanji is a thick, milkshake enriched with dry fruits. It is regarded as a concoction created by Nagori Mishthan Bhandar in Bada Sarafa, which still churns out a limited batch daily. Since it is a blend of various ingredients, it is called shikanji (literally ‘mixture’) made from kesar, elaichi, javitri, jaiphal, kishmish, mattha and milk reduced for 12 hours and cooled for another 12 hours before being served cold. Shyam Sharma ji from Beawar in Rajasthan started a small sweet shop 35 years ago and called it Madhuram as he wanted a short and sweet name. Sporting a Krishna medallion, the cheery mustachioed owner, personally ladles out shikanji for visitors. First shrikhand, then rabdi, dry fruit and milk.

Gajak

A signature sweet from Bhind in Morena, gajak (sesame brittle) is mostly made of roasted sesame or peanuts and cashew, with jaggery and ghee. Gajak is a winter specialty with shops lined with these goodies.


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Poha

Unlike the Maharashtrian style poha, the Indori poha is much lighter with less use of oil and spices. It is topped with sev or mixture, chopped onion and coriander and served with a wedge of lime. Usually paired with hot scrumptious jalebis, you got to try the combo to believe it.

Doodh-jalebi

In the winter months, you’ll often see milk being reduced in large vessels outside sweet shops and hot jalebis dunked in it and served.


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Bhutte ka kees

Across the Malwa region, maize is eaten as bhutte ka kees, made with grated corn (keesna means to ‘grate’), roasted in ghee and cooked in milk with spices. Sarafa Bazaar in Indore is the place to have it.

Dal-paniya

Corn is also used to make paniya or maize flour cakes, sandwiched between aak ka patta (leaves of Calotropis gigantea) and cooked on an open fire of dried cowpat and served with accompaniments – dal, sabzi. onion and chutneys

Dal-bafla

The traditional bread is bafla, a small ball of wheat dough. The bafla is typically boiled in water, roasted over dung cakes on an iron griddle and dunked in ghee. It is served as a thali meal with dal, kadhi, aloo sabzi and chutneys of garlic and coriander, often rounded off with laddoos.

Chakki ki shaak

Another popular local delicacy, chakki ki shaak is made of steamed wheat dough cooked in a curd-based gravy. Tapu, a local variety of wheat, is also used to make sweet cakes that are used in religious occasions and festivities

Batla kachori

While kachoris are popular all over the country, in Indore it’s stuffed not with spiced lentils, but with batla (green pea).

Sev

Sev is a savoury noodle-shaped snack made from chickpea flour paste seasoned with spices, sieved and deep-fried in oil. It is of varied thickness and is consumed as a stand-alone snack across MP or as a garnish on poha, mixtures or chaats like bhel puri and sev puri. Each region has its flavour variants–from Ratlami sev to finer Ujjaini sev. Shops sell a mind-boggling assortment of sev: palak (spinach), tamatar (tomato), dhaniya-pudina (coriander-mint) and hing (asafoetida).

Sabudana khichdi

Sabudana or pearl sago is used to make khichdi (though its consistency is not like porridge but drier like poha or upma). At Indore’s Sarafa bazaar, Sanvariya Seth mixes the sago pearls by hand, tossing in some chopped onions, coriander, chilli, lime juice and sev

Kadhi-fafda

Another Gujarati touch, fafda (chickpea flour crackers) is typically served with kadhi or buttermilk based curry. Locals swarm shops like Shri Balaji Chaat Corner in Indore, dipping their fafdas in the tangy curry and biting into fried green chillis.

Fried khaman

While khaman (or dhokla as it is better known) is universally loved, in western Madhya Pradesh it is also available in a fried version and sprinkled with chaat masala. While regular khaman is made from besan, for the fried version only Surti khaman, made from chana dal, is used as it is firmer and handles deep frying much better.

Mawa bati

Similar to a stuffed gulab jamun, the mawa-based dough is filled with mawa, dry fruits and nuts, deep-fried till brown and lightly soaked in sugar syrup. Sometimes, it is dusted with desiccated coconut powder.

Garadu

If Delhi loves its aloo chaat in winters, Indore goes weak-kneed for garadu, a tuber from the yam or sweet potato family. Cut into cubes and deep fried, it is sprinkled with chaat masala and a dash of lime before being devoured by locals.