The streets of Mumbai are in B.C. at Apna Chaat
With these flavours and these prices, it’s always snack time
When it comes to Indian food in Vancouver and Canada, one name hogs the spotlight. Need I even speak it?
But Surrey is Indo-Canadian turf and yes, there are a few gems among the multitude of Indian restaurants in the sprawling city.
The name I didn’t mention — Vikram Vij — is there too, with My Shanti, an exotically modern restaurant serving beautiful food. But Apna Chaat deserves a shout-out for the Mumbai-style street food, a local rarity. You’ll feel the flush of having scored as you pay the paltry bill at the counter. Most dishes are $7 to $8, and most will fill up your tank.
Apna Chaat (our snack) looks like a mom-and-pop restaurant, but the minds behind it weren’t schooled by grandmothers and aunties. Bikram and Jogi Singh were chefs in Mumbai and previously ran a couple other Indian restaurants — Bombay Se in Surrey (well-known to locals, it attracted visiting Indian celebrities with its Bollywood take) and Cafe Bombay in Vancouver’s Kitsilano.
“It’s a total street food concept,” Bikram Singh said in a phone interview. “It’s from all corners of India, but predominantly Bombay, where most Indian food trends are born.”
Bikram once cooked at the opulent Taj Mahal Palace hotel (which came under siege by terrorists in 2008 — he was in Vancouver by then), and Jogi worked for what was considered the best restaurant in Mumbai 20 years ago.
Apna Chaat opened seven years ago, its wild success eclipsing their
other restaurants.
“It’s a constant rush,” Bikram Singh said. “Five hundred to 600 people come through every day.”
Many head to the golgappa takeout counter on one side of the restaurant, where they can stand and pop golgappas as if they were in India or take them home. Local Indo-Canadians are mad for golpoppas, but since the dish is a rarity in these parts, it requires some explaining.
They’re crisp, hollow, fried wheat poppers, kind of like Ping-Pong balls. You crack open the top, spoon in a chickpea-and-potato mix, and then some tamarind or chili water and then gulp in one fell swoop. They sell 3,000 to 4,000 a day.
“It’s very time-consuming to make,” Singh said. “Some don’t puff. You’ll find them all over the place in Bombay.”
Apna Chaat is super casual. The chefs’ father is on duty taking orders and comes around to chat if there’s a break in the order line. A first-timer might panic trying to make sense of the unfamiliar menu. No curries here! Order some golgappa — also called pani puri — which come six or 24 to an order. You wonder how a such a labour-intensive snack originated.
The dahi batata puri — yogurt potato and puffed bread — is somewhat like golgappa. It’s stuffed with potatoes, chicken, onions, crisp vermicelli noodles and yogurt and served with three chutneys. There’s seven to a plate, too many to finish. Ha! Or so we thought.
“It’s hot in India, so the yogurt cools,” Singh said.
I tried a pav bhaji. Pav is a Portuguese-style bun derived from the word leg. Why? In the old days, when there were no motorized mixers, the Portuguese mixed the dough with their feet, like grape crushers. The bhaji is a soupy mash of potatoes, carrots, peas and a specific mix of spices used only in this dish. It was a meh for me, but the chicken tikka kathi roll made me happy. Chicken tikka, cooked in a tandoor, and egg are wrapped in paratha and come with a side of fries which were surprisingly good coming from an Indian kitchen. Frankies are part of the global food fusion that just happens everywhere.
“An Indian gentleman travelled to Turkey and saw shawarma wraps and created it in Bombay. It’s everywhere — in canteens, offices — and it’s made with a really soft flat bread. Like a burrito, it can be stuffed with a variety of fillings,” Singh said.
Another popular dish is the Indian burger, made with a potato patty and chutney sandwiched in pav. The intrigue goes on, with dishes like chicken lollipops, sev puri — too many to list.
Indians love Chinese food, and I couldn’t get away from it in India. Apna Chaat gives customers what they want when they want a break from Indian — chow mein, fried rice, veggie rolls, won tons with Szechuan sauce. Pretty retro. (When Singh cooked at Taj Mahal, he was in charge of the Chinese restaurant.)
Apna Chaat is a long drive from Vancouver, but it won’t be a regrettable one. Consider it a time travel to Mumbai for a street food tour.