Chaat more than sum of its flavors
Hard to define but easy to crave, these Indian snacks have become a fascination for Nashville chef
ChefManeet Chauhan likes to think of chaat as an emotion. A single bite can be jolting, pucker-inducing and refreshing all at once, balancing sweet with salty, tangy with spicy, crunchy with creamy, demanding you come back for more.
Theword chaat, she points out, is derived fromthe verb chaatna, “to lick” in Hindi andUrdu.
“You are licking your hands when the food is really good. That is what chaat is,” said Chauhan, who has devoted a whole cookbook to it, titled “Chaat,” co-written with Jody Eddy and scheduled to publish Oct. 6.
Chaat, a genre of South Asian snacks, is more than just one dish or a set of ingredients. There are no exact ratios for making it or a singular moment of the day to eat it.
Some variations followa loose
formula: a base ingredient, like papdi, or chopped potatoes, is layered with other elements, like chutneys (tamarind, cilantro and mint varieties are common), yogurt, sev, red chile powder and chaat masala (a pungent spice blend with a funk driven by black salt and amchur).
But more critical are the contrasts in textures and flavors. So is some kind of transformation, Chauhan said.
Chaat is about turning what’s on
hand into a snack that’s greater than the sum of its parts. A samosa, for example, is not chaat by itself, she said. But chop one up and drizzle it with mint chutney, yogurt and sev, and suddenly it’s chaat.
Chaat is meant to be a sensory overload, she said. “You are hit from every aspect— colors, smells, sounds”— an experience not unlike walking through parts of India.