A taste of heaven on the street

"The taste and quality of the ingredients that some street vendors use can rival that of Michelin star restaurants. And that they make it all available at this price point is just shocking. Street vendors also have no qualms about feeding the food that they make to their own families. They don't store their food or refrigerate and reuse, all ingredients are fresh every day, there are no secrets, its made out in the open in front of the customer. Those are the big differences with the large chains. After doing this book, we've realised that we are much better off eating from the street than eating packaged food or even from fancy places" - Priya Bala and Jayanth Narayanan, authors, 'Bazaar Bites; Tales and Tastes of India's Street Foods' talks to Manjula Narayan about the fantastic sweets and savouries on offer on our streets including in tier 2 cities like Indore, Nagpur, Bhopal, Puri, Srinagar and Allahabad, among others, specialities like the hing kachori of Varanasi, the karela chaat of Gwalior, the ghirmit of Hubli Dharwad, the samosas of Bata Mangala in Odisha, the litti chokhas of Patna and the dosa diversity of Karnataka, and how street food needs to be properly recognised as an integral part of India's culinary heritage.