The delights of Indore street food Beyond what the name suggests, you have more than 56 food shops neatly lined up on both sides of the street. The array of food is mind-boggling and the people never tire.
When you think of food streets, you think of busy and crowded lanes, with calls from servers beckoning you to their stalls, steam wafting off pans and aromas that draw you in. You think them as not very organised, clean or relaxed. With this one in the upscale New Palasia area of Indore, most of these notions are dispelled and you have a well-planned food scheme with something for every foodie, all vegetarian, affordable and in keeping with food safety and hygiene standards. Chappan Dukan is a certified Clean Street Food Hub which even won Indore an award in the Built Environment category at the Smart Cities Conference held in 2022.
It started off with 56 stores, back in the 1970s, with space designated to mobile vendors with just about enough space for a handcart. This allowed the sale of vegetables, and more, over some time. Its popularity grew, and by the ’80s and ’90s, the street began to settle into its moniker, Chappan Dukan, translated as ‘56 shops’.
But where does the food come in, you might well ask. By 2020, the Indore Smart City Development Limited (ISCDL) redeveloped the area into an open-air smart food street with only food stalls — with wide space in between to walk, or sit and eat or take selfies as today’s youth are hard-pressed to — and a no-vehicle policy. You have areas around the street to park and you will find loads of bikes just before you begin your journey into the wonderful world of 56+ food stalls. That’s right, Chappan is more than 56 now, as food is a major success point in a city like Indore, leaving room for this khau galli to grow and entertain more hungry souls, from 6am in the morning till 10pm at night.
We made two trips to Chappan Dukan — in the morning, before the multitude swarmed in and in the evening, when it was a sea of foodies — though less than on the weekend, when seating space would be insufficient! The scene that unfolded for us in the morning was such a pleasant one, with a group of youngsters playing the guitar, singing and dancing at Chai Sutta Bar, as we entered Chappan. This chain of polished tapris is spread across the country, from north to south and east to west, with one even in Port Blair and another in the UAE. It’s a success story to take note of, much like the development of Chappan Dukan. Where else would you find a food street with handwash stations, garbage bins spread out, and every food item Indore is famous for, or not so, under one roof?
And a local live radio station known as Radio 2 PI R Chappan, exclusively for visitors with options to listen to a song of their choice, dedicate a song to someone and get updates on Chappan Dukan through public announcements.
And then you have the grub at Chappan! What an array, a vast spread with everything from hot dogs to kachoris, dosas to vadas, rabdi jalebi to kulfi, barfi to halwa, pizza to sandwiches, sugarcane juice to golas, dried berries to paan, chaat and the famed Indori poha; and shikanji like you would never have expected !
Meandering through the myriad stalls, it is safe to say, will take you a while but is worth every bite, especially if you’re writing a food story or creating a blog. It is easier to navigate at relative leisure in comparison to Sarafa Bazaar and Meghdoot Gardens, not to say it does not get packed with foodies feasting on what they fancy. And most stalls do not have seating within their compact spaces.
For us, the journey had to begin with the poha whose reputation precedes it, all over the country. Vijay Chaat House is undoubtedly a crowd-puller for this, and more. This is how you should eat it…Take a spoonful of poha with a dash of lime and bite off a piece of crispy, juicy jalebi, and let the flavours burst on your palate. It’s a revelation much like Remy’s in Ratatouille, when the chef mouse bites into strawberry and cheese at the same time. There’s a special jeeravan masala that goes into the poha here, and we must tell you, poha in Indore is soft and done just right, with anardana in some places and sev at most, giving it the credit it deserves and has earned. Khopra pattice is another one-of-a-kind in Indore, and delicious — another speciality at Vijay, along with sabudana vada.
Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra being bordering states bring a lot of similarities to the table, which you will find scattered across Indore’s food space, but done in their own inimitable styles. The hot dog at the renowned, award-winning Johny Hot Dog, likened itself to vada pav in our mind, but the buck stops there. Johny has earned much fame for itself, for serving up the most ordered street food item in Asia-Pacific, declared so by Uber Eats at its summit held in Hong Kong in 2019. Ok, so his name is Vijay Singh Rathore, fondly known as Dadu at Chappan, and the famed hot dog is a vegetarian delight of thick, soft, fluffy bread with a potato tikki inside. The other two items on the menu are a mutton hot dog and a runny egg sandwich known as benjo — the only non-veg foods at Chappan. Non-processed, non-fried and scrumptious, the 45-year-old establishment continues to rage on, with Dadu smilingly behind the stove.
A third shop at Chappan that caught our fancy was a sweet and namkeen store which had a specialty served to you in a shot glass, priced at ₹100. The owner of Madhuram Sweets, Shyam Sharma, was more than happy to keep feeding us his famed shikanji and watch us grow in girth and mirth. Much like rabdi, the shikanji is a heavy-ish drink that works to cool the system in the sweltering heat and is basically dessert made of milk, dry fruits, saffron and nutmeg. The rasmalai, we discovered, is made with sugarcane and the names of the jalebis can go beyond the basics! ‘Eat one or two pieces a day,’ Shyam Sharma advises us, for a long and healthy life!
The assortment of sweets at Madhuram is vast, some of which include the badam caramel, dryfruit roll, badam halwa, sohan halwa… as also the namkeens and snack items like poha, dosa and chaat. What is famous here, as well, is the humongous Baahubali Sandwich, which we had no space to try! It is made for a party of 35, FYI, assembled to look like a palace straight out of the S S Rajamouli epic, with three layers, loaded with veggies, topped with corn, mayo, cheese and what not.
When you’re in the mood for South Indian, there are options like the 50-year-old Café Udipi with its variety of dosas. Spiral potato skins is a visually appealing treat that’s equally munch-worthy, and dried berries, starfruit and tamarind bring back such fond childhood memories.
A fan of paan, especially after the taste of all those snacks and namkeen? There is a selection that ranges from the Calcutta Meetha to the Royal Maghai and the unusual Smoke Paan and Fire Paan. Freshly squeezed ganna (sugarcane) juice is delicious — can fill you up in its wholesome quantity, though — and kulfi is smooth and creamy, best in its original malai flavour, which we lapped up at Mahu, on the top level of this food street. They are also well-known for their pav bhaji, with a generous dollop of butter, to goad you on through your khau time at Chappan.
Reproduced from Upper Crust with permission. To subscribe visit www.uppercrustindia.com
Photographs: Farzana Contractor
