Indian Food Culture

India’s food culture is monolithic. From the tip of the south to the very north, there are thousands of variations found in home-style cooking, restaurants’ specialities and street vendors, each will vary slightly across every state and region. I thought that over the years of patronizing Indian restaurants in Australia, I knew what to expect, gauging from the menu, but the enormity of choice outshines the Australian offerings. Once I lived in India, I realized Australian Indo-Pakistani restaurants taint food to be more palatable for the Western public and open to a wider paying audience.

Launched in 2002 and initiated by the Ministry of Tourism with the tagline “Incredible India,” featuring Bollywood actors such as Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, and Priyanka Chopra, the ads seduced people to travel to India, and they had quite an effect on me. It captivated my mind and tingled my taste buds. I couldn’t wait, I knew one day I would go…

India's food culture is monolithic. From the tip of the south to the very north, there are thousands of variations found in home-style cooking, restaurants' specialities and street vendors, each will vary slightly across every state and region. I thought that over the years of patronising Indian restaurants in Australia, I knew what to expect, gauging from the menu, but the enormity of choice outshines the Australian offerings. Once I lived in India, I realised Australian Indo-Pakistani restaurants taint food to be more palatable for the Western public and open to a wider paying audience.

Can Tourist Eat Street Food in India and is it Safe?

Street food is for the brave and adventurous. Food is never served plain and gloves are not used. Yes, there were times I got sick, and I recovered after a day or two. Whilst living in Mumbai, I appreciated the small stalls on the side of the street. I would visit regulars who knew me by name.

Please note: if you feel that eating street food, as described below, may put your health at risk, go to a reputable day restaurant and order the same meals there, which will be more expensive but just as good. Also, each restaurant or street vendor – wala, has its own family recipe and it will vary state to state or even street to street. Good street stalls are only open for a few hours, so ask locals for recommendations.

What is the Most Popular Street Food in Mumbai?

How did I initially go about approaching these stalls by myself? I would wait till people were milling about the wala. If there were a fair number of people, I knew it was ‘hygienic enough’ and would watch the food he was serving, how he served it and how people ate the dish. I would approach and point to a person’s food or point to the picture that was wrapped around his cart.

Breakfast

Samosa or Vada Pav: this is a fried vegetarian samosa or vada pav, a fried potato patty placed into a very soft bread roll with two types of chutneys – coriander and mint: savory and tamarind: sweet. Once the wala puts the samosa into the bread roll, he may hand it to you on a recycled newspaper with one or two fried whole chilli. This is definitely finger food, no etiquette required.

Chai or Coffee: chai is tea in Hindi. Boiled tea with milk and sugar, with a dash of ginger, is served so hot that you have to wait for it to cool down. You will be given tea in small medicine-type cups on the street. If you are in a rush, you will have to blow on it to cool it down. You may be provided a pottery cup without handles, wrap a serviette around it so you are able to drink from it because of the heat. In restaurants, you can be given a brass Dabara Set, which is a handleless cup with a tumbler. You can pour your coffee or tea, instead of blowing on it into the tumbler, then back into your cup and over again until it cools. You can also drink from the tumbler. I’ve seen Aunties and Uncles pouring their chai from their handleless cup to their saucer, drinking their cooled tea from their saucer.

Lunch

Pav Bhaji: fresh, thick spicy vegetable curry served with a soft buttered bread roll. This dish is put into a tray, and you will use the bread to pick up the fresh curry to eat. You will tear a piece of bread using the ‘La Scarpetta' method, which means using the bread like a shoe, ‘walking’ across the tray, cleaning up the star of the meal. Sit down while eating this simple yet tasty meal. If you have finished your bread roll, you can ask for another or ask for a spoon to eat the last remnants of curry.

Dosa: is an ultra-thin, crunchy, savoury batter bread made from a fermented batter of ground black gram and rice. Dosas are served hot with a filling inside. You can choose the filling to be vegetarian or paneer. The dosa will come with side dishes such as coconut chutney and sambar. Sambar is a tangy lentil vegetable stew. You break a piece of dosa with its filling, dipping it into the sambar or chutney before eating. This is a meal you need to sit down as you will need the space and definitely you will be eating with your fingers. You will be laughed at for using a fork and a knife. I’ve been in five-star hotels where I have seen celebrities and the rich of India use their fingers to eat these delicious dishes.

Afternoon Tea

Bombay Sandwich: is flat white sliced bread with thinly sliced layered vegetables like potatoes, beetroot, tomatoes, onions, and cucumber with a spread of spicy green chutney, then toasted. This is a great food to eat standing up or while on the run. It will be wrapped in yesterday's newspaper or pages from a kids' workbook. I loved this street food as it was just what I needed, replacing lunch without spending too much time in a restaurant or cooking for myself at home.

Before Dinner

Pani Puri: is a disc that, when it is deep-fried, becomes a shell, hollowed out for a filling such as potatoes or chickpeas, and dipped in flavoured sauces such as coriander and mint and sweet tamarind sauce. Depending on the wala, he will provide approx. Six to seven rounds and will serve up to three to four people at a time, taking it in turns to fill each puri and serve it to you, with it filled with sauces on a foil bowl, which you eat instantly whole using your fingers, bringing the bowl to your mouth. Your fingers will become wet, the wala will provide you with a napkin. The last puri served will be dry, to indicate to you that the meal is over.

Bhelpuri: is a savoury snack or chaat, made of puffed rice, crunchy puris, peanuts and sev, which are layered with ingredients such as potato and onion, tomato and topped with chutneys such as coriander and tamarind chutney. You can eat this standing around the food station, using a spoon or a flat papdi, which is a round cracker. This is a snack you would have before dinner, which would be served around 8-9 pm at night. Happy Eating!

For many years, Etiquipedia contributor, Elizabeth Soos, has had a keen interest in cultural customs. With her European background and extensive travel, Soos developed an interest in the many forms of respect and cultural expectations in the countries she has visited. With her 20 years’ experience in customer service within private international companies based in Australia, and her lifetime interest in manners and research, she decided to branch out into the field of etiquette and deportment. Through her self-directed studies and by completing the Train-The-Trainer’s course offered by Emma Dupont’s School of Etiquette in London and by Guillaume Rue de Bernadac at Academie de Bernadac based in Paris and Shanghai, she founded Auersmont School of Etiquette

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia